It’s exam time. It’s fun!
Things I like about exam time:
1. I get to buy and stock up on interesting looking and highly functional (and some not) stationery goodies. I love it all- purple, pink and orange post-it prompts, multi-coloured plastic flags, highlighters, highlighter refills, different coloured pens for underlining and making margin notes, special marker for plastic flags, yellow legal pads filled with notes, exercises and ASP notes, stapling sheets of freshly photocopied notes and articles, lots of spiral bound bundles of articles which have that distinct new-paper smell. All of it.
2. I like studying in what is called the ‘new mess’ in my hostel. It was meant to be an extension of our mess, but it turns into this study hall when exams are close. There are approximately 12-13 tables. Each one is rectangular slab of granite or something of the sort surrounded by 6 chairs. One such table is usually occupied by a single person. When there are too many people, 2 share a table. The table is usually covered with prep material- heaps and heaps of photocopied stuff and notes- and accompanied by stationery *slurp*. (I tend to get like that around stationery- lustfully long for stationery and admire new and rare stationery.) I love the mess in this state. It reminds me of the Gryffindor common room under similar circumstances. I often compare life around me with life in Harry Potter and it’s soooooooooo much fun. It really makes the dullest of things seem so much more fun. I only wish I had a cushiony armchair like the one in the Gryffindor common room. It would then be perfect. Well, I do have a soft cushion which is often dressed in a silk cover. I just pretend that it’s my own cushiony armchair *giggles* The new mess is comfortable, people are silent and look like they’re engrossed in their prep, there’s a cooler around so water is not a problem, there’s also a loo nearby so that’s taken care of, and of course, no wifi signal. Perfect study conditions. When you feel you’re slacking off, you look at the others around and draw inspiration from them and buck up. In case you’re turning into crazy human and are studying excessively, there will be people to calm you down.
3. I enjoy making schedules and to-do lists. So I make these lists on the last page of my yellow legal pad and strike things off as and when I’m done with them! It almost reminds me of Hermione making a colour coded study schedule for Ron and Harry (which they did not follow). And when there’s too much to do and I don’t have the requisite material to study for one course, I tell myself that “On the brighter side, you can study for Course II!” This reminds me of the time when Harry and Ron couldn’t write their essay for some professor when Hermione brightly pointed out that “On the brighter side, you can work on your essay for Snape (or someone else!)!” and they pondered on the thought whether that really was the “brighter side”. *sigh* I love the series.
4. At times, I enjoy the anticipation before exams. Everybody is curious to know how much other people have done, whether they’re doing as much as them, etc. While it can get quite vile in the real world, I try to think of the time Harry and gang took their OWL. When you think about it, it’s more or less the same, except it tends to get to us in real world. So the 5th book is like a note to self at such moments.
5. I feel productive during exams because this when we really learn our courses. Sadly, there usually isn’t enough time during the term to read for class on a regular basis. In a way this makes us fast learners- or that’s what we tell ourselves.
Now I shall whiz off and get back to studying.
