But then,reality dawned to me personally,when I was doing my masters.The whole concept of calling it a 'Open Book exam' was a rude trick.The questions were carefully chosen such that none of them had their expected answers directly in the book,but only a basic reference very remotely connected to them.The chances of even locating the topic being questioned was highly remote and deriving the answer based on the factual details in the book seemed to be even tougher.
Although I did not have too many such 'Open Book' exams,the truth that I learnt was that I could perform better in a closed book exam than in an open book exam and the reason being that,I would equip myself with enough information to combat the hurdles in a normal exam than when it came to an open book exam,wherein the belief at the back of the mind of the answers being somewhere in the book would have made me complacent and not study well enough.
Exams,no matter open or closed book, were always fun.The totally shattered and confused looks of some of my friends and me,upon receiving the question papers still stands afresh in my minds.Sometimes,the questions used to be so tough and out of syllabi that the whole 3 hours would be a laughter riot,as we poor unintelligent souls glanced at each other,happily smiling all through the gruelling exam,upon having totally conceded defeat and having our goals reset in a flash to just cross the 45 % barrier instead of the 75% barrier.
Then,there were these excellent writers,who never cared about the nature of the questions -whether easy or tough,but were always hell-bent in writing loads and loads of stuff.There handwritings,which used to resemble colonies of tiny ants when they wrote in their respective notebooks,would have suddenly gained weight and height when it came to the exam papers.The first guy to complete the main sheet and ask for the additional sheet ,was always looked with awe by the rest of the class as he would proudly snatched the sheet from the supervisor and go back to his reckless writing race.
Numerous funny instances pertaining to exams and the marks scored on those still provide enough fodder for laughter during the weekly telephone conferences that my roommates and I have over the weekend.
-The funny incident when my friend came out of the exam hall smiling and shouting that he would score 85% in his 'Communication theory' paper having deliberately attempted the formula-based problems instead of the theory based questions;And the laughter riot and the life-long ridicule that followed when he just got 46% !It was so hilarious that the rest of us didn't even feel bad about our meagre 55% score!
-The great analogy involving the same friend, that we used to compare the exam hall scenario with a famous scene in the movie 'Badshah'- the consensus before the exam,being that once this guy finished his paper and hands it over to the supervisor(well-before the 3 hr time),the rest of us roommates should drop our pens and follow the leader out of the exam hall,after bowing and kissing his hand!The funny part was the look of dismay on this guy's face as he stormed out of the class and looked through the window at us guys madly scribbling till the end and ultimately, ending up with more marks than him.
-The scrambling for sketch pens,eraser and ruler-scale before the beginning of every exam.There was this friend,who always had 10 or 12 colors of sketch pens and would generously endow me with the ones that were left - those which literally had no ink left in them or which were the ugliest of all colours!Still,yours truly,being shameless ,used to grab those left-overs and used to come up with mindblogging rangolis.
-The multiple choice questions exam,where me and friends successfully exchanged answers for around 50% of the questions with our dumb charade skills,finally getting the shocker at the end of the exam that the ordering of the questions were different in our respective question papers!
-The day of the announcement of the marks is a memorable one for all of us.The tension filled day always culminated with a sad feeling and made way for many volatile resolutions regarding academics,which were very easily forgotten!The hearts pounding harder and harder as our 90-year old director used to announce the shocking results!
-The ironical situation after the results which brought the graceful smile on some of the guys,who had failed in 2 or 3 papers,competing with the sorry faces of many others who fell short of their 80% expectations!
Exams were really a great source of fun and challenge for us individuals during our college days.They are a life-long source of nostalgic and memorable thoughts for almost everyone!How I wish I was transformed to that golden era again,wherein me and my roommates prepared religiously for the exams and came out with flying colours!
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh | 
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