Mid-terms are always dreaded, look how we tackle them..

Our class is like every other class, a mix of persons who are intelligent, of those, who are average and of those who are below average. Now, like every other engineering college we have our ‘regular’ (well the word has relative meaning for different individuals and organizations ) asessments in the form of minors and seminars (individual presentations or group presentations). Have I said seminar? yeah! this is perhaps the most dreaded subject among my classmates. Dreaded because, the thought of giving a presentation comes with many more thoughts. Thoughts like, how would I look standing near the blackboard? What kind of clothes I should wear on that day? (Oh man! the other day somebody was telling that one should wear a traditional white shirt and I don't have a white shirt). I sound hoarse, do I need to stand in front of mirror and rehearse the transcript for like thousand times? And for some, the thoughts could be as weird as "What Language", "How" and on "OHP" or "Multimedia"? What other people will think of me?

That is just one of the dreaded issues; the other is of the minors. Now, our minors require you to solve a few questions (mostly theoretical ones) in one hour duration on an answer sheet. Well, the beauty of the minors lies in their dates. The dates are announced during the start of the semester which gets postponed for like tens of times (sometime on students demand and other times professors mess up with the scheduled dates). Now, however early the dates been announced, most of the students (it’s a fact that the number of average and below average students when taken together, contribute massively to the term “most”) start studying that subject only a night before the actual date. Some try to pull an all-night-er (well most of the night is spent on watching video clips, playing online games or chatting as, people start feeling the need for some sort of relaxation after every half an hour for another half an hour), some sleep early to wake up in the morning and study (again “most” of them are needed to be dragged out of their bed so that they can at least, attempt the paper). Some even manage to wake up early but then suddenly they realize that the syllabus is immense and it’s a better idea to get the appropriate dosage of sleep.

Well, this is just about the preparation for the minors. On the day of the test, all kind of students carry their notes with them to the class. Though, the intelligent ones bring that for a quick revision whereas, the other types envisage these copious amount of notes as their potent arsenal, in case if it is needed. Everybody tries to find the most convenient position in lecture hall. The word convenience obviously translates into, who is sitting next to you and in front of you, how far it is from the lecture desk, and is it well lit. Now, once these things are taken care of, you are well set to attempt the paper. Answer sheets are given to you and you start writing the answer to first question. You write it in bold and stylize the text, Answer 1): and then you realize you know nothing about this question. You try attempting the next question and again find yourself amidst a lot of confusion and chaos running through your mind. And then, you attempt the last question, it seems familiar and you start writing the first line of the answer, man! Again you forgot everything. What is happening here? You look around and find ‘most’ (look for the word, it’s explained above) of your classmates struggling to scribble bits and pieces of the answers that they never read and which, they are now trying vainly to recall. You find some solace in the fact that you are no different from ‘most’ of them but a feeling of guilt sweeps your mind that you squandered this chance and then, you make a promise to yourself that you will study for the next minor. And then, you come back to your cozy hostel room, take a nap for a couple of hours, play tennis in the evening, do everything that you regularly do. You hear a voice from inside that you should study but then you think, forget it man, I’ll see whatever happens.