The examination scene in any exam hall in my college, and in any other educational institution these days, is as intense and entertaining as it can get.
People usually prefer to appear full of integrity and as honest, as possible when describing a situation that may throw light on their, or their friends’ dishonest ways, but I shall be brutally honest in this essay, even if it might hurt the sentiments of the teachers at my college, or teachers in general, and also some of the high scoring students.
Any classroom which is being used as an exam hall starts filling up minutes before the exam is about to commence, with students.
While some of them are making sure that they have reached their assigned classrooms; others appear to be soaking up information last-minute from their phones via PDFs sent by professors, or referring to those handy, last-minute-notes websites, which are truly ever so helpful that one wonders why they didn’t start studying from those notes in the first place.
Of Toppers Who Pretend Like They Haven’t Prepared
I definitely belong to this category of students, if that wasn’t clear enough. Last-minute studying is hands down the best kind of studying in my opinion. Of course, one forgets the crammed information not long after the exam ends, but at least it saves you in little ways during the exam.
Then, there are others who seem to be fully relaxed and not revising anything, or trying to collect any new information before the exam, but don’t be fooled by this pretext.
These are usually the people who have given up on scoring well in that particular exam and are satisfied with the amount that they have studied. They aren’t worried about getting an average or slightly below average grade on their exam.
There are very few out of these who have actually studied thoroughly and are pretty confident about a good result, but beware! They often like to pretend as if they didn’t study much and are expecting a bad grade, but these people end up getting one of the highest marks in the class.
Of Daredevils Who Carry Their Phones To Exams
The funny part is, almost nobody is ever surprised by their attempts at fooling others. Yet, why they continue to do so in every other exam is beyond my understanding. Perhaps, they don’t want to be bothered by others while writing their exam or taunted for studying too much. Peer pressure, I get it.
Then comes the arrival of the invigilators. Yes, there are at least two, sometimes three invigilators assigned to every class. It can be a nightmare if you really care about not failing an exam, which is pretty much everybody.
They start with giving out instructions on keeping our bags outside the class, having our admit cards with us, and end with threats about what may happen to us if our phones are found on us during the exams—a threat which a lot of people duly ignore.
Don’t get me wrong, I admire their daredevil nature, but I could never bring myself to keep my phone on me during an exam. I am too terrified of being caught and I don’t do a very good job of hiding it. Having an expressive face during tense situations is definitely one of my “strong” suits.
Of Students Who Promise To Help Each Other
As the clock ticks closer to the start time of the exam, almost all of us are seated and looking at the invigilators as well as each other.
We exchange relevant jokes, expressions or very short phrases to do with promises of help during the exam, which I can sense is irksome to some invigilators and boring to others, as they distribute fresh answer sheets and question papers to us.
The exam time finally starts, and we all take a moment to ourselves to go through the question paper. Some of us feel relieved about the number of questions we can answer to get a satisfactory or passing grade, while others feel bad about not knowing the answers to the questions which could have bought them full marks.
It’s all about perspective and it doesn’t matter what kind of grades you usually get: good, bad, or average; every student can easily fit into the aforementioned categories.
Of MCQs And The Opportunity To Cheat
The question papers usually start with multiple choice questions (MCQs), which carry one mark each (usually) and those are the easiest form of answers you can obtain from others, for obvious reasons, without getting the attention of the invigilators.
The most amount of cheating takes place during this initial phase of the exam, during which it is slightly easier to get all the answers you need because the invigilators are busy shushing other people, and others easily escape their attention; until they don’t, and the cycle goes on for a good few minutes until almost everyone has received the answers to the MCQs.
After this phase, the environment usually quietens down. Hence, the students become more cautious as it becomes easier for the invigilators after that point.
The rest of the exam goes by in a blur of varying emotions. People write the answers that they can recall while adding extra relevant information that they may not even be fully sure of, to make their answers lengthier, so they can somehow increase their chances of getting full marks in each question.
Of Cheaters Who Ace Exams And Their Copying Skills
The questions that they don’t know the answers to, are hunted for usually through people who are sitting nearby. Although, some manage to get lengthy answers from people who are sitting far away! Again, I have no idea how.
Everyone is focused on writing down as many answers as possible, whether via copying from others, searching for answers on their phones discreetly in the class, or during the bathroom breaks that they take, or by their own efforts.
There are very few people who barely take any help from anyone, and are not fans of helping other people either. Yes, you guessed it right. These are the ones who appeared quite relaxed earlier (or the opposite, sometimes) and claimed to have studied very little before the exam. Again, no-one is surprised.
Of Exams, Exams And Yet More Exams
As the exam time nears its end, people’s writing speed increases tenfold, and it is inversely proportional to the quality of their handwriting as they try to fill up their answer sheets with as much information as possible.
This is the time during which you won’t get much help from most people as they are focused on not letting themselves fail or get a bad grade. This is obviously the most intense part of any exam and nobody is in the mood for being flippant.
As the invigilators collect our answer sheets away, there are mixed emotions around the room of students. Some are relieved, others are disappointed, and some others feel betrayed by their friends for not getting the help they expected.
An exhaustion of sorts is common among everyone though, as they empty the class after their submission of answer sheets and the invigilators’ approval… Usually, to prepare for another, upcoming, intellectually invigorating, exam day.