Exams at my Institute

Hi all,
Today I had my last paper of my mid semester exams. And I realised that my blog would be incomplete if I don't write anything about exams which are compulsory part of my life here at my institute - IIT Kanpur. It is better to write down the incidents before I forget them.

People may ask me : What is so great about exams? Is there anything special at IIT-K?

My answer: No, nothing great or special yet something interesting.

Exams are something which I started liking from my second semester. Exams have always been festive season for me and my wingmates. Hey... it seems you don't believe me. Yes, exams can be enjoyable and festive too. It is because during exams, me and my wingmates started playing Age of Empires (AOE) in our Computer Centre. Although it was not allowed yet we did and who was there to check us during exams. It was a cool period.

Let's start with my wingmates' exam experiences:
First person I will talk about is Ashish Lohiya..more popularly known as fandoo or Demon Hunter. Very few people realise that he has got name 'Ashish' as he is 'fandoo' or 'Lohiya' for us. He has got the same problem like me. Now, I am not Abhinav but Parate or simply Parathe.

It is during the 3rd year just after our midsems. As exams were just over, it was time to celebrate and we people usuually celebrate it by sleeping long hours till afternoon (or may be evening). And on such auspicious occassion, we bunk classes.
And that is what Mr. Lohiya and Mr. Rahul Mundra (my another wingmate) did. But they didn't realise that bunking class can be dangerous if course instructor distributes the checked answer scripts in that class.

It is so because instructor does not get sufficient time to humiliate you in class but when you go to take scripts personally, he gets sufficient time to make your situation like hell.

So, Lohiya and Mundra along with one more bunker went to meet instructor personally. And here is what happens...

Lohiya: (Knock Knock)
Instructor: Yes...
(All three move ahead towards instructor)

Instructor: What can I do for you?
Mundra: Sir, we want answer copies.

Instructor: Answer copies? Are you people doing any course under me? I don't seem to recognize your faces.
Lohiya (thinking on his own mind): Even I don't remember your face, Sir. Afterall, I attended just one class. What's my fault then?

Mundra: Yes sir, we are your students.
Instructor: Very well then. Tell me the course name so that I can get your copies.

"Oh my God!! Instructor asked course name. I didn't attend class and he is asking course name. I just knew the course number and that too I forgot", all the three had the same thought.

And instructor was waiting for them to answer. Time was passing very slowly and yet no one said a word.
It was a difficult situation so Lohiya gave a shot, "Sir, course on communication."

Instructor: Sorry, gentleman. I don't take course on communication. I knew you are not doing course under me. You have come to wrong person.

Mundra started thinking, "Yeah.. we may have come to wrong person. No it can't be. Just 2 weeks back I attended his class. I remember his face."

Mundra: Sorry sir. Course number is EE3**.

I hope you can understand what would have happened to them. Luckily the number Mundra said was correct. But that's how the life is in my wing. We pass the course without even knowing the course name.

Let's look at another wingmate of mine. I will not name him. Lets call him Mr.X. He was also celebrating the end of midsem. And like Lohiya, he also bunked class. Now, some reliable sources told him that answer copies were distributed in class today. So Mr. X goes to meet instructor. He knocks and asks, "May I come in?" Professors at IIT-K are very polite and says," Yes, Come In".

X: Sir, I want the answer copy of compilers course.
Inst:(Politely) What's your name?
X: sir, I am X.
Inst: Look Mr. X . I understand that you have given exam and it may have gone well. And people sometimes get anxious to know how much marks they scored. But you should understand my problem too.

X: I didn't get you,Sir.
Inst: The problem is that I haven't checked the copies yet and I will distribute them in class when I check them. You are not required to take pains of coming here to collect it.

Moral of the story: Make your reliable sources really reliable. Incidentally, I was one of the reliable sources of information to Mr.X.:)

The above two were after exam experiences. Duirng exams, we just play and play. Exams really become enjoyable during winters when we all come out of our room to sit outside to have some vitamin D from sun. Although, we sit there for studying but it is more of a chit-chat session and when we realise that we need to study a lot, we come to realise that it is too late and it would be useless to study anymore.

I remember my first Departmental course- Data Structures(DS). It is during this time, I formed a trio with my room partner Bhuppi and my wingmate Peeyush Jain(PJ). We three are from Computer Science and we thought we could help each other during exams.

With that intention, we went to give our second mid sem exam of DS. Question Paper was very short- just 2 question. And one hour time. This is the thing which I like most about my departmental exams. They will give very few questions and sufficient time. And you can decide within 5 minutes, whether you are going to sit for 15 minutes or complete 1 hour. Because if something does not strike you, the you cannot sit there for more than 15 minutes. It is of no use. If you know something, then you can spend time but still not 1 hour.

So we three sat next to each other. Within 5 minutes we knew what type of paper it was -15 minutes or 1 hour? I realised it of 15 minutes. I looked helplessly towards bhuppi and PJ. Unfortunately, they also realised their paper to be of 15 minutes. That was 3rd Semester and now, 7 semesters have gone. We still have trio and we have never been able to utilize it. Even today in 8th semester, we look towards each other after few minutes and with same helplessness state. I wish god could provide us with just one opportunity to make our trio successful.

Anyways, we came happily after giving exams. No no.. exam didn't go well... we were happy bacuse exams finished.
Then, we three came to our room to discuss how much we are going to get. I said," I bet that I am going to get minimum marks among us and will give you Pepsi if I don't get min."

Bhuppi said," Think again before betting...I am betting the same... I will get the minimum"

PJ: " Are you people mad? It is me who will get the minimum. And I bet."

So, that was the deal. Few days later, answer scripts were shown. And the result, no body gained or lost anything out of bet.
We all got the minimum: 5 out of 60. It was minimum in the class.:))

Things like this happen and that's what makes the exam entertaining.
The paper I gave today reminded me of the same situation. As i had 4 questions to do. Of which I could attempt: only 1.
And I am going to bet again. Let's see what happens.

GhanTadHaR