Braving the Boards!

Sup peeps! I know, I know it’s been a while since my last blog but with one exam and the other coming up, I have barely got time to breathe.You guessed it right, this blog is about the nightmare for 15 year old Indian high school students, the class XTH boards! I didn’t mention 17 year olds because they have other nightmares coming up like JEE  and NEET which will be my reality in 2 years. Yeah, that’s definitely the start of my villain arc😈.

Anyways, back to boards. Honestly until I started Xth, they seemed to be a huge deal. I almost wanted to fail Ninth class just so that I would have another year before facing 10th, assuming social science didn’t kill me. At the start of the school year, everyone was like ‘iss saal boards dene hai,this and that’. I hadn’t even opened any of my textbooks and I was already stressing. But frankly, the year was pretty normal. Lemme tell you none of the common misconceptions that ‘all extracurricular activities are cancelled’ and ‘extra remedial classes are compulsory’ are true. You work hard and play hard. 

But this chill atmosphere was until October 22. Then the panicking season begins. Reality strikes students, teachers and parents hard, like a ton of bricks.  Deeper analysis shows cascading effect !  Teachers make parents panic, not to be outdone, parents make their children panic and their children make other children panic 😩.We suddenly had a number of exams in December 22 and January 23 and  anecdotal evidence indicates that visits to the temples has  also increased. Sleep schedule was way off course due to hurricane  named parents. 🛫🛬

On the flip side, CBSE always releases sample papers, toppers answers of previous years, blueprints for maths, science and social science which are a great help. But do not be misled by the blueprint’s marking scheme. If it isn’t followed, you’re in deep trouble, trust me. In addition to this pre boards are held by the school to give us a close enough experience of the actual boards which is a great help. Preparatory leave is given prior to board exam so that students do not prepare at last minute.

Alas ! For  students like me who started studying the previous night before boards, the preparatory leaves didn’t exactly make a difference😅. It just seemed like a normal exam. Only when I reached the examination hall and saw the  nervous faces of parents gathered there ( parents were more nervous than their progenies ) and the procedures we had to follow, it dawned that we are into something serious. . It didn’t help that everyday, my mom performed  a short  pooja complete with the tilak and all. You know, a typical Indian mom. 🙄

CBSE exams have this bad habit of being conducted during the one festival I enjoy, holi. This time around, though, we had a weeks’ free time during holi but CBSE in its infinite wisdom scheduled social science exam right after Holi. If Cbse really thinks our parents let us go out and play with the lengthiest exam coming up, they clearly don’t know a thing about Indian parents.

In the process of answering the boards, I think the most important part wasn’t the preparation but the ride to the examination centre. On the day of my first exam, the whole family joined from my parents to my grandparents and even my neighbour aunty who is very close to us. After they all piled in the car, only one person was left, me! So eventually it was only me and parents who went to the examination centre (thankfully!)

I guess what I dreaded the most wasn’t even the exam. It was what comes after. As soon as we step out of the examination hall comes the depressing part ‘tune isme kya likha?’ Classmates compare answers,… At home, a full analysis was done of the paper with my mom asking about my answers. Dude, they should be thankful ki maine kuch Bhi likha! I mean seriously, what good comes after discussing the answers once horse has bolted from stable…? It is not like we can change the wrong ones. 😑

And finally, the most awaited part of the exams, the end of the last exam! At that moment, my happiness knew no bounds. The sense of freedom, relief, and  unadulterated joy on completing my first boards flooded in.  This was followed by catching up on sleep and binge watching on Netflix. 

Now eagerly (not) awaiting the results…..

So that’s it for this blog, I guess.Do comment below about your boards’ experience and be sure to check out my other blogs.Xoxo~curious garg👋