One week
to go before the final examinations start (or maybe less than that for the more
daring ones). Tension starts to creep onto your mind and the worry whether you
can at least deliver a decent performance in your examinations starts to eat
you up. It’s a period when suddenly we become self motivators, giving ourselves
confidence boost by creating an imaginary bubble around ourselves that the
situation is not that much out of control. We curse ourselves for allowing yourself to fall into the trap again and yes then the damage control
starts with the great thought in our minds “There is always a next time, this won’t happen ever again.” In fact pages
on facebook have been created on this very real yet unattainable thought. (Personally
this crunch situation always reminds me of the Indo-Pak Kargil war of 1999
where India cursed itself for having allowed the intrusion along the Line of
Control(LOC) for which we had to pay a heavy price but the difference is that
the Indian army never had to curse itself again for this unlike us.)
Already
one paragraph down and I haven’t yet come up with the main issue that I want to highlight. So students start to prepare for their examinations, the routine
gets all upside down. Generally students who used to sleep in the 10-12 pm slot
now suddenly develop an habit to stay up late (2-4 am) and study. I don’t know
whether this is psychological or what but studying for your examinations
especially during late night makes you feel as if you are the one who has
written the course book in contradiction to the reality of being the one who
has actually struggled to even read it. I think it is in mind only that we feel
so because the thought that “I am studying when the rest of the world is
sleeping” makes you IMAGINE that you are working your ass off (working hard).
Now the truth my friend is that this is not true. The actual scenario is that
you had been just sitting on your ass for the past two months whereas the rest
of the world was working their asses off even then, they are doing it today and
will do it tomorrow also. That is why I say “God is fair.” So it is NO BIG DEAL that you are staying up
late for a week just to study that to for yourself that to because you didn’t
do so before when you had to.
Two
paragraphs down and my main issue is yet to come up and it’s here finally. You
stayed up late studied hard with full concentration and instead of your normal
routine of sleeping at 11 pm you slept at somewhere 2:30 am in the morning. I
say good job done. But this is just one side of the story. The other side of
this unique coin (which is the main issue…finally) is that earlier you used to
get up at say 7 am (considering a normal 8 hour period of sleep) but now you
get up at 10 am. So my question to all is that eventually what is the point of
studying late? Ultimately you were
getting a sleep of 8 hours earlier also and now also. Students get up late with
AUTHORITY as if they had been working in a Hitler’s concentration camp and
finally have been freed. Parents yes how can I forget them, they create hype
about this issue more than the students themselves which ultimately persuades
the mind of the students.
A typical
scenario is something like this
Dad: It
is 8 o’clock already why is he\she still sleeping?
Mom: Let
him\her sleep. He \she was studying till 3 am.
Dad: Oh!
Is that so? Then let it be.
You:
Zzzzzzzzz…….
Now I can
understand the psychology of the parents that ultimately they are ‘PARENTS’ but
my friend what about you? Don’t you
think you should make up for all the fun you had earlier by working your ass
off a bit more harder because when results come your parents are the one to
screw you, a harsh reality. Practically the real motive of studying late is to
cover up for the time lost, not replace it. So if you stay up late to study
(I hope you study at least at that time) and get up late also then I would say
NO BIG DEAL.
