"This is not an exam you will ignore, it is a nationwide examination. In other words, if you fail it, you will have to come back next year."
On the 25th of December, these were the words that my mum greeted me with. My mates were probably dancing and having fun all over the country. Christians happy that their saviour was born.
Here i was seated right in front of my reading table staring at the text books of more than 400 pages each. The exam was scheduled for next year on the 11th of may. Like my mum said if i don't pass the exam i will have to resit again the upper year.
My point was that i still had time to read, why can't i just enjoy my Christmas like other kids. She had already discussed with my Dad on employing a physics teacher who would start on the 28th of December.
"Oh my God, who is that guy? Doesn't he have a life outside his job?" I mean he should spend his time with his family like other people do. This was a festive period, he should go marry or do something with his time.
I'm an obedient child so i never considered running from home. As promised on the 28th the lesson kicked off. The physics teacher was a young guy, is his late 20's. I must confess, he was a good teacher. He made physics appear real easy and cheap.
I spent the 1st of January in a classroom learning physics. In fact my mum had said by 17th of January i will also join a lesson that would cover the other courses i was to write in the exams too.
The ride went on from January, February, by march we had already covered 70 percent of the physics textbook. But the other courses we hadn't covered even up to 10 percent of the course outlined. So i had to personally get the course outline to read privately.
The courses were English, biology, chemistry, and physics. And so far so good only English and physics held positive promises.
I tried my best to cover the part i could. Which meant i read tiredlessly. Finally, it was May and i checked when I was to write my exams and it was scheduled for the second day of the exam which was on the 12th of may.
That day i was prepared because i had finished physics textbook three times, biology and chemistry just once, and as for English i was prepared for it too.
We wrote the exams and right there in the exam hall i felt how cheap the exam was. I knew almost every question in physics. As for Biology and chemistry i knew a good number. For English, you can't really judge that because he may feel you are getting the answers in English but you will be startled to see your results. But deep down i knew i wrote well entirely. I was expecting a 300 and above as my score. The score limit is 400.
So i was really optimistic and excited when i finally heard that the results were out just 8 days after i sat for the exams. I ran to my room, laid on my bed and imagining how i was going to step up my acting game to trick my mum and make her think i failed while i definitely passed.
Confidence level: 100
Ego level: 100
Certainty level: 100
I checked the results and i saw 151/400. I was still waiting maybe they will send another message telling me this one was a prank. But my wait was furtile. I ran to my mum, i know i had wanted to fake a face to prank her but this time it wasn't a fake face, it was the real deal. Everyone was heart broken but mine was on another level.
I decided i wasn't going to resit the exams next year i would just move on with my life. And my parents agreed with me. That period they were really supportive because they knew how much attention i invested into my books.
I had finally moved on when two weeks later, the announced that there was an error in the exams and the exams had been cancelled.
Most people won't understand how serious this announcement was because in my country it's almost impossible for those in power to admit that they are wrong. The best they would do is cover it up so no one will know, pay off the people around to hide the information. I think it would be faster to see a pig fly than for a man in power in this country to admit his mistakes.
But here i was watching a man publicly announcing that they were at fault and they results had been cancelled that all candidates in a particular section of the country would resit and my state was also mentioned.
And finally we were told when to resit and mine was just two days after i watched the news. It was too close but i didn't mind. This time i was ready to do well.
I wrote the exams and i got my real score though not up to the level i had expected but it was quite high.
I got 295/400.
Things could still turn around just don't give up.