Exams and Extras

“Excuse me maam, extra sheet please”

This was the most uttered line at the exam hall those days. If you were the first to take the sheet, you would be welcomed by many “Ahhhh” s and “Ohhhh”s from the rest. It would make the rest write faster.

You would be considered to have done the exam well. Just because you finished the 4 sheet fast and asked for a 2 sheet paper. Then write the extra sheet number on the list maintained by the teacher, sign it and then take the paper. Sometimes the teacher would be far away, so the clever heads would take the sheet in advance almost when the last sheet was half complete. So that time isn’t wasted. Also if you did not take the paper, common notion that you would flunk because you wrote less.

I still remember taking a compass when I was in 4th std. Nope school dint teach geometry at such early stage. But I would require the compass needle to barge through the many layers of pages. To make a hole and then insert a tag; then tie all the pages together that they don’t fall off. I made use of the extra sheets to the maximum; after every answer I would leave 2 lines blank. Space always gives a sense on organized effort, I believed. If you crumble everything together that would look untidy. Most of the not-so-environment-friendly teachers agreed.

Now of course, sheets are replaced by booklets.

Or more often you don’t even need them. All the papers are now “Objective Type” and just require an OMR sheet. Some have gone the online way.

That’s about it; I guess the next gen wouldn’t even know that all the fuss was actually fun amidst tense atmosphere. It would relieve you off the stress for at least 2 minutes. Isn’t it?