The night before an examination is a dreadful night.
I have heard that a condemned person enjoys a good sleep on the night before
the final morning when he is hanged. Perhaps the secret is that the sentence
has set all his doubts at rest and reconciled him to his fate. If this,
however, be true, the lot of an examinees is harder than that of a man who
awaits hanging. On the night before an examination the examinees is on the rack
and can neither concentrate n his studies nor enjoy a restful sleep.
To maintain perfect composure on this night is a
sheer impossibility. Even the exceptionally meritorious students experience a
sinking of the spirit. They’, too, impatiently turn the pages of the books;
even the best of preparations for the ordeal fail to set them free from worry.
And since it is the lot of the brilliant less the lot of the average students
is much worse.
An average students starts reading just at
nightfall and keeps During over the pages in a disquiet manner. He skips over a
few: topics but on second thought, discovers that those topics are as much important
as the rest. He turns .the pages and read then but can hardly follow what the
words mean. A sense of despair creeps. Into heart, but only a moment and again
he begins fresh assault.
For some minutes the sentences give out their
meanings but the student find that he has devoted a disproportionately long
time to a topic and reads hurriedly. The result is obvious; again he fails to
make out the. Implication.
A spell of total despondency descending on him, h
1 against the back of the chair. He gets deeply immersed in hour and curses his
lot. His mother sees it and thinks that her son exhausted and needs a bit of
attention. She affectionately asks him the dining table but receives a shock
when her son, in utter exasperation, gives a rude answer. But mother’s patience
is oft. Unassailable, so her persuasion prevails upon him.
This diversion works a healthy change; once again
becomes resolute. He comes back with a refreshed spirit and star with an
unshakable tenacity of purpose. Promise to sit up all the night comes very
easily.
But fresh trouble arises before long; the mean
begins to had its effect on the examinees. At first he feels his faculties to be
great weakened. Dressiness follows quickly, and the fails to comprehend what he
reads. In spite of himself, his eye-lids close, but tremendous effort he opens
them. But this yields no result: reaching the close of the sentence he sleeps
again, and hangs down.
Soon he starts up with a jerk and rubs his eyes. But
his resolution has already begun to fail he thinks that short naps cure all
trouble and goes t bed but his effort to get a sleep is defeated by thick
coming fancies. Even the things got by heart to have gone clean out of his
head. He can manage to recall c some patches with great difficulty and finds
the bed intolerable.
He gets up and takes down the hook. In a nervous
state. pursues some pages and confuses the ideas. With a dog. Determination he
tries to follow the order of thoughts but once again. His head reels. He gives
up despairing and goes to sleep. But his is no sleep of the just (sound sleep).
It is disturbed by hen dreams. His sleep breaks many times, and he shudders. To
think ‘. May happen in the examination hail. And when he rises in the morning,
he is completely shattered in body and maid.
The night before an examination is more dreadful
than the examination itself. In the examination hail one has not to speculate
about the questions and their nature; so one has not to be in trembling
uncertainties. What remains for one to do is either to attempt at answering the
questions or to 1 year the hail. But on the night before it a boy can neither
leave his books nor fix his attention on them. If he proposes to leave them, it
occurs to him that a wise use of the minutes that lie ahead may fetch him good
marks. But to concentrate is impossible in this condition of suspense, doubt
and uncertainty. So he has only to sit and make frantic effort to read or to
write in his bed.