Cricket, exams and unfulfilled dreams

Board Exams

I've come a long way since back then when I thought board exams were written on boards and we could write it when we were "big". But on the day, it wasn't quite that simple, though atleast I knew I didn't have to write on a board, I was happier writing on the answer sheets, something I was more accustomed to. And on the subject of "big"ness, well I have scarcely an idea whether I am privileged enough to be classified under this, mentally or physically.

It didn't matter anyway, for I had to write the board exam. And it was a tense affair. I was prepared and the paper was bound to be easy, easier than I had thought atleast, easy in it's own sense perhaps, hopefully.

But today, a week old, or three exams old, put whichever way you prefer, I find that the "board exam fear" is a lot to do with the mind and little to do with the actual portions. What, in my opinion, the Education board of the country has to do to remove this paranoia of fear is to make it like any other exam, or make any other exam like it. It's not the questions on the sheet that faze your mind but the the things like "to be filled by the board" or the several blanks for the several examiners signature is what really puts the young minds off. When you know that your paper is destined to fall into so many pairs of hands, each combing it at a microscopic level to find even the slightest of flaws is enough to scare even the bravest and the calmest. And that these are the hands of people you don't even know, not the fat, jolly, old teacher who knew who since you first peed in your pants in school, but someone far more intimidating just adds fuel to the already raging fire. And filling in your unique roll number for just this exam just enhances the feeling that this is something more than your daily piece of cake and it is here that the tremors originate in my opinion, and not in the textbook or the classrooms.