Board Exam Experience

Now that I am writing this, I can’t stop but wonder about the stupidity and idiocy of ideas I was taking pride in. Remembering those days, I don’t know if should I laugh it out or be terrified. 

Yes, I am from the covid-batch, I didn’t give my exams, and frankly, like all others would say it was a God-given gift for students like me. As soon as Mr.Modiji announced the lockdown my downfall started. My tuition got canceled, since I come from a small town in Odisha there is no facility for online studies. The only ones that were there were big franchises like Ak***h or Unac****y (censorship because I am respectful Indian citizen.).Those institutes were in my plan but for my JEE preparation, well that story is for another day.

As soon as everything closed down and I was stuck in my home, my family decided to give me a laptop for online studies (now that I see it was a bad decision, they realized it later.) Though at first, I was very dedicated and sincere I used the laptop the way it should be only to later realize that school lectures were just trash as the teachers themselves had no idea what they were doing and students understood YouTube was the only help, they had to clear exams. Well….that was not for some people like me who are scientifically named “procrastinators”.

Not that I am justifying but you see I wanted to study and complete those chapters/syllabi but somehow thought since it is available on YouTube, I could do it anytime and got hooked on “kal karlenge” (I will do it tomorrow). Only to succumb to another sin of arrogance.
As now I have whole hands on the internet, I learned that “10th Boards? they are just overhyped to scare us; they are like any other exams”. and this went on when offline classes started, I resisted to go. I flunked my tuitions thinking that even 2-3 months are enough to get 90% at least (I know! I myself don’t know what I was thinking of back then :0 ).

I started watching gaming channels and stand-up comedy a lot and literally watched over 30 shows on Netflix.

When did I finally come to my senses? When our school held offline pre-board exams. I was such an idiot that I thought to myself even one day before the exam “These marks won’t count I will study for actual board exams”. The exam dates were not released yet so my stupid confidence was at its peak. 
Then finally the result came in and as you have it, I nearly failed Math’s, but scored 50% in science (those main subjects that everyone looks out for). Well, I was scared as hell and the next day I had social science I didn’t tell at home and thought I will fix at least one subject. So, seeing how I was the whole year it is no surprise, the day before my exam was the first time, I opened those books (I am not joking).

In CBSE you have History, Geography, Political Science and Economics. I had to complete four books in one day which should be basically done over a year. At that point, I knew nothing about what might happen as I had nothing to lose because I had already fallen in a hell hole. As soon as I came home, I ate lunch and immediately sat with all four books instead of rot-learning I read them as stories. From afternoon 2 PM to morning 5 AM I kept studying. I gave the exam and told everyone at home what had happened. Well, my mom started crying thinking the worst, I might fail and everyone at home got worried. 

I was appointed a personal tutor for both math and science, and he taught me almost anytime he could. Before him, I hated math’s and never wanted to touch such a terrifying subject, but I don’t know how he did it, my lifelong hatred of math changed making it my favorite subject today. I had two months for my board exams (as per the government’s official announcement) and was fully confident with it. So much so I didn’t want to do anything except math I used to wake up every day at 5 AM doing geometry and sleep at night at 3 AM doing trigonometry. (Yes, I lived 2 months with 2-3 hours of sleep). Well anyways after all of this suddenly just 20 days before the exam, for the first time in Indian History the Boards were canceled.

Yes, I got saved somehow, I never really know what to call it, but I scored 92% without doing much. I do feel guilty sometimes, but I accept it. I guess God works in mysterious ways.

Anyways my Social Science marks? well, I scored 67/80. 2 marks more than the topper of our class. I don’t know how I did but till today it gives me an inner drive, that until the time is up anything is possible.

Thanks for reading 🙂

~Shradha Mohanty