Caught in the Maelstrom of Examinations

 

Life does not always take a straight course, rather it has its ebbs and falls. Recently I was put under the scorching heat of examinations. Extensive preparations, late night studies, early morning revisions, telephonic consultations, innumerable times of checking, rechecking and cross-checking …the list goes on.  They had taken a toll on me. But I was not alone in this dirty business of examination. Along with me were my children, both the ones at home and the ones I shepherd at  school. The two scamps at home had their mid-terms going on while the ones at school had their final semester practical waiting at their doorstep. Though the exams vary in their gravity, the amount of stress they gave to the ones being examined are more or less the same.

No amount of preparation can make you fully ready for the big battle of questions and answers. Thus we pray hard for the exams to be cancelled or postponed. I can still remember the endless number of times I recited the Lord’s Prayer all because of the line “Lead us not into temptations…” which when translated in to my mother tongue, got me convinced had something to do with my upcoming exams.  We give Gods, especially Rain Gods, as it is these days in Kerala, the government officials and the meteorological department our endless gratitude for the boon of rain holidays on the days of exam.

As we all know we are not borrowing time because we are not prepared well for the day. We know that a postponed exam is like getting swallowed by the snake at 98 in the game ‘Snakes & Ladders.’ One has to now do it over again from the starting point. Certainly we are fully aware that all our efforts are wasted if the exam is cancelled. But still we avoid being in the dreaded room, the exam hall.

When I was a kid in school I mostly did all my studies to impress my mother. I had no clue why I had to study the spelling of photosynthesis, or what Indus Valley Civilization was. I had no interest to find out the Least Common Factor or the Highest Common Multiple of some random numbers. But I did it all for my mother, to make her happy.

Later on I realised that mine was not a rare isolated case. My second grader came home from school one day as a champion who has climbed the summit of Mount Everest. He had scored full marks for Malayalam dictation and got a star from his teacher. Later that evening he came to me. The glow had faded away from his face by then. He wanted to know the reason why I was not happy even after he brought me a full mark and a star. In my mundane struggle for existence I had miserably failed to express my extreme joy and delight over his remarkable achievement, the one he made solely for me.

 But not everyone wins his battles for his mother. Some do so for their fathers, some for their grannies and yet another for their teachers. My daughter belongs to the latter genre. Every single time she breaks down in to tears not because she couldn't perform well but she has let down her favourite teacher. The issue is further complicated by two things - to her good mark is nothing less than a hundred percent and the list of favorite teacher has all her teachers in it.  I should say my little girl shows zero discrimination.

 Anyone in the field of education would agree with me at a stroke that exams are a form of learning activity. They can enable students to see the material from a different perspective. They also provide feedback that students can then use to improve their understanding as well as identify weaknesses and correct them.

Yes, exams are a learning ground for us. I vividly remember the story my mother used to recount of a boy who overslept and missed his exams, thus failing his board in tenth. Apparently he was the star student of his school with only one chink in his armor. Like the tragic heroes of Shakespearean and Greek plays he 'was destroyed by the excess of his virtues.' He shared his tragic flaw with Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, 'hubris.' Though a bright and intelligent boy he was consumed with the pride of knowledge and intellect that he was not humble towards his teachers and friends. Thus when he was not there in his seat for the exam nobody bothered about him.

If my mother used exams to give me a lesson on character building someone else took to giving a lesson on chirography and knot tying. The lesson was given to my eleven-year-old son by his then English teacher. Since she could not make him care about the finesse of examination in spite of repeated instructions, she made a well thought out decision. She ran it by her superiors, got the approval and carried on the mission – Operation Deduct Marks. She took away one mark for neatness and for loosened knot. The teacher was right. It did not harm him but pricked him where it hurt. Thus she ultimately succeeded to teach him something with a small demonstrative act that no amount of elucidation could.

Having said that I should however warn you against the downsides of examination. Overthinking and overworking your brain might land you in a wagon covered in a bubble wrap as did happen to Mel in ‘Gordimer Gibbons Life on Normal Street.’

We are told that brain grows, that’s how it works making us able to learn new stuff all the time. But cramming stuff day and night, learning new things at an accelerated rate makes our brain unable to catch up - as the story goes.

Brain is a mysterious place. It is where we store everything, things that we know and feel. Sometimes we want to know everything there is to know about. So we push ourselves harder and harder making flashcards and charts or speed writing everything before the big event. We are heartbroken at a tiny slip. All we want is to ace the exam thus missing out on the little adventures and mysteries around.

But one should always remember what the poet says,

"Who battles for victory ventures defeat

Misfortune is something we all have to meet

Take the loss with grace you would

Take in the gain’

As the wise Physics teacher promptly replied to the panicking young minds who asked about the names of those who failed in his exam, “If you are asking about the test of life I know no one has failed, and about this exam I don’t remember as it doesn’t matter.”