When the BCS Preliminary Exam is Tomorrow!

Written long ago. May be helpful for those taking the BCS exam tomorrow.

(For those who have the BCS preliminary exam tomorrow, this piece is exclusively for you)
38th knocks!!!

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Dear 38th BCS Preliminary Candidates!

1. Good to see you here as you're not that much worried about tomorrow's exam! Trust me, not always Facebooking is that much bad.

2. It's not the right time to keep on reading, no matter you're well-prepared or zero-prepared! The best option is, just have a blank head with almost nothing left! Preparation is what you're left with after forgetting everything you've read.

3. A good score is much more important than a good preparation. Only your results are rewarded, not your efforts.

4. What's your movie choice for this beautiful evening? Why not 3 Idiots once again? Come on! What's wrong with Tom & Jerry or Mr Bean? They still rock and will rock always!

5. I used to become a philosopher on the day before the exam as I developed the art of discovering the beauty even of the blades of a normal ceiling fan. When exam approaches, even Mayuri looks much better than Katrina! If you're thinking the abnormal things now, be sure that you're perfectly normal.

6. Why haven't you yet switched off your loving mobile phone? For God's sake stop receiving calls and let your competitors have some puffed rice with tomorrow's 'leaked' question paper!

7. Gossip with your family members. Talk about the most irrelevant and funny issues on earth!

8. Eat less, keep your bowel pressure-free!

9. If it's 10, it's surely not for keeping your lovely eyes open! Sleep tight tonight, fight tighter tomorrow!

10. Can't sleep? Nothing wrong with having a nerve relaxing tablet at least for tonight!

11. 8 hours over? Wake up! Wake up!! It's your exam date! Maybe your life is going to rewrite itself right today!

12. Say your prayers, thank your creator. Prayer is always powerful. See or remember the faces of your parents. These are the most beautiful faces on earth. They've the magical power to soothe you.

13. Brush your teeth for other candidates. Have some light breakfast for avoiding big and small bathroom breaks during the exam. You'll get your whole life for making waste! An exam is for the exam, not for producing waste and water.

14. Start for the exam hall keeping in your mind that you've to reach there at least half an hour early.

15. Exam hall. Answer script. Question paper. OK, now it's time to fill in the right circles and write right in the right fields. Be careful. Check your set code at least thrice!

16. Never read the whole question paper. It's just a waste of time. It doesn't make the paper any easier.

17. Where to start from? No set rules, boss! Start from your comfort zone. I started from maths.

18. Maybe the silliest questions will confuse you the most!....... A 30th BCS Preliminary question: What's the national fruit of Bangladesh? I answered: Mango........ You don't have to be an Einstein to make the silliest mistake in the exam hall.

19. While proceeding with your paper never give it a second thought to a seemingly tough/ confusing question at the first sight. Just mark them all, leave for the time being and just keep on moving to the next. Sometimes look at the wall clock. Your time is limited. Yes, give the marked questions a second thought when you've tried to attempt all the 200 questions.

20. Answer all, lose all. So, you've to decide very quickly what to answer and what to leave. Blind guessing will ruin you, intellectual guessing won't. What's intellectual guessing? Well. Let me explain it with an example: Leaving 6 confusing questions unanswered will bring you 0, attempting them and making 3 correct will bring you 1.5.

21. It's surely a T20 match! The best attitude for any competitive exam I've ever learnt is: I'm the best! attitude. There's no candidate in your exam hall better than you. No matter however the difficulty level of the question paper is, if only one candidate passes, it'll be YOU! Please do believe it from your heart.

22. Always there will be stupids who get time to talk in the exam hall. Never be one of them.

23. Never overthink. Can't you answer a difficult or a confusing question? It's OK. That question was not set for you. The only value each question carries is just 1. There is nothing called a beautiful question. Never feel the urge of answering an alluring question.

24. I'm oversure! This is the correct answer!!........ Sounds familiar? Huh? Yes, it's a very common dialogue in any exam hall. Just listen to your own heart. Your exam is like your girlfriend. Manage it in your own style.

25. If it's a tough question paper, it's tough for all. If it's an easy question paper, it's easy for all. You're not a VIP. The questions were not made difficult exclusively for you. OK?

26. Recheck that you're filling in the right circles. Match the question serial and answer serial. Only knowing is not enough, you've to show that you know.

27. Be sure that a beautiful lady in the exam hall is not there to read the language of your eyes. Your question paper is the most gorgeous lady in the world to be attentive about.

28. Never regret if you make any silly mistake. No mistake is silly. A mistake is just a mistake. Even the candidate who would stand 1st in order of merit in the 38th BCS Exam will surely make at least 2 silly mistakes. I couldn't answer the name of our national fruit correctly. Trust me, I know a mango never tasted, never tastes and will never taste like a jackfruit!

30. If you feel tired, stop for a few seconds and try to visualize how things would change dramatically when you can touch the rainbow of your dream or just imagine the smiling faces of your parents. It'll work like a magic, I can bet!

31. Never trust the pundits who claim to score abnormally high. Pundits fail the most in the BCS exam. It's always nice to see them fail. Hahahaha..........

It's all about what you better do and you better not do till 12:00 pm.

Bangladesh Civil Service is waiting to welcome you! Good luck!!
Regards

Your Senior Colleague

Sushanta Paul
Tomorrow's logic, argument and conversation

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What is Bangladesh's national fruit?
How deeply fond I felt of 'mango' in response to this question! I simply couldn't bear the poor jackfruit. It seemed so terribly out of place.
This is what they call an exam hall. Ah, the preliminaries!
Even if someone just makes me stand somewhere, I have a habit of making them stand there properly, holding their ears. When a question confuses me, I temporarily divorce it and move on to the next one. It's amusing to think that in the waiting room of my second attempt, I had left that earlier question sitting there while pondering 'mango or jackfruit.' And with great joy and confidence, I had marked 'mango.' The poor horse had laid an egg for me that day—on that very question.
Tomorrow is the exam. What can be done today? You'll decide that yourself. I've written something in my own way. Take whatever appeals to you. The rest—Shift+Delete.
• Taking deep breaths while imagining something wonderful supposedly reduces tension. Who knows! I've seen that thinking about reducing tension only makes tension increase. Feeling tense the day before an exam is also a kind of basic courtesy. Let it stay a little! Pay it less attention.
• You can think about past successes. Remembering the smiles on your parents' faces—let your eyes smile a little too.
• If you enjoy thinking random thoughts, then think them. "If you are going through hell, keep going"—I believe in this mantra (though with a slightly different perspective). Think whatever you want; when thoughts get blocked, only worry increases.
• Put studying aside for today. The more you study, the more you'll think: Will I remember this answer tomorrow? (This will come up—who said so?) Why didn't I study this more thoroughly before? (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?) Is the answer I know to this question correct? (So what if it isn't?) Let me call so-and-so to check. (Are you sure they aren't waiting to ask you the same thing?) ... If you feel like it, give your Bonolata Sen (if she exists at all) a call. In hopes of a moment's peace. Have a little kiss, even. Over the phone. Let the painful BCS sleep a little. It has run quite far.
• Let me share a fact. There are some difficult questions that don't stick in memory no matter how many times you read them. Stop trying to memorize those. Because one such question drives several easy questions out of your head. Just say no to them.
• More important than what you know is how well you can apply what you know. Those who know a lot often underestimate those who don't know as much, considering them easy targets. This complacency gradually makes them weak and vulnerable. If you can capitalize on this, it's quite fun. There's a special joy in watching the overly learned fail! It's not even as satisfying when you pass yourself. There's really no benefit to being a nobody in this world. Whatever anyone says, this is certain: for nobodies, only nothing is allocated in this world.
• Don't try to answer every question by mistake. The preliminary is not an exam for getting the highest marks; it's simply an exam to pass. Show the generosity of leaving some difficult and confusing questions; save your competitive spirit for the written exam for now.
• Don't resort to blind guessing, but some intellectual guessing doesn't hurt. Getting 1.5 by correctly answering 3 out of 6 is much better than leaving 6 blank and getting zero. Make mistakes intelligently. Successfully failing is also quite a grand art. Take the exam in such a way that later your mistakes seem 'sweet' to you. This luxury is deeply satisfying. Ah!
• In competitive exams, confidence works better than preparation for doing well. Maintain the attitude "I am the best" in the exam hall. It works like magic! When you get a question wrong yourself, your mood doesn't sour as much as when you get it wrong because of someone else's input. (Then you think, "Oh no, I could have done this on my own!" ... What an attitude!)
• There might be a few small errors in the questions. Don't go crazy over this. If there's a problem, everyone will face it, not just you! Try to overcome nervousness, because it won't make the questions easier—rather, it increases the risk of getting easy questions wrong. (I made several mistakes this way. Hee hee hee...) Remember, que sera sera—whatever will be, will be.
• Stop sharing studies with friends during this time. Hearing that friends' preparation isn't good makes you sad, and hearing that their preparation is better than yours (this is what haunts you more) makes you upset! Someone being a better student than you doesn't mean only they will pass the preliminary and you won't. Try to have the last laugh. Success can never be deserved; it must be earned.
• This evening, do something you enjoy doing. I don't enjoy academic studying at all. As far as I remember, the evening before the preliminary exam, I was listening to instrumental music, dancing my fingers. "Where do I begin"... la la la... Then a movie. Which movie? "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"... Quiz. Can you tell? Yes friends, make him (success) an offer he can't refuse.
• Pack the necessary items for the exam and go to sleep early. A good night's sleep helps tremendously in keeping your head straight for one hour. Tomorrow's match is T20. Think of Tendulkar. Those who play well know how difficult it is to play well. How much of a nerve test one must endure. Being prepared is more important here than preparation. Keep in mind: only your results are rewarded, not your efforts.
• No need to study tomorrow morning either. Stay tension-free. Your parents' prayers are with you. Have confidence. There might be traffic jams, so leave home with plenty of time. Don't rush. (Most of my own successes, however, have come through running. The eleventh-hour symptom is quite strong in my life. That story is for another day.)
That's it! What else! Let tomorrow morning's two hours be yours. Did you notice the stress management tips while reading this piece? If not, don't stress about not noticing them. Good luck, friends!
Yours sincerely,

Your senior colleague

Sushanto Pal