Why the HECK did I not post in so long?

Before you bombard me with questions similar to the one this blog is titled, I'll give you my answer- I had been extremely engrossed in studying for my tenth-grade Board exams (*internal scream*)!

When I say engrossed, I mean not able to focus on literally anything else. I'd made a mental resolution before the beginning of tenth grade- I'd give my 100% in everything I was studying and not let any distractions deter me from my path. At the beginning of tenth grade, everything was going decent. I'd been focusing in class like never before, noting every word the teacher uttered, and got decent marks. For some reason though, I'd always make some or the other silly mistake in math and science and my overall percentage would go down, making me lose confidence.

My teachers

Luckily, I had the best tuition teachers who wholeheartedly taught us. They were a big boon to me, I must say! If not for them, who knows how I would've managed! They kept motivating us to do our best. But at the same time, they made sure never to sugar-coat their words. Let me give you an example. 

The board wants to prepare students to achieve their highest potential in the exams. Hence, they introduced something called "Pre-Boards". In these exams, the student's marks aren't counted in the final marks and are just for practice, wherein the teachers do the strictest corrections possible. This is so that the student doesn't repeat even the smallest of mistakes in the finals. 

We were kept grounded at all times and told not to be overconfident, even by accident. Our teachers kept telling us that we would see a drastic fall in our pre-board marks. But this did not mean that we should lose all confidence and stop doing what we were doing. We just had to keep calm and do our work. 

Not just our tuition teachers, but even people on YouTube would not miss a single chance to give us their valuable advice. They were an additional help or backup we students kept if we didn't understand concepts even in tuition classes or at school. I now understand what a tough time it must've been for the generations before us, especially for those who switched from one language medium school to another. 

I had ordered many resource books as well. These helped me with last-minute revisions, highlighting just the key points. I made extensive use of these before an upcoming test or exam. They even had question banks wherein students could do as much practice of various questions. We were told that previous years' questions were the top priority to go through before Boards. 

Another thing I'd like to talk about is the noise cancellation that students find difficult to focus on. I'm not referring to the latest model of headphones, but rather the various types of things people keep going on and on about to us tenth-graders. They feel as if it is their right to keep on telling us the dos and don'ts. It may be so, but it really gives us students a hard time. We don't know what and what not to focus on. I was stuck in the same loop and started to feel overwhelmed at the thought of what to do and what to not do. 

Much-needed motivational sessions 

Luckily, my father came to the rescue and narrated some stories of Sachin Tendulkar, his all-time favorite cricketer, to me. He said that not only Sachin, but all cricketers have to face the same thing- non-stop advice from people whom they may or may not even know. For all you know, even the paan-wala may be telling him how he could've improved his game! 

These little motivation sessions were a part of my daily life. My first Board exam was that of Hindi. A few days before the exam, I was extremely nervous- probably the most nervous I'd ever been in my life. When I heard that my cousin's Sanskrit exam had gone well, I calmed down a little. It was also told to us that the corrections would be lenient and that we had to focus on paper presentation and had to be careful of the first impression we made on the examiners. The only way this could be achieved was by our answer sheets. 

Exams

My Hindi paper had gone okayish. The questions were a bit tricky and we had to read each one twice or thrice. My English paper had gone well. Surprisingly, the Science paper was extremely easy. The Social Science paper hadn't gone too bad, but maybe not exceedingly well, either (you get the point). The day before my Math exam was my sixteenth birthday, but it wasn't the time to focus on celebrations. My mind was all over the place.

My thoughts

Had I missed out on revising any problem? Would I do well? Are the marks I want to achieve too high? This was what my mind was occupied with while I was doing some last-minute revisions. 

Nonetheless, bygones are bygones and it's no use worrying about anything now. It's not like I can change what I wrote now, can I?  

Anyway, it's been a month and two weeks since my Board exams ended. The day my exams ended and I came back home, I felt a sudden emptiness. Now there was nothing to revise, no last-minute cramming, tension, or panic. It was all over. It was like a roller-coaster ride with extra highs and lows in which I couldn't focus on anything else, except what would happen next- would it be a high or a low?

CHEERS!

P.S. Read my next blog post to see where I went on vacation!