The month of January hails the reopening of
colleges after the Christmas holidays; reluctantly getting back into the study
mood is all that is on most young minds. The days are still cold so while all
you really want to do is cuddle up in bed with your blanket, every student has
to wake up and get ready for school or college. There is still a relaxed air
for most since classes have just begun and exams are as far off as March or
April, but some students have to face inter semester tests and some with an odd
three semester pattern have to even deal with exams. The students of Don Bosco
College, Panjim pursuing their Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) are in
that boat, facing the exam rush during the laziest season.
There is some jealousy there for the
students of BBA, since in the whole college, it is just one department that’s
facing what can only be a student’s worst fear. Aaron Fernandes admits, “It is
a bit annoying, but actually it is how it should be, considering our curriculum.” Referring to the
three semester pattern, he adds, “In a way, it’s good, since we have
applicative questions, it teaches us to apply the knowledge we have gained in
any given situation.”
Another student had an entirely different
approach to the exam rush, “I am not jealous at all” says Shaheer Azimi, adding, “We are dealing
with open book tests. The questions are not something you can answer directly;
they will be applicative and it is all about interpreting them and answering.
But there is not much stress to cram and we shall have entered our third
semester.”
“Although we have
open book test we cannot just copy our answers from the books, besides we have
to have application based knowledge for this. This isn’t based on mugging up,
it’s on how we can deal. We are given a situation and we have to think of how
to deal with it; This makes the tests a bit more difficult,” says Shrishti
Tamankar.
No matter whether a student is looking
forward to a test or dreading it, the one thing that remains the same is the
need to study all night long, well, for most people at least. “For us studying BBA, there are PowerPoint
presentations and projects done in the classroom every day, so we are judged
every day according to our presentation . Hence, the exam isn’t something we
need to worry over much since we are forced to study every day,” says Diana Fonseca. “But yes, even though we have open book with
us, the answers won’t be there in our book that we can just copy. We have to
apply what we have learned to situations that are put to us,” She says, also adding about the stress and
difficulty that goes hand in hand with even something that sounds simple like
an open book test.
No matter how much one may have studied the
entire year, the stress of an exam is something most students contend with,
until, of course, the open day comes near, then there is a new tiger on the
prowl.
