It Has Begun, Board's

by Peepal Grove | 13-Feb-14 | Alumni Speak

Despite everything, that one word is enough to make me instantly wary.

It’s just an exam (like any other), just examiners (like any other), and just results (like any other…?). Right? The only difference is that I am in an alternative school in India

But somehow when I hear the word ‘Boards’ I think of a room with a really high ceiling and my classmates and I scratching answers as quickly as we can, stopping only to recollect information from our (probably) frenzied brains and maybe to daydream just a wee bit for a break you know. I can already see myself staring at some wall with a frown, trying to remember that one word, that one line that is infinitely important to me at this point. Hitler was a tyrannical dictator but his policies were popular amongst the people…now what was that policy’s name? Darn it just on the tip of my tongue…

It’s a turbulent time. The smallest things can break you down just as they can bring you joy. All of us are trying to keep it together, all of us know how the other feels, and all of us…are going through the same thing. Sometimes you feel really relaxed and you tell yourself ‘it’s just an exam like any other…’
But is it really?

I think…and I’m pretty sure some of us at least who are Board classes will agree that the exams are just terribly hyped up so much by everyone that you too find yourself caught in the whirlwind of solving innumerable old papers, timing your study hours, slowly turning into an insomniac…or having dreams of the exams and examiners in black robes breathing down upon you….

Madness, that’s what it is.

But the undeniable truth is that it is just an exam. In an ideal world exams would not be the method used to test our learning and understanding capacity. But our world isn’t ideal just as the Board members aren’t interested in causing us suffering (well that’s what they say at least). And that is what we are thought in our alternative school in india.

And well it won’t be as bad as we anticipate. Are we really scared of a piece of paper and a group of people who sit far, far away from us and will never even know our names? Are we really going to waste our energy and expend our peace of mind thinking about these unchangeable facts and brooding?

I’d say we should all just enjoy our last few weeks together, do as much as we can and leave the rest to fate. Tough it may be but not impossible.

So:
To everyone who’s going to write the Boards, Who’s not in an alternative school in india.

They’ve already forgotten my 10th grade results or the fact that I did write 10th Boards. It’s just a few months of hype and insanity, you’ll live.

And the same goes for the 12th grade (me as well), we’ll live. And maybe…in the future, years and years from now people will see sense and scrap exams and devise better ways to test a person’s knowledge.
Let’s Hope.

By Gowri Rekha – A Class XII student of The Peepal Grove School – One of the alternative schools in india