A ‘not so’ horror story (My JEE experience)

Why this topic? I mean look around it’s on-trend right now. Well, it would be cruel to say on-trend. As JEE and NEET exams are creating chaos everywhere (not only this time, yes this is sarcasm) whether it should happen or not, as the decision of conducting the exams has already been posted but students and many people are against this decision. Truly I’m not in any place to say whether it should happen or not during this COVID situation. But these daily updates and tweets are really hitting my nostalgia.

Yes back in 2014, the naive me and the pressure to crack the IITs. I think with time people and surroundings are changing and engineering is not a big deal now, people are exploring the art side and pure sciences too. But back then it was a huge thing, I mean it was so huge that one can’t think of any other field than engineering especially wait for it * drum rolls please * from IITs. Kota was just a normal word for every person. What will you do after Plus two? “Thinking to drop and to go Kota and prepare for JEE”; the most normal and not so shocking answer by everyone. And we know now, enrolling in a coaching institute from class 6th so that the kid can crack IIT is still a thing and the weird part is not about the kid’s age but people consider this normal. Let’s not talk about this, we all know how we feel about this.

Let’s be honest, as a science student, we really want to be a part of top IITs and IISC. Like every other being, I enrolled for a crash course. That time 12th board marks were important too as it was added to your final percentile. So there was pressure from both sides to have good marks in your boards and to prepare for this competitive exam as well. I was some decent student not gonna say genius but decent as I was concerned about my studies. I know my story is not dramatic. I didn’t drop or pack my bags for Kota but my many mates did that.

The Exam Day!

My hands were shaking and I was so nervous. I was so in pressure that I even forgot about the time and that reflected on my final result. I’m not making an excuse about my low rank but that day I learned that pressure only makes it worse and moreover a cool mind can help you always.

And after my exam, I was so paranoid about the result that I wasted my whole holidays thinking and worrying about it. But after many sleepless nights one day, I confessed to my mother that this thing is clearly killing me and maybe I won’t be able to crack it and she was like, “ oh common beta it’s not the end of the world you are still so young and many big things are waiting for you, so relax and enjoy your holidays and be happy that you are healthy and we got your back ok”. Damn!

Ok, I disagree about the dramatic part, my story is pretty much like a melodrama and I can conclude one thing on behalf of all JEE aspirants, it’s a hell of a pressure. We all want to do our best, we all want to see our ranks in single-digit or so. We have some expectations so we prepare accordingly day and night and believe me we are too young to take this kind of pressure. Actually we don’t treat this exam like an exam, we treat it like our whole future. Like think again, is it this big deal? Ok, I agree it’s a decent opportunity but not the ONLY OPPORTUNITY. My story is nothing in comparison to those who devoted their many teenage years to this exam and took some really dark steps after that ( we all are aware of this ).

The thing is that this is just an exam, nothing else. It’s not your future guys, chill! Take a deep breath and have some good fun and enjoy it for a while. And when you will sit on those benches and receive the sealed question paper and answer sheet just don’t panic and treat it like any other exam where you just need to be you and do what you need to do. And after that just forget about those 3 hours and enjoy your break. You don’t know the more important thing than that exam is that you just finished school and you deserve to have a celebration for that. These days ain’t gonna come back. Never.

Appreciate the moments you are living and do your best and don’t be negative. And whatever rank you will get, remember it’s not the end or final thing but it’s just a part of this “not so short” life.

You know what feels best when you just do your best and after that, you just relax without being paranoid about the results. Half of us lose hope before an exam because we become so paranoid about the post-result which is just a hypothetical thing inside your mind nothing else.

My story can be turned into a horror one if my mom wouldn’t say those words to me but it turned out so better. And after 6 years I don’t regret the result and even I don’t remember this much. I only remember about the moments I lived fully in these 6 years which were pretty awesome.

All the best you JEE aspirants and remember it’s just an exam. Don’t let it turn into something horrible. You have the power to change your future anytime.

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