The Assessment ers

Assessment is a synonym for Examinations. and the title of the post is as meaningless as it could be

I have long believed that the mark of true blood crescentian is their ability to appear for exams.
Just imagine a room full of people, are gathered by a dictatorial regime for execution.. all are afraid and nerved… A Military General enters with a stack of papers and says ” we have decided to take a test, those who pass the test will be spared and those who fail, shall face the gallows”
and then generously the General says, “if you need any time for preparation of the subject let us know, we will offer the same to you”
At that time if someone stands up and says “One minute”, and walks out of the room, keeps other belongings outside and returns with a pen in the hand and says “Where is the paper”…that is the mark of a True Blood Crescentian .(one who has spent a good 10 years of schooling at Crescent High School, Pune)
I might be overtly exaggerating in the above example.. but the point I want to drive home is that… a true crescentian is someone who is not afraid of exams..
This is because of the rigor of exams that the crescentian has to undergo in the 10 years at the academy…
The Sprinting Exam Schedule
A crescentian as opposed to other schools in Pune which conduct 4 exams a year..the crescentian has to face 6 exams a year.. the schedule is like a sprint marathon..
,,School begins in second week of June,, being the first month is generally spared..
July..party over.. by last week,, the 1st Unit tests kick in..and moves into August 1st week..before you could understand what this new academic year is about..you are facing fire by paper
August 2nd week you receive the scores of the test.. and the school is not merciful,, to kill one in a single whack…, instead the strategy of choice is  killing by a thousand cuts… every day of the week,,the chained soldier is cut by the sharp edge of the pen.. A red pen,, that intends on creating nice symmetric ovals and over bear the blue ink of the soldier.. and ironically the soldier during this course is taught that “the pen is mightier than the sword“..indeed as young cadets,, the red ink pen definitely is scarier than the sword..
,,August 3rd week,..as if opponent had not hurt the boxer in the ring enough.. they call in the referee to intervene and impart more pain… A Report Day is organized..The parents in the morning report to the school in the morning,, and they are handed out a license bearing the school’s logo on it… it is a license to whack their kid “all in the name of education”
August 4th week,, before the bruised soldier can think of going to the infirmary and recover.. the call of duty for the next battle is given.. Exams are announced for 1st week of September ..i.e. in just seven days time
September is not at all sweet… the rest of the world around you is engrossed in Ganesh Festivals, Eid etc..but the condemned have to serve their Sentence..A brutal second round of Paper, Scores, Reports follows.. which is called as the II Unit Test
Some are knocked out in this Second Round itself..still there is no relief, as the Gladiators of Rome had no option but to fight to the death, the young Crescentian is thrust into the greater arena..its the Red October, really RED.. more pages to fill, more blue ink to spill, more Red Ovals to bear.. its the TERMINAL.. like Tom Hanks, the young cadets of Crescent go no where, they are denounced citizens, stuck at the Terminal.. a exam they can’t afford to miss, yet a exam they dread to appear..
and yes.. the brutal festivities continue for 14 days..
The battered finally get some relief, a pause for Diwali’s,, November begins on a promising note, a promise of happiness, of hope and joy… but as life would tell others later that some promises are never kept..a Crescentian learns this lesson early in life.. November End, ends the suspense of Terminal exams,,, in Unit Tests there were swords that were drawn out by the enemy,,but now the enemy switches gear..and hits you directly with a shower of B52 bombers..”SHOCK and AWE“, just within days of school re-opening carnage takes place… the lucky survive, most surrender meekly..
December ..world over people are in a holiday mood..and Crescentians are also gifted with a 10 day Christmas holiday..but like the prank than your friends pull on you, when they give you a nice box, packed in brightly colored paper, and when you open it,, it’s empty or worse filled with stone..
The Christmas holidays are as hollow as they could be.. the rest of the world anticipates the beginning of a New Year,, the Crescentian dreads in anticipation of the III Unit test, in 1st week of January.. immediately after the Christmas Holidays.
On republic day, Tricolor in hoisted at the Red Fort.. but the Crescentian is furled and hurled with white paper with lots of Red Crosses and Ovals..
Mark of a True Gladiator is to embrace death,,hence the Romans used to keep the Gladiator away from other emotions, they were never allowed to inculcate love, attachment to anything other than the sword..
This Spartan thesis is adopted fully in spirit at Crescent, to avoid any inculcation of emotional attachment,, the IV th Unit test is planned to coincide with Valentine’s day.. the rest of the world is shopping for bright spring February roses, the Crescentian shops for dark pencils and erasers..
And then comes the month,, where in the battalion is supposed to be ready, months of rigor and training, the soldiers are ready to March..yet the battlefield is kept a suspense, syllabus is announced only 2-3 days prior to the FINAL exams..
14 days of Grand battle,,to inspire all great heroes of the past are heralded,,Guru Nanak Jayanti,,Ambedkar Jayanti.. and the Soldiers raise their final assault.. with only one Lakshya in mind.. to reach the top at 105
April end, the body count is made,, those who managed to reach the summit, are packed into the next level, those who do not manage, are ceremoniously discarded, some are given a reprieve by the Grace of Angel Marks.. yet a few perish,, but they are not allowed to perish,, they are thrown into the same fire again to see if they can be molded again or not..life is cruel, after all we have embraced the Darwinian ethos of “Survival of the Fittest”
Only the Month of MAY has no exam fever..otherwise a Crescentian is caught in the cycle of exams

• Preparing for exams
• Appearing for the exams
• Receiving marks of the exams
• Attending report day functions of exams
• and immediately hearing announcement of the next exams

Two weeks in One Exam
There is a saying “two birds in one stone” …well managers at Crescent took this very seriously… they manage to kill Two weeks for one exam
all schools prefer to start their exams on the start of the week i.e. MONDAY.. but for some reason,, Crescent always chooses “A Wednesday” to start their exams !!! (Should check up…maybe the director or writer of the hindi film “Wednesday” was a True Blood Crescentian,,otherwise who notices a Wednesday.. I mean I have heard sayings like Thank God its Friday TGIF,, Saturday Night Party..Monday Morning Blues.. Sunday Dhammal..but never have I heard anyone mentioning about Wednesday)
anyways what it meant was a exam that began this week on Wednesday ends next week on Tuesday… so your Two weeks are gone in EXAM
Backhand calculation: 6 exams; 2 weeks per exam; roughly 12 weeks of 51 are purely involved in exam writing !!
Exams are not imp
I have heard tales of how people even avoid reading the newspaper on an exam day so that their thoughts are not diverted from the all IMPORTANT EXAM
but a True Crescentian believes that all of this is MAYA.. there is nothing real,, and there is nothing important….that is why.. e True Blood Crescentian not only reads the newspaper..but goes to school,, learns new chapter for five lectures..and then after the lunch break appears for the EXAM..he learns the art of dissociation,, after all in the morning you might be tackling a new theorem in  maths and post lunch appear for a paper in Hindi …afterall you need to rotate alpha by just 90 degrees to get the hindi letter for “Char” (4)
but all of this is really useful…

because when an all important exam is announced on an odd day,,or just a day after some festival…or if the exam schedule has 3-4 days of holiday for some easy insignificant paper and just a few hours break between two important papers..or when mindless exams and entrance exam after entrance exams are to be given.. then remember there is always be a True Blood Crescentian who will just smile and not bothered by the events.. and holding a pen in the hand says “Where is the paper yaar”