By Ipshita Chatterjee, Batch of 2018
As those dreaded five days draw closer, your messiah and prophet descends from the mountains, bearing, on a clay tablet (or a more modern connotation of it), the Eight Commandments which you must swear by.
- Thou shalt study – Enough of the rant of “kya karenge padhke?” already. Mid sems are upon your head. Swim or sink now.
- Thou shalt buy all the recommended books– God (and these commandments) help you if you haven’t bought them already. Godspeed.
- Thou shalt not sleep – Hitting the sack and getting a peaceful sleep is a cardinal sin, committed mostly by the most elite of all ghissus, a night before the exam. All the more so before the Manufacturing Processes exam. Other God-fearing and law-abiding NSITians swear by sleepless all-nighters, puffy eyes and stifled yawns. So refill your stocks of coffee, set multiple alarms and do not hit the snooze button.
- Thou shalt confirm the syllabus – Studying extra is a crime you don’t want to and in most situations, cannot commit. Janta maaf nahi karegi.
- Thou shalt study in groups – In Alexander Dumas’ very wise words, “All for one and one for all!”. Solve your classmates’ doubts and they will solve yours. Work together for the greater good.
- Thou shalt solve previous years’ question papers – One cannot reiterate the importance of this particular commandment enough. This has helped many an NSITian in dire straits, at the eleventh hour.
- Thou shalt write – A blank answer sheet never yielded anyone marks. Common sense, you may groan. But try saying that when you struggle to recall the various types of casting, when the guy sitting diagonally across jumps up for a supplementary sheet every five minutes. Is he writing a script for an Ekta Kapoor daily soap or what?
- Thou shalt not take suspiciously long loo breaks – The author has been witness to a Delhi Metro-style frisking of candidates with questionable long absences from the examination hall, all under the pretext of a visit to the washroom (read 45 minutes). If you want to steer clear of snide remarks from the invigilator, awkward situations explaining your absence and guffaws from your classmates, stick to filling up your own answer sheet in the examination hall only.
Freshers, your first mid sem has plenty to teach you (and no, not just in terms of your coursework). Follow these commandments religiously, and you should tide through. See you on the other side!