Prelims freaky Sunday

“You may start writing”, the examiner announced.

And the race for the entry into the civil service STAGE 1 kick started.  Whisper of papers flipping forward and backward was the only sound inside the tensed four walls of the room with graduates carefully shading the OMR sheet onto their respective choices, some well analyzed and some with mere luck.

Mine wasn’t any exception. Time was passing by as if being followed by a giant snake. My hands and fingers experienced an unexpected tremor of shake and I could hardly get the shading right without turning it into an apple or a mango at the beginning. I had the shading practiced at home several times because I pictured myself troubled while shading during the examination. Despite the practice, it did trouble me but I could gather myself back to normal gradually.

The two and half hour PE was an obscure moment which passed by like a dream, hardly being able to remember the questions nor the answers marked. With the type of questions given in the problem solving section and with the given amount of time, it is indeed a test of one’s aptitude ;to be able to solve as quickly as possible. Whether one has done it good or bad, one could hardly tell what would be the outcome. There is no such thing as half mark, nor marks for few of steps before the answer. It is solely and whole of “1 mark” if  the answer is right and “zero” if wrong and absolutely “zero” if not marked at all. People correcting would do a mistake, he may be bias, he may be compassionate, he may be rude but a machine carries non of that character. OMR will treat everyone TIT for TAT, right for right and wrong for wrong. And let me tell you, my heart is pounding like a balloon with water filled inside while I am writing this because, I am getting back the picture of the questions that I didn’t know, the moment I panicked and the blind shading that I did murmuring the god’s name because, the examiner would give no mercy of extra time.

After the sweat drenching two and half hour examination, the examinees flowed out of the classes like ants and formed groups to share one’s tragedy at the most and for some, it seemed a “ok” thing  and for few it was good. Then, almost all 3000 unemployed graduates including the in-service candidates were seen swirling around the main traffic of the Thimphu capital. I am sure, MOLHR could have completed half of their unemployment rate survey there itself without having to go door to door.

The 150 minutes inside the room is perhaps the most crucial moment of any Bhutanese graduate’s life. It is the visa for some to finally make their dreams of getting a government job true, thereby bringing proud smiles on the faces of their parents and loved ones and for some, would be just to hold on an independence status so that they would get a beautiful girl in the hand of marriage..(:D).

Almost two weeks for the results to be declared and for fourteen days, the BCSE 2015 candidates would have to give a forced sleep every night and be in dilemma till the miscible thoughts of water and milk is completely separated. I have my fingers completely crossed and HOPE is the only hope for me as for many others.