The Art of Procrastination

Now that you sufficiently know HOW we “study” for our exams. It’s probably time you know how we “write” them, or rather how we wrote the first trimester. I doubt the trend will change much though.

• Delay entering the examination hall for as long as possible (We had just started studying the night before, remember??? and those last minutes, ohh precious time!!)
• We grudgingly enter the room, clutching onto the barely read study material until the eyes of the teacher bores into us the warning of letting go of the material.
• We look for our seats, reverently praying that the ceiling gives way or the professor cancels the exam or something of the like.
• A faculty member hands us the Question paper and the answer sheet and after a few minutes it dawns on us to fill in our details on the answer sheet.
• While hastily scrambling to get all details right, we glance over the question paper, dreading the worse.
• Just a cursory glance tells us our worst fears have come true, we are clueless regarding most of the questions and have a vague idea about the rest, clearly not enough to write a ten mark answer.
• We look around hoping for bouts of inspiration to come seeping through our neighbours, who are, well, equally clueless
• Cursing ourselves silently we try to focus and attempt a question and imagine and write, attempt and imagine some more and write even less, the cycle goes on, until we realize that what we have been writing probably does not make any sense but cannot be improved anymore for lack of any substantial info, so……sigh…..move on…….
• Bored with all the hard work, some of us take a bathroom break and return with gleeful smiles ( now that’s a mystery am yet to solve…….what is this washroom and cheesy smile connection?)
• A few of us start dozing ... ... ...
  
• 45-50 minutes later most people have given up writing…and after 20 minutes or so of aimlessly staring at the answer sheets (no that does not help). They hand in the sheets and leave the hall, towards freedom and light, literally!!
• The bravest however endure the entire time span, and come,out only after being repeatedly told to give up, its okay (I, sadly belong to this clan).
• OUTSIDE: Nobody wants to discuss the question paper but that is all everybody talks about..

Now, I wrote the above to probably tell you what is the level of the questions you are expected to answer at NLIU (which as understood is high), and while, a night before the exam studying, might save you from failing an exam it won’t get you the top grade. NLIU needs you to study regularly and keep up with the work done in class everyday. So, I pledge to myself (really don’t know about the others) that I will regularly devote a couple of hours for purely academic purpose, avoid procrastination. Really, I have had enough sleepless nights ;) ... Do let me know what you think, will write soon....

- Surabhi

The Endterms are over, take a bow.

Today we wrote the last Endterm paper of the first trimester. Wait, allow me to rephrase that - Today, we wrote the last non-repeat Endterm paper of the first trimester. No one can fault me for not being realistic. :|

Exams are one of the most frequent occurrences at NLIU, courtesy the Trimester system and so we seem to have an exam as soon as we wake up from the prolonged post-exam hibernation that we had to take as a result of the previous one - we ricochet from exam to exam, Midterm to Endterm ad infinitum and get almost zero sleep during. This of course, is because of the close to continuous nocturnal pre-exam activity that takes place on campus (innuendo not intended).

The thing is, the nights before each exam tend to be perhaps the most social nights of the Trimester. (I speak for the Boys Hostel of course and for all I know there is near-constant rigorous and feverish revision in the Girls Hostel. However, something tells me that there shall be uproar and outraged denial by many of my female batch-mates who would undoubtedly be scandalized by my suggestion.)

Revision is a rarity in the Boys Hostel, primarily because the night before the exam is the first time people actually read the material that the professors here so diligently labour on. (Again, such people are also a rarity - not because everyone else has read the material but because barely anyone reads it, even before the exam.) The night before the exam is thus a wondorous journey of discovery and exploration as the braver ones among us unflinchingly dive deep into the depths of the tomes each of us is bequeathed, no doubt in a selfless attempt to salvage knowledge that they shall endow on the rest of us 5 minutes before the commencement of the paper. (Baibhav and Chandan, I'm looking at you.)

The rest of us seem to follow the same looping pattern as we -

• Read one page
• Weep in dismay as we count the number of pages left
• Look at the time remaining till sunrise
• Plan a timetable that meticulously has us study everything prior to said sunrise
• Marvel at our own (illusionary) brilliance
• Reward ourselves a break for said brilliance
• Exit our rooms and engage in conversation with our immediate neighbours (inquiring about their state of readiness or lack thereof), then our neighbours and also travelers we may bump into on our path
• Go to the mess
• Pick up on snatches of conversation when we hear phrases like "....said that the Nuisance cases are definitely going to be asked about" and make mental notes to devote considerable time to the study of said cases as we also try and figure out how to make room for them in our significantly tight but well-conceived time tables.
• Finally realise that it has been 35 minutes since we last read something
• Scramble to our rooms and hold the material
• Read another page in the terror of quiet desperation
• Lather, Rinse & Repeat

Nonetheless, exams are times when we discover inner strength we never knew we had, especially post-examination when we are told that the 3 page answer we laboured on was completely off point. (The art of pélna is one that is quickly learnt here.) Exams at this University build moral fibre and strength of character – and they do so with alarming frequency.

Exams teach us so much. We are forever in their debt.

However, following the Viva-Voce exams tomorrow and the day after, we shall have emerged (although not unscathed) battle-weary and tired from our first Trimester. And then we shall rest and recuperate, sharpening our weapons for our next battle - a battle who's inevitability has finally sunk in.

Someday I will also post on the Joy of the Project.

Till next time,
Tally Ho!

- Parnil Urdhwareshe