I struck on this topic for it has been my intention for quite some time now, to make an effort to highlight the sufferings of those poor kids in Class X! To begin with, let me present our menu of tests.
- Assignment
- Fortnightly
- Monthly
- Quarterly
- Pre-Half-Yearly
- Half-Yearly
- Pre-Boards
- and of course the mighty, all-influential Board Examination of which we are reminded of "muchukku munu dharava".
The terror of arriving at your class unprepared for your test or unaware of your fortnightly dose of torture goes unparalleled in the world of misery we, Tenthies, live through. Probably the only worse thing is, the adamant attitude of teachers in trying to cram all our academic highs and lows in that bright yellow card that they send us every month[the Report Card]. Why on earth can't we have one single test per month which gets entered in the report card? Speaking from the teacher's angle, more tests, more corrections, more time to be spent[the thing is, the same Golden Guide for Class X - Opt for Golden Guides for a Golden Future is being subscribed by everyone...What's the need for any teacher to correct at all, ummm....Grammatical errors?], more "register-entering"[this is one utterly irritating habit of teachers. They seem to take pride that they sincerely attend to all such complicated paperwork before they distribute the papers...c'mon! try to understand the Blood Pressure Graph of a student who had the least idea of "Active-Passive Voices" and wrote whatever seemed right to him at that time...it is a nightmarish experience!]. For a student, more tests, more slogging, less GTA or whatever[I'm "hearingly-whatever" impaired...Can't let your concentration waver when you are so determined to complete your English Classwork in Maths class...Anyway, I'm told it's a game!], less sleep, more of dating Newton and Shelley[why on earth can't we have a few brainy good-looking female scientists/poets?
If there's anything that is common to all these tests, it is the the following quote all teachers deliver quite gallantly: "Be true to your conscience, this test is only to judge how much you have learnt!" And the poor sod who truly believes in such words hands over his test paper quite cheerfully only to be crucified mercilessly in the next PTA meeting.
And the classes! We are supposed to concentrate dedicatedly in every single class as "Children, we will not be able to do it again during revision". The same quote goes on in all classes but for Science where it is slightly modified to "Mark it out...It is a sure shot MCQ question".
Another interesting thingy that can be observed in Board Classes alone is the mind-boggling roller coaster velocity[Physics Champ!]with which lessons seem to be taught. "This week-Co-od Geo. Next week-Circles and Constructions. 3rd week and 4th week- Trignometry and Heights and Distances!" Five lessons in 1 month?!? Just imagine! The things get worse when you find that there are four teachers waiting to snatch your free periods for "completing the portions before HY". And adding fuel to fire, there are a few sincere girls devoted to dictating/writing notes every other period...Life can't get better, can it?
The vast number of notebooks you have to maintain in Class X would put any ordinary enduring human being off! Class Works, Home Works, Assignment Notebooks, Test Notebooks, Map Book, Observation Notebook, Graph Notebooks annd[yawn!] Records. How much time can one put forth to jotting down your textbook word by word?!?
Five months have passed
and it seems an eternity!
Tests getting more frequent
Writing work, enormous!
Beware Xthies
The Terror Sets In!
