Comedy of Exams

Preamble

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- We hate Anna University administration's extremely bad taste of humor of putting us in an exam center miles away from civilization.

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Introduction

The primary reason for conducting an exam is to find out how much we know. Too bad that we came to know much of those only from the question papers. No wonder the exams were so interesting. What is life without surprises!!! The surprised looks that we had when we got the question papers said it all. Best thing i liked about the exams was that it got the creative juices flowing. I remember inventing answers for so many questions. I am sure many of you might have improvised as well as I have. Let us see how the whole thing turns out to be.

I am not going to bore you about how difficult the exams were and how motivated we should be, to face the attempts. It is just.... BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME. For time being, let us enjoy the the fantastic process of studying together; discussing the possible questions; thinking about those we didn't write well; the long tip to reach the exam center; the experience of writing it and grumbling to our friends about how bad it went.

Scope

The scope of this blog is to:

- Encapsulate the comedy of errors while preparing, writing and after the examination;

- Recreate the seriousness while writing examinations;

- Capture the momentous achievements after writing the examinations;

- Everything that happened in between.

Nature

Nature of this blog is make fun of everybody irrespective of who they are. Inhibitions are thrown... and sometimes mud, too. All this is done in good humor and absolutely no offense. Anyway, no apologies for those who get offended.

Internal Confusions

Before we dive in...

• Congratulations are in order for our own FATHER Sebastian for scoring the highest in internals. Looks like god reserved all his blessings for him.
• I found myself to be a bottom scraper. What made the event happier was that I am in good company... with Preethi and Deepthi helping me to scrape the bottom better.
• Anupa came a close second. Congrats in order too!!!
• Sheba is most consistent after Father... What is the secret, Sheba?
• Aseena... whose Economics assignment was reproduced by at least 90% of the students got a shocker of 9 marks.

A request to those who scored less than what they expected. Think again, it could have been worse. So, Don't worry! Be Happy!!!

Fortnight of Discoveries

We come to an end to a grueling two weeks... Two weeks of discovery. Things we discovered during the course of two weeks are:

1. Syllabus of each subject
2. How much we didn't know about each subject?
3. How much we can learn in 3 hours prior to the examination?
4. How on earth do you fill up 5 pages for 16 markers?
5. Why the hell would you have 8 invigilators in a single room?
6. How our trust in god increased multi-fold as each exam passed by?

Some interesting developments:

• The camaraderie was great and we did meet some new friends... who, interestingly, were our classmates too.
• A couple of our classmates, whose names I don't know... always make it a point to come late into the exam hall. Was it to make an impact? Of course, one was big enough to make an impact!!!
• Violent streaks in Kalpana whose deadly attack on Prabhu resulted in a handicap.
• Chandru checks out the menu at the canteen before checking the exam hall seating arrangement notice.
• Some invigilator who was kind enough to correct mistakes in answer sheets. Heard all those who experienced this kindness were from the weaker sex.
• Ajith requested for a copy of question paper from Vijay, in the most complex manner possible. Vijay forgot half of whatever he knew about the subject while trying to decipher Ajith's complex request. Ajith... Loosen up, mate. Take liberties with your classmates and reserve the tact and diplomacy for your clients.

Location makes all the difference

During the exams, a clear pattern about preference of locations arose. We made some areas of Jeppiar college our very own:

- Priya and Vidhya made the steps at the ground floor their own.

- Me and Gang (Preethi, Sheba, Suganya, Prabhu, Vijay... and a stream of onlookers and an assortment of passers-by) perched on stools in the godown at second floor.

- Anto, quarantined at the corner, away from our din.

- Kalpana, Lakshmipriya and Gang on the steps. Guess I saw Anupa there too.

- Ram and Aishwarya on the third floor.

The Partners at Crime

Preethi and Suganya followed me on the first day of the exam - right from Koyambedu bus stand to Jeppiar college. My bright orange color T-shirt seems to have guided them like a beacon. Girls.... next time you want to go somewhere, ASK... don't FOLLOW!!! Later we got introduced and decided to take the same bus every day of the exam. Turned out to be a fairly good idea.

Our partners at crime were:-

During Group study (as well as eating/pigging)

- Me, Ram, Prabhu and Sheba

- Graciously hosted by my wife.

During Bus Journey

- Me, Prabhu, Preethi, Suganya and Sheba.

The major characteristics of the partners are:

Yours truly - relaxed and relieved of any baggage.. because Prabhu carries a bag and my stuff gets a place in his.

Prabhu - with his police-kaar aura, commanding the place that we need in the bus.

Ram - Plays the houdini by making the disappearing act, just after the exam.

Suganya - the calmest one, always gives a feeling that she is lost in her own world. Later, I understood that she is new to Chennai and no wonder she is overwhelmed. Her family comes with her to send her off to the exams.

Sheba - whose driving instructor has told that she has to see straight while driving, conveniently ignores all the signals between her home and the bus stand. Reaches the bus stop in time. She has got a very brisk walk... only that Prabhu says that she is walking as if to beat somebody. While Sheba blasts through the entry on left,

Preethi - eases in from the right. She has got this laid back swagger in her walk that I always doubt if she can make it to the bus before it leaves. I personally would like to see if she would run to catch the bus.

Subject-wise Comedy... or was it Tragedy

I was handed the responsibility of giving a discourse about each subject. As I have no problem talking... c'mon guys... how many times do you get willing audience who hang on to every word - however useless or irrelevant? So, I used the opportunity to the fullest - practising my vocal chords for about 2 hours - from Koyambedu to Jeppiar. For most exams, we covered all Units in 2 hours time. Not bad...heh!!!

While the question papers ranged from "I've studied about this somewhere" to "Bloody Damn! Does our book have this question?", our comedy of errors while writing answers includes:

Communication Skills

- Couldn't find the right words to express ourselves.

Management concepts

- Our knowledge was conceptually mis-managed.

Statistics for Management

- Our hypothesis were non-statistical in nature and very random in meaning.

Economic Foundations of Business Environment

- Knowledge treasury depled and there was no General Knowledge Product (GKP) or NKP available for measuring.

Organizational Behaviour

- Pathetic at best.

Accounting For Management

- While the questions were debited promptly, the credit side of answer sheet was empty.

Legal Aspects of Business

- Could have scraped through if illegal means were allowed.

Secrets of Success

Based on the lessons learnt during the past two weeks, the secrets of success are as follows:

- Identify the easiest question to score the highest.

- Never mention that you prepared or did your exams well. (Girls seem to follow this pattern consistently when they don't want to say much.)

- Always smile/Stare blankly/Laugh continuously (Guys follow this pattern because there is nothing much to say anyway.)

- If you fail now, think of the next 6 months as revision period.

- If you have nothing to write, draw margins with pencils and underline with sketch pens.

- Fill up atleast 30 pages using the questions given. Two questions put together can be an answer for a 2 mark question. All 2 marks & 16 marks questions put together would be a response for a 16 mark question.

Hall of Fame

Coolest Exam Writer

• Coolest exam writer award was closely fought between Kuldeep and Srivatchan, but SRI takes the trophy for being there for all the exams. Kuldi... don't worry; You are still our hero ;)

Best comic moment

The best moment of the exams. The award for providing the most enjoyable comic moment goes to ...

1...

2...

3...

PRABHU (Reason: The core gang knows what it is. Based on secret ballot. So, can't share... sorry!!!

Best Pair

Sindhu and Sheba have been re-christened as "GEMINI SISTERS" - courtesy Vijay and this is because of their likeness of looks. For those who can't relate to that term, visualize those two kids with the horns right at the beginning of the old tamil movies. If you still don't succed, we'll ask both of them to climb the stage and pose for us.

Conclusion

After a marathon for two weeks, it is time for us to replenish our energy and drive. This blog is the first step towards re-discovering our sense of humor and enthusiasm. Keep the seriousness of preparations and the disappointments of exams aside. Let us turn over a new page...

Start afresh!!! Start early!!!

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The bottom line is –

Distance sucked; Journey sucked; Exam center sucked; Exam sucked...

but, as usual, we all RULED.

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Author: Pras

References: (a) Aug 2009 Question Papers for all subjects of MBA (HRM) Semester I.

Working Notes:

1. Don't forget to pay your IInd Semester fees before 9th September. May the next phase of fun begin!!!