A, B, C, D, ...

No, not the aphabet song. It gets you thinking. You circle one of the alphabets. But you feel unsure and insecure of your answer. You will erase or cancel the previous answer and choose another. You start to panic. "I do not remember learning this in class." You scan your surroundings. Everyone is concentrating on the stapled papers on their desks with the sound of a few pens clicking. How is it possible to be answering questions when you have clearly not studied?

My thoughts on exams in general - scary. Parents expect sky high grades and we get peer pressure. Our mind starts unravelling everything unrelated and search for a reasonable answer to write on the paper that might "magically" appear out of the blue. Unfortunately so, that would not be happening unless you have studied. Most teens have a trend of studying; the "last-minute-studying" kind. The question is, are we going to ace it or fail it? Will our "burning-the-midnight-oil" effort pay off?

This mid-semester exams came quite quickly. It has only been less than 2 months but here we are, sitting for our first ever practical/theory exams since SPM days are over, next week. After 5 months of not cracking our heads, we are going to face this once again. I feel quite rusty because memorizing was never my thing. One thing good about this college exams is that it is not like Malaysian History where you are required to write everything out word for word. In college, you are required to understand and then paraphrase a certain sentence. But then again, if you are not in luck and cannot think of ways to paraphrase, that is it.

As our lecturers have told us, this mid-semester exams are important because further down the line, the exams get harder and harder. Some people have the independence to put their mind into the book and shut out all other noises. As one of the group on Facebook was named, "Get off Facebook and get your face IN a book." For those who have a short attention span, this might be a problem.

Another thing is, we have assignments to be done and therefore the time for us to study is a little limited. We are worrying about a number of things altogether and we have to study at the same time. Some find it hard because of this mighty word - PROCRASTINATION. Indeed, procrastination is the thief of time.

Exams today mean cramming all you have learned for the past few weeks/months into a day's study and get expected OR unexpected results. That has made exams lose its meaning in the first place. Why are we tested based on a couple of papers stapled together? You may think it is stupid but it is actually challenging your mind to think and figure out an answer.

Many have used this proverb in almost every nook and cranny of the world and it has definitely boost people's confidence: "Where there is a will there is a way." In this case, if you study for the exam, you will ace it.