Memoirs of ISC 2007 – Physics Practicals

I sleep really well last night. Just before, I had filled my ‘pencil’-box with loads of pens, pencils, rubbers and so on, made sure my clothes and lab-coat was ironed, my admit card was around, my alarm was set, my bag was packed and my face and only that was shaved. The physics practical exam doesn’t require studying, apparently.

By 6:20 A.M. Ali, Shayaan and me are in Shayaan’s mum’s car, and after the usual check-ups, there is an eerie board-like silence. Yup our boards have finally begun, and so has the tension and the studying, and the increasingly periodic excretion. But back in the car, I scold Ali for laminating his Admit Card – don’t do it, ever, the ‘authenticity’ (thanks Zafar) of an official document no longer remains once it is laminated. But then Ali commits greater sins, first of which - he forgets to sign the friggin’ Admit Card before laminating it, and second, he lies to us about it, only to confess later on. Loser.

We arrive in school earlier than we should, only to realize that Aaron, Rubin, Tejas and the remaining Sharjah gang reached school at 5:30AM – an hour earlier. Brilliantly safe, you guys. After the previous English Language experience, any earlyy arrival time earlier is better. However, it is now that the board-exam nervous-feeling starts to disappear. A lot of laughing at the same Rohith-jokes, a lot of singing of the same Ali-Tejas songs and a lot of random talking-updates follow. That’s what I am going to miss most about school, the same old same old fun =). Anyway, Bharath enters, and is greeted with a bowlful of love (hugs) and a chorus of Happy Birthdays, by everyone except Rohith. Why? Rohith has forgotten his lab coat. All the jokes don’t seem funny any more, and he actually switches into panic gear, but thankfully, only temporarily.

Finally the time to be half-serious comes upon us. Reshmi Ma’am gives us the potential-could-be answers, and the last minute reminders and tips. We line up, the girls on one side, boys on the other, and Mr. Joseph above us, on the stairs. The external examiner, who has flown in all the way from India, as in THE man, is late. So Mr Joseph unleashes on us the longest and brestest-sorry best-est of prayers, and we finally move into our respective laboratories.

The paper is simple. But I still end up messing up the first, easy Optical Bench experiment. It’s my turn to switch into panic gear, but I calm down after manipulating and rectifying the stupid error. There is a randomly fascinating moment amidst all this. Basheer, our school’s lab assistant, moves to each table, and mumbles random numbers – 33 2 35. Hmm, interesting. Anyway, one experiment down, one to go.

The second electricity experiment seems easy-peesy. But I screw up. The supposed answer is 2, and I know it’s 2, but even after manipulation I can only get 1.64. I put all the blame on the stupid Ammeter, it couldn’t stop vibrating it’s God-damned stick. Anyway, I might lose a couple of marks there and for potentially S.I. Unit related mistakes. Damn.

But as Dr Khan said, the ISC exams are very student-friendly, and today's paper (+ the "experience") was a little more 'friendly' than it should have been, but hey, I am not complaining. The after-shocks and the after-hurray’s were the usual. A lot of confirming-your-answers-with-the-Physics-teacher took place, though different teachers gave us different answers (yeah Aaron, confusing, though I sincerely hope that the Mrs. is right).
From what I’ve heard, a certain Linda hit the nervous breakdown button, but relax girl – you will be fine. Tejas’ ultra-manipulation didn’t work for Question 1, Ali kicked-ass and is getting full, Shayaan got some weird slope for question 2, but the right final answer, Romit seemed satisfied but confused about his P-resistor’s value, Ameya seemed satisfied with a 15 on 20, the girls seemed to have been generally rocking, but Aarthy T seemed a little distressed, the twins were as confident as ever, Unmukt seemed more worried about reprimanding Mrs Balachandran for the apparent false-news that she was spreading and Bharath, my man, seemed to have hit the nail on the head, but Govind’s paper involved a lot of scratching. Hmm, that might make me want to reduce the odds for him.

Ali had a very child-filled entertaining bus-ride home.

P.S. Odds for “Who Will Top?” as they currently stand: (investments start at a minimum of 50 fils)
Bharath 3:1
Shrivats: 3:1
Govind: 3.00001:1
Unmukt: 4:1
Tejas: 7808000:1