It's easy to think that exams are a foolproof way of checking how much you know or how intelligent you are. We're conditioned to think that the most intelligent and hard working students are the ones who top an exam, and the lower down you are, the lesser your knowledge/intelligence. Although the logic behind this assumption is obvious, this is often not how things play out in the real world. There are just too many factors that go into what how you perform on that particular day - and it's not just "I had an off day" or "My examination temperament is not good". No, things are way more complicated - and you don't realize that while you're giving the paper or even the next day, but things some things sink in during the week after 'The Exam':
<h2><strong>1 - Some people always get screwed - the Anti-Loop!</strong></h2>
Well, as you know, life's not fair. And the geeks at Google recently <a href="http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-google.html" target="_blank">went out and proved this</a>. Basically, if you are a student S, then there exists a set of examiners E who would ask questions that you will find almost impossible. They might not be the toughest questions, but they will be the toughest for YOU! Because, every examiner has their own favorite topics and their favorite way of testing your knowledge or framing the questions - so even though everyone and their mother is saying the <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_iit-entrance-a-breeze-for-most-aspirants_1530561" target="_blank">JEE paper was super easy</a> - to some of us it looked like this:

<a href="http://indiacollegesearch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ph-no1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-39" title="JEE - through my eyes" src="http://indiacollegesearch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ph-no1-263x300.jpg" alt="JEE - through my eyes" width="263" height="300" /></a>

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<h2><strong>2 - The system is not perfect, not even almost.</strong></h2>
Some of you might have been surprised to hear that during this year's JEE, there were serious errors in the paper - <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/IIT-professor-admits-errors-in-JEE-math-paper/Article1-685339.aspx" target="_blank">as admitted by an IIT professor</a>. There were also reported incidents of cheating, malpractice and <a href="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-14/india/29416920_1_joint-admission-board-jee-iit-roorkee" target="_blank">other unfair practices</a>. For those of us, who've been reading about this for years, this is nothing new. No matter how good the system, or how intelligent the people who created it, shit happens.
<h2><strong>3 - Its about 'that day'</strong></h2>
In the World Cup Group B, India beat Bangladesh who beat Ireland who beat England who beat South Africa who beat India. Why? Because every dog has its day! Truth is, most people who get amazing ranks openly admit they had an awesome day! They felt good, the first question was from their favorite topic and they just got into the rhythm of it. It's not like the others weren't as bright, but it just didn't happen for them on 'that day'.
<h2><strong>4 - There are a LOT of exams</strong></h2>
At the beginning of this month, I started my first blog post by sarcastically listing out some of the many exams that students have to give. Well, two weeks later, <a href="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-15/bangalore/29421156_1_entrance-tests-iit-jee-coaching-centre" target="_blank">Times of India did an article about it</a> - and it was not sarcastic. So almost everyone sees this as a bad thing (who likes giving exams?), but for those of us who screw up their first big paper, it just makes things a little easier to bear knowing that you'll get a 2nd chance. And a 3rd and a 4th. Not all of them might be for colleges of the same quality, obviously, but you can definitely still get something good!
<h2><strong>5 - Thank God I didn't do well!</strong></h2>
OK - true story. A student goes up to the canteen counter at IIT-D and says, "Give me that thing; um...what's it called? That triangular thing?" He was talking about a sandwich! What the hell? That's not how I want to spend my college life - so engrossed in integrals that I forget what a sandwich is. Disclosure - this revelation doesn't happen immediately. But a lot of us realized over time that the better a college, the less fun you will have there. And what are you looking forward to anyway? Your schedule doesn't look too promising for the next 4 years:

<a href="http://indiacollegesearch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/engglife.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-35" title="Engineer's Schedule" src="http://indiacollegesearch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/engglife-288x300.jpg" alt="Engineer's Schedule" width="288" height="300" /></a>

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For those of you who managed to read through all the points – do share the lessons you’ve learnt over the last week in the comments below.