Examination Turmoil

Hello again! Before i go ahead with the sign of water and its connections with me i have to tell you about the highly eventful engineering exams this semister. Normally engineering exams are quite dull and redundant (both in matter and result). But this semister was host to so many extraordinary happenings that i have to narrate them.

The Usual Scenario: Engineering students hardly know what their books contain until the PLs (preparatory leaves) begin. That is essentially 15 days before exams. Then there is this 'books to be bought' information transferred from one batch to next, based on questions generally asked in exams and books that cover all those answers. If not strictly followed these so called engineering textbooks can make your heart pump twice as fast, one day prior to exams. I experienced something of that sort during these exams! here you go...

15th Nov 2009 and onwards : PLs begin for us although college closed down on 1st. That is presumably obvious. So then i open the books! I start studying. It is not long before i realize that about two or three out of the five books ( we have ONLY five subjects in all) are not appropriate. Meaning, they contain data which is hardly asked in exams however up to date and interesting it may be. So then next task of the day, go and purchase the 'senior-prescribed' books from the 'books to be bought' list. By this time the shopkeeper is out of stock of those particular books and i have to settle for some substitutes. Most of them satisfied my needs of previously asked questions. But i did not at that time realize that one particular subject was to cause chaos on the day of my last paper.

                So then i started studying from the new set of  'not-so-inappropriate' books. Now you must know that it is matter-of-fact-ly impossible to finish with the complete syllabus within 15 days. So most of it is like dessert on your plate(although not sweet but it is to be finished in the end) on the exam day (or one day before it). The first four exams were uneventful. After all i had managed to get the 'correct' books. Yet it was the mayhem that was coming that i could not forsee. The last paper. 'Mechatronics' it is called! i was studying and i realized that whether the new book or the old one or even a combination of both did not contain the right stuff. Two out of the six chapters were incomplete in both the books. Mind you it was not a flaw from the printing press. The necessary data was just not there in the books. So then about 15 hours before the paper would begin, I run up to a friend's place and get the necessary data photocopied (which is again a third book other than the two I already have). By the time i have done that it is 13 hours to Mechatronics! 'That should be enough to study the remaining 2 units of portion(never looked at it before)', I thought. Finally on the next day i am ready for exam. Satisfied that i have read what is necessary...

 

About 10 min before exam in the examination hall: I am scanning through the various books for anything that might slip out of my mind when a friend comes to me : " Hey dips! What are you revising?" she asked.        

" Criteria for choosing a stepper motor. Holding torque, pull in torque, pull in rate...." I started muttering again.

She looked into the book and said " Hey these are not the criteria given in my book. Here look at these. They are completely different." I gasped, "What? How can that be?" I looked into her book and indeed the criteria given in her book were not one bit similar to mine. This was the limit of it. I shut my book and promised myself that i will not look into any of those books again in my life. I decided, not looking into any of those books in the next 10 min, would help more and went and took my seat. Three hours later i was happy with what i had written, whichever book i got it from. At least it made sense to me. "Cheers to 5th semister syllabus", I said and left the exam hall!!!