Imagine you have an hour to complete a test with 90 MCQs. You’re in a huge hall, the clock is ticking and your lecturers are making their rounds, making sure you’re not cheating (which is what all lecturers should do really, because I cannot stomach cheats, and they are definitely among us) and you’re trying to fight back the waves of nervousness as you try to concentrate on finishing on time with all the accurate answers. Surely you’d need every second you’re given, since the choices you’re given are more or less very similar, with minor but significant differences, which means you need focus.
So you’re tackling the questions as fast as you can, when you land on a question that asks something along the lines of:
How do you fill up NLC forms?
a. On the margin
b. On the right angle, towards the long axis with a fountain pen.
c. On the right angle, towards the long axis and initialled.
d. By a well-fed, ever-smiling, snazzily-dressed lawyer with an expensive pen, who hasn’t seen the inside of a courtroom since being called to the Bar, and has another pen in his pocket as a stand-by.
I laughed over this question for so long and lost about 5-7 minutes of my time. After all the other serious questions, it was just so unexpected. Even after my shoulders stopped shaking and I sobered up, I couldn’t concentrate fully on the other questions without grinning like an idiot. I think I heard spasms of quiet laughter break out in the hall too, but maybe it was just me.
Thank you Mr. B, for having such a sarcastic sense of humour when you set the questions.
Oh yes, and our trial went well today, Alhamdulillah. We had a few hiccups, but it was marginally better than our hearing. Madam commented I must have been traumatised by my performance in the hearing, which I can deduce would mean I did a good job today, save for the momentary lapse in procedure. I’m glad. I love that feeling when hard work pays off. There are no short cuts, and I accept that.
The semester’s classes officially ended today. My undergraduate lectures are now over.
I don’t know how it got there but there’s a big lump in my throat that’s making it hard to swallow.
Enough said here.
