There are two weeks that every college student dreads; the exam weeks. Even worse is when it is your first exam, especially for those of us who had the notion that university education was all fun and laxity when it came to education.
When I walked into the exam room, and flipped over the questions, one thing came stirring in my mind. “The pass mark is 40%,” The dean had said during the orientation. Majority of us burst out laughing. He adjusted his glasses closer to his eyes then went on to state as a matter of fact “You will realize that 40% is not that easy to attain!” he had not minced his words.
Chris on my right was busy turning the tiny sheaves of papers that were his mwakenya. Earlier on he had stated that there was no way he was going to that exam room ‘naked’. He had guts. Sila, my choppie rommie, was seated in front of me. The way he kept turning pages of his answer booklet, it sure was a set of ABC to him.
It is at such moments that I had wished I had not traded an insult with the lab technician who was now our invigilator. He had caught me in the labaratory, telling a girl classmate how a pendulum swinging can be compared to…...never mind. Well that had triggered a bitter confrontation and now in the exam room, his eyes were fixed on me. Looking above I also wished God would shine light on me. But it had been ages since I stepped in a church, after repeatedly nursing hangovers on Sunday. Confronted with such a trilemma, the position was to try and get the bare minimum.
With 3 questions each 20 marks, all I needed was to get 24 marks. Which meant a 12 in one question and 6 in each of the two other questions. The only problem was that getting a 12 in one question was possimpible (where the possible and impossible meet)! I tickled Sila’s back, I needed help. He responded by waving two fingers, the index and middle fingers, in the air, DP style. That meant chil, relax. I relaxed.
“Hey, Chris got something over there?” I whispered to Chris. He gawked at me, then to the invigilator, then slightly pushed his answer sheet next to me. For one I was sure he had dubbed correctly, the second I was not sure while the third, he had dubbed the wrong stuff. Time was running out. For the second time, I reached for Sila’s sweater and again he raised two fingers in the air.
Chill Rain!
But time was running out. Trying to slump backwards, the invigilator’s eyes were on me. I re-read the questions again. I remembered a thing or two from high school then scribbled it down. Ten minutes to time, I was sure I had not attained the pass mark. In a last minute ditch, I pinched Sila, and without turning he raised two fingers.
“Damn it, just one question!” I whispered rather angrily. He did not budge.
Ten minutes later, I handed in my answer sheet knowing that my fate lay squarely with the lecturer.
“Sila, why did you tell me to chill yet you were not intending in helping me out?”
“I did not tell you to chill,” Sila answered back and kept walking down the stairs.
“So what with the two finger salute? The F finger could have sufficed!” Frustration was taking over me. “I was reminding you of rule number 2 on the answer sheet!”
“S***! You are crazy!”
“It reminds you that cheating in exams will lead to automatic expulsion!”
“Go to hell!”
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