Thursday, February 15, 2007

The exam is knocking on the door

What a day was yesterday! Not just today's incidents, the incidents of the last few days have made me extremely tired. I am so much frustrated that I'm even feeling tired to think that I'll have to type this post now. When I say "incidents", I don't mean incidents belonging to different categories. All of them were related to my studies, specially the projects.
My Annual Exam commences next Thursday ( 22nd Feb). And, there's lots to revise. But, we get the time to revise only when we can miss school at least twice a week. However, such possibilities seemed to be very less because the teachers still hadn't taken our project files. On Sunday, what I did throughout the day was stick the pictures in my Environmental Education project file, complete my Maths project and complete making the covers of both project files. To make things worse, an extra evening tuition class was also there.
After submitting three projects on Monday and attending my routine English tuition in the afternoon, I came back home under a lot of mental pressure. I knew I'd have to prepare three big chapters for the test that was to be taken on Tuesday at my Physics tuition. I knew that it didn't matter if I performed badly in the test. But I also knew that preparing the chapters properly would mean preparing them for the Annual Exam. I also wanted to study Chemistry because on Wednesday, I'd have to give a test on the full syllabus! But forget reading Chemistry, I couldn't read Physics properly. I just wasn't able to concentrate! I wasn't able to study! Something had surely gone wrong. And then, I did something which I had never done before. I burst into tears, for not being able to study properly. My parents were alarmed. So, my father read the chapters to me and I just listened.But, it worked wonders because after listening carefully, I could remember almost everything.
Next day, we submitted our Geography projects in the first period at school. All through the rest of the day, many of my friends came up to me to enquire about the Physics project which would have to be submitted on Wednesday. Somehow or the other, no one knew exactly what to do. Anyway, it did not hurt to help them. And, guess what? I got the highest marks in the Physics test in the afternoon! Though the marks itself was not very good, I got more than my friends. The evening that followed ate my and my father's head. I hadn't completed the Physics project myself. But, I had never expected that it would take one whole evening to complete an apparently simple diagram and an equally simple graph. Oh, how wrong I was! The graph just would not produce a straight line passing through the origin. Unable to do it all by myself, I called my father, and we were simply disgusted! After a lot of approximation, we got what we wanted. But it was such a tedious job.
On Wednesday, I helped some of friends complete their Physics projects( specially the graph). Yesterday, there were more free periods and everyone did their Physics projects all through the day. This was one project which was truly eating everyone's head. We felt a bit relieved when our teacher told us that she would check the projects very leniently. By the end of the last period, everyone had submitted their projects. Later in the afternoon, we requested our Chemistry Madam not to take the test. Instead, we solved the questions which she had prepared by copying the answers from the book. We also cleared our doubts as yesterday's class was the last one before the exam. I was very satisfied, but what I heard in the evening again made me frustrated. My paternal grandmother had suffered from a stroke in the morning and was in hospital. My parents had gone there. After hearing the news, I was not very shocked because my grandmother is 83. She is bound to suffer sometimes. But, I felt very bad for my parents. They will again have to work very hard. They'll have to visit my grandmother in the hospital and do most other things concerned with making her better. Although two of my aunts and my good-for-nothing uncle and his wife are there, they won't try to help much. When it comes to work and money, they'll again have to take the help of my parents. My parents are always willing to help, but it makes them unhappy to think that these people remember them only when necessary.
This is probably my last post before the exam. I'll again be blogging on 9th March, when my exam gets over.

14 comments:

R said...

Oh boy, you're such a good student! :-/
Sheesh... I can see myself running to get the course book before the 'complete syllabus - mock boards' test for Chemistry. (my 12th standard) Yeah, I bought the book a month before the Board exam. Ahem.

Oh and highest score in Physics? I wanna scream WOWWWWWWWWWWWWW. :O

All the best for exams. You'd do well. I KNOW you would.

Oh, and hope your grandmother is okay now. Take care.

RB said...

Your post so completely reminded me of my school days. Really...trying to take some days off in the week to be able to revise for the exams coming up, sitting with Mom to complete diagrams in Bio files, wrapping up project after project...it was just the same. Even getting Mom to read out to me when I used to be in a state similar to yours. It's so relaxing!
And like Rohit said, we know you're a good student and that you'll do well. All the very best for the exams.

And best wishes for your grandma too. :-)

p.s. I loved your picture on Woodsmoke's blog. :-)

Subhadip said...

Best of luck for your exams. I know exactly how pressurizing school exams in Kolkata can be.

~ Deeps ~ said...

good luck for ur exams :)

somehow i have always felt project work is more to burden students rather than make them learn something in an practical or interactive way.......

and u mite not like it but i dont like the concept of tution at all till class 10th.......tutions are more of mugging up for exams kind of way to prepare rather than learning and falling in love with a subject ..........

Kavyaa said...

[oh well! i think i've said this before, will say it again anywayz: u so remind me of a younger me! It's just so uncanny!]

baby, don't exert urself too much over studies. these last few months before the exms are hell i know! one doesn't know whether one should attend the school tests in order to do the revision or stay back at home and do it on one's own. it's so confusing and frustrating..and teachers aren't of much help either..

u know, i think u and ur class matz should fix up one specific day with all ur teachers exclusively for submitting all the project files, so that u all dont have to go to school every day.

and sweets, family problems are a part and parcel of one's life. i wish ur granma speedy recovery and ur parents the restoration of their peace of mind.
And u princess, don't get disheartened coz we all are here for u! so cheer up! im sure this phase will pass soon enough. It's just a matter of another month and a half. just don't lose ur focus. prepare slowly and steadily for the finals. Remember it doesn't matter if u don't manage to score well in every class test. I assure u, it will all compensate when u'll ace them all in the finals..which i know u will!

That Girl said...

First of all, two things:
One, crappp I just missed wishing you in time for your exams :/ Well you must be over with at least one exam by now. Hope that went well (it should, considering the efforts you're putting in) and good luck for the rest.
And two, maaaaaaaaan am I glad to be out of school!! Sounds like some crazy last-minute project days you've had, and it so reminds me of my high school days. I used to hate - HATE - all the covering-project-files-then-making-em-pretty work. Phew, coll acads are such a cakewalk compared to this!

Sorry about your grandma. Hope she gets better real soon. And kid, trying times I know, but be strong and keep focused... all will be well soon :)

Good luck again for the remaining exams. Hope you do awesomely well!

Kanika said...

Whew!!! Damn I missed it before and for that I am so sorry. Wishing you all the best!

Do well kido. Reading your experience reminded me of the good old days per say and with me the moment I realized it was getting way out of hands...I used to simply quit studying.

See you on 9th March then...till then...Wishing you the Best of Luck!

Kavyaa said...

sorry for that mini gospel of mine! in the surge of too many emotions at the same time- nostalgia, sympathy, empathy etc. -i completely forgot to say the magical words:
"All the very best! and tk gud care!"
These magical words always work...that too without a wand..verbal spell, u know!

Unknown said...

My best wishes are with you all the time, so that goes without saying.
And I am also sure you will do very well. As usual.
Let us know how it went.

Unknown said...

Today is March 4...I am one day late.
But what the hell...Happy birthday to you!
Have a great year ahead and let me know how you celebrated the big day.

R said...

Whoa!
Belated birthday wishes for Butterfly! :D

Kanika said...

Belated Happy Birthday Kiddo.....

God Bless

Anonymous said...

You are an excellent story teller. You have a long way ahead. Keep it up. Just remember to be true to your posts, always. Right now, when you write it seems you do because you want to share your experiences and not create an impression.

It is after a long time that I read all the posts of a particular blog in one go. Truth and simplicity are never out of fashion. :)

Butterfly said...

@Rohit
Thanks for the B'Day wishes. :)
Although my exams are already over, thanks for your best wishes.And,the results will tell whether I've done well or not.I think all my exams went well. But Chemistry was disastrous.:(
My grandmother is physically ok now.But,she is losing her memory which is really, really bad for someone like her.I mean, she used to remember EVERYTHING-everyone's birthdays, anniversaries, deathdays...And, she used to be a lot more clever than all her children and grandchildren, even at this age.So,it'll be really unfortunate if she remains in this state.

@Richa
Thanks for wishing me luck for my exams, though they are already over now.
Thanks for the best wishes for my grandmother and thanks for liking my photo.:)

@Subhadip Da
Although my exams are already over, thanks for ur best wishes.:)
U r right. School exams here are very pressurizing.:(

@Deeps
I agree with u. Project work is a BIG BURDEN. We don't learn anything extra from the projects. For instance,the topic for our History project was 'Jaininsm and Buddhism',something we also had in our theory syllabus.So, what did we have to do? We ahd simply write down whatever we've studied in the project file, only a a lot more neatly and with pictures and decorations.So, we did not learn anything new. It was actually very tiring,cutting all those pictures, pasting them, drawing borders around them....
And, believe me, no student likes tuitions.But, what to do? They have become like a necessity now-a-days.I did not attend a single tuiton until the ninth standard. I had only one teacher at home, who used to teach me all the subjects. But, then we saw that in a very important class like class 9, we had to take help from various tuitions...like everyone else.

@Kavya
Thanks a lot for those magical words.:)I don't consider this to be a mini gospel. I love to interact like this with my friends online.I guess I don't need to score well in every class test after all.U know what, no one ever pressurizes me to perform well.Yet, I know that they expect a lot from me.So, I want to perform well always.
But, asking all the teachers to take the projects in one day is next to impssible.:-/
Guess what was the first thing I did today,to celebrate the end of this year's annual exam?? Well, I watched Harry Potter-2. My father had gifted me a VCD of the movie on my birthday(last Saturday).I had watched the movie thrice before this.But still,we'll never grow tired of watching Potter movies. :)

@Amiya Didi
Thanks for the best wishes. And all my exams is over now, not just one (That's a relief).
You say that you are glad to be out of school...Hmmm...But besides giving one a lot of pressure, before and during the exams, school is real fun.:)

@Kanu
Thanks for the best wishes.:) (Both for my exams and for my Birthday)
@Woodsmoke
THANK U SO MUCH!! I missed your early morning call this year. So did Baba, on his birthday.We all love you.:)
I don't know how I performed this time in my exam. The results will tell.

@Prashant gautam
Thanks a million for visiting my blog and for your wonderful comment.:D
And, you read all the posts of my blog???? Well, I feel honoured.Please keep visiting my blog.