When I found out my HSC exam center was in Rizvi College, I was terribly dismayed. I had heard legendary stories about how bad that college was (here I mean both student & faculty).
Anyway, I decided I had to make the most of it, & that I would only be there 6 days.
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| Talk about irony |
On the day of the first exam, the invigilator who entered looked strict. I was happy. See there's something you need to know about me. I'm not perfect, but I don't believe in copying in exams, be it from a piece of paper or by asking a friend, even if I feel I'm gonna fail in the subject.
I think I first encountered this particular boy on the day of my third exam. They are a gang of 3 or 4 (or maybe 5!) who all carry a lot of chits with them, & constantly try to peep into other people's papers too. I was utterly disgusted to find that they had not one but many chits & were literally writing the whole paper from those chits. My blood boiled, but I ignored it. Besides almost all the invigilators there are either blind, completely apathetic, or both.
Today I was terribly disgusted to see that I would be sitting right besides one of these guys, but then I decided that I had to concentrate on my own paper. Then the invigilator walked it. And the repulsive guy to my right said 'Oh Fuck!' after which he gave a slight pause & repeated the same two words again. That was when I knew that he probably had some sort of information that today's invigilator was genuinely strict. And I was absolutely happy when one guys got from the said group, sitting two benches away from my 'partner' actually got caught (approximately 20 minuted into the exam). The guys started to get a whiny voice like he was crying & begged for mercy. the invigilator agreed, as long as he turned in all the chits he was carrying. He turned in 4 or 5. Few minutes later the invigilator returned to see that there were three more lying on the ground. Shheesssh!! Then the invigilator went on giving the people a supposed 'last warning' telling them that they could safely hand over chits now, but if they were caught later, they would be in big trouble (he threatened to file a police complaint!) The moment the invigilator left the room, my partner started knocking on the desk asking me for an answer (I didn't hear which answer he asked me for, there was no way I was going to tell him).
When I told him I didn't know it, he actually had the audacity to tell me to ask my friend, he knew we were friends as he had seen us together before the commencement of the exam. I ignored him & continued writing. Soon he was done with the objectives after copying them all. Then he went to the subjective questions (If you're thinking the copying stopped there, it definitely didn't! It just got much worse...)
Now for each & every question, he was removing a different chit from his sock, writing the answer, putting the chit back in his sock & removing another one. It was funny, knowing that the invigilator was 'on the prowl' yet he couldn't see this guy copying. It was also very disturbing, as I could see this all going on from the corner of my eye. I mean, it's not fair. Not fair to those who actually work for their marks, when people score distinction & higher in this way.
Finally, after 2 1/2 hours (it was a 3 hour paper), I had enough. I had given him enough warning, giving him angry looks every time he took out a chit. So I reported him. He acted totally innocent, & gave up one chit, then (keeping up with the innocent act) he emptied his jeans pockets to show he had no more chits. So I actually had to tell the invigilator that they were in his socks. And that's when the enraging part happened. All the invigilator did was take his chits & throw them out & let him continue writing as if nothing happened (whatever happened to the threats about police complaints?) The boy had copied over 3/4th of the paper now, & got most of his marks. Yet he was not punished at all! And here comes the funny part: In the last half an hour, he sat there & didn't write more than 4 lines! All the time was spent looking around & glaring angrily at me.
Well, honestly, I didn't give a damn about his anger. But I was terribly angry on all the invigilators & their turning a blind eye to all the copying going on. Were they being bribed? It sure looks like it. I feel so helpless right now, but I'm glad I didn't keep quiet.
I personally don't blame the kids itself, not that I'm saying that they didn't know what they were doing, but the invigilators should be strict, it's a boards exam, dammit! I have no idea whom to go to, whom to complaint to, because if I did I would go do it, without a second thought. But I feel good sharing it here, at least others in the blogosphere can know what type of a college it is, other than the humbug they write on
their website.
I'm completely outraged.
That's sad for oh so many reasons... I'll have to wait longer for my MBP, our holiday plans for Goa will go haywire, & Dad really misses home! But such is life, & there really isn't anything we can do about it.
I had won the very print I admired- Naadanpennu!
I've voluntarily had completely erratic sleep patterns these days, I'm just so happy with all the freedom. I feel like Atlas, relieved of his burden. My last exam was on the fifteenth. After the exam I (briefly) went shopping with my two best pals, & then got home, after which I sat almost continuously at my computer till past 2 AM. Then I went to sleep, & got up at 2 PM the next day... The other two days have been spent similarly, either playing AOE II, watching old episode of Hercules & Xena & moping around abut how sad I am that Xena is over (My heart really feels broken!) & reading, viciously. I've completed one of those lovely 'Alfred Hitchcock presents' anthologies- No. 26, Shrouds & Pockets, & started on another one from the same series. And the one story I read yesterday had a lot of Pirate Lingo, which should explain the first two lines of this post! I feel blissful. Oh & I also feel like a lazy bum. So I've decided I need to get out of this lazy cycle.
