Cross-Cultural Conversations

Observations by a Malaysian studying in Australia

The Test Pests

Today we had to sit our Trial Exams. To impress myself on how illustrious a person I am, I woke up at 5 am this morning with the sole intention of studying for my Chemistry test. An hour later I finally managed to get myself out of bed and begin The Study Session. But not before I put on my contact lenses and brush my teeth. It’s impossible to study with your teeth unbrushed, not least with all the germs and horrible odour wafting inside your mouth.

Teeth cleaned, contacts applied, now let us convene The Study Session. Just then I remembered an advice I read somewhere about the importance of starting the day with a good breakfast. Yes, studying is important, but health is vital. I went down to the kitchen to get myself some canned tuna (brain food) and ice coffee (I was feeling sleepy by then).

After the hearty (and healthy) breakfast, I am now all set to start The Study Session. It was 8 am. I still have 4 hours’ worth of studying to do, and not a minute to waste. And so I did what any sensible and diligent student would do, and that is to search for my Chemistry text book. After all, without the text book, how else am I suppose to study?

Chemistry text book found, I, with a sense of academic pride every Science student inevitably bestows upon himself (or herself), carefully opened to page 1. That is when I realised that my fingernails have grown to a length completely unacceptable by any hygienic standards! This calls for immediate affirmative action, and action was what I did. My fingernails had to be clipped. There was absolutely no way I was going to allow them to be a source of disgust, even if it means delaying my Study Session by a quarter of an hour. That fixed, I was finally able to re-convene The Study Session in peace and scholarly solitude.

Waiting for the clock to strike 12.30, I was pretty confident I would do well in the test.

To my surprise, the Chemistry test was a bit more difficult than I expected. The examiners seem to have adopted a new style where they include questions that we would absolutely have no idea about.

To make matters worse, I had the misfortune to sit beside this pest of a girl who was writing really quickly on the test pad. I get really intimidated by people who write really quickly (and noisily) during tests, especially when I have nothing to write about. To add insult to injury, another pest, this time in the form of a boy, was pressing his calculator at lightning speed and with such tenacity that it would appear to the casual observer (me) that he was pressing all of his calculator buttons at once.

The marathon writer at one side, the crazy calculator-person on the other, and the time mercilessly ticking, I had no choice but to do my best to ignore them and to concentrate on the exam. At least my test paper is clean and tidy, devoid of any handwriting that could potentially reduce its value should anyone feel the urge to buy it.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 08:40 | link | comments (1) |

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