There’s two sets of people who take PG entrance exams, and you can tell them apart just by looking at them. Many of them will have some sort of reading material with them, and generally appear quite serious as they complete their last-minute preparations. These are the ones who are there to actually try and get a post-graduate seat.
Then there’s people like me – interns. This group of people are in attendance merely because their parents had insisted on paying Rs. 3500 for an exam they couldn’t dream of passing, and more importantly, because this provides them with a fool proof excuse to take the day off.
They began the long complicated process of allowing us into the building about an hour before the exam was scheduled to begin. We all had to have our photo ID’s and other documents verified first before being let into the waiting room on the inside. A lot of people were sent away at this point because of some slight irregularity in their paperwork. Believe me, it’s harder for a candidate with all his papers to get into that waiting room than for a terrorist with a bomb to slip past airport security.
Once I got into the waiting room, I found everyone sitting in absolute silence, while one of the organisers informed us that we were under video and audio surveillance. He began to rapidly pace up and down the room, making us feel like we were suspects in a murder investigation. He would swoop down on anyone who dared turn his head more than 15 degrees to the right and left, and say “Can I help you?” in a tone that sounded more threatening than anything else, and with a facial expression that reminded me of my textbook descriptions of risus sardonicus.
This was followed by each of us being individually escorted to our seats, after intentionally being led past a row of computers with live video feeds of the room we were to take the exam in.
Then there’s people like me – interns. This group of people are in attendance merely because their parents had insisted on paying Rs. 3500 for an exam they couldn’t dream of passing, and more importantly, because this provides them with a fool proof excuse to take the day off.
They began the long complicated process of allowing us into the building about an hour before the exam was scheduled to begin. We all had to have our photo ID’s and other documents verified first before being let into the waiting room on the inside. A lot of people were sent away at this point because of some slight irregularity in their paperwork. Believe me, it’s harder for a candidate with all his papers to get into that waiting room than for a terrorist with a bomb to slip past airport security.
Once I got into the waiting room, I found everyone sitting in absolute silence, while one of the organisers informed us that we were under video and audio surveillance. He began to rapidly pace up and down the room, making us feel like we were suspects in a murder investigation. He would swoop down on anyone who dared turn his head more than 15 degrees to the right and left, and say “Can I help you?” in a tone that sounded more threatening than anything else, and with a facial expression that reminded me of my textbook descriptions of risus sardonicus.
This was followed by each of us being individually escorted to our seats, after intentionally being led past a row of computers with live video feeds of the room we were to take the exam in.
Before we began the actual exam, there was a tutorial that was meant to acquaint us with the user interface, and I found this to be extremely beneficial. I would have been completely lost without such vital information as this:
The test itself was three and a half hours long, but I was done with my three hundred questions in just over an hour. This left me with nothing to do (solitaire was out of the question, unfortunately), in a room that was completely quiet, but for the incessant clicking of a hundred computer mice (or mouses; whatever), occasionally punctuated by a yawn or two from my fellow exam-takers.
Once the three and a half hours of agony had passed, my computer informed me that I had "run out of time" and my test had therefore ended. What a pity.
Now that the exam's over, all that remains is to wait for the rank list to be published. But I don't think I'll bother to check. Because the only answer I know for sure that I got right was the sample question in the picture above.
Now that the exam's over, all that remains is to wait for the rank list to be published. But I don't think I'll bother to check. Because the only answer I know for sure that I got right was the sample question in the picture above.
