Musings of an Anonymous Indian

My last exam of the mid-semester exams was on this Friday, which according to me went badly. Some of the questions were known to me(us) and I did look into the answers to that. But when I sat in the exam hall and the question paper came to my hand, I was totally blank. Like I didn’t remember what I was supposed to write for the questions given. I tried to regain what I studied and what I had seen before the exam. Nothing significant came to my mind. I had the idea of the questions, but I didn’t know how to write the exact answer to them. So, I sat there, ruminating what to write and how to write the answer. While (not)writing the exam, this thought came to my mind, ‘Why were this kind of exams created, where we have to solve these problems in limited time and which requires critical thinking?’ I had problem with the idea of time limitation in solving critical problems, which could also vary among people. I did not have problems with the questions, because they were familiar. The only thing I regret was that I did not practise those familiar questions. I did not know how to answer them. As I simultaneously think hard for the answers and the prominence of exams, I lost motivation to write and I wrote what I remembered and what I knew and came out before the stipulated time. I also got thinking as against my question and rant as to why exams are there. To judge us on the course material and whether we understood it or not. Whether we understood the idea of what we were taught. Unfortunately, the ancient exams were mostly based on the ability of students to memorize and recapitulate correctly. Which made me feel that I was wronged. Why were the exams made like that? Being in Science, and giving Science exam, in higher education, does not have any memorization process. But it is to be understood that we should have basic knowledge of what we learnt in earlier years and the rationale behind it. And that makes me feel so wrong because as I depended on both memory and understanding/rationale of what I studied in earlier years, it only took few days for me to forget, except for the things I practiced and things I looked into repeated times, or the things I came across in college. Also, in college, we do very less practice, and it is only once or twice we study the course material. The exams sometimes, really take the fun in learning and understanding a subject and course.