Exam week changes you. I had already seen it happen to my friends when the had exams last year. But when E. started about flipping and tripping and shaking I thought it was slightly exaggerated. I'd be fine. It wouldn't be that bad.
Well, I was a naïve junior when I wrote that. Last week I discovered that it is as bad as it seems. But when I arrived at school for my first exam, my nerves had disappeared. I was all giggly and excited. And it only got worse when right from the first second everything started to go wrong.
Exams take place in the gymnasium. There are two at my school, right next to eachother, numbered C4 and C5, though no one knows the difference between the two. And because of that, my opinion on exams changed quickly from terrible to hilarious.
I was talking to R. who would have his AP Math test today at the same time as I would have my History exam. So we both presumed that I'd have mine in C4 and he would have his in C5.
The bell rang and I went with Roos, Maze and L. into what we thought was C4 and started looking for our seats (there are nametags on the tables so we can't choose our seats). Our names were nowhere to be seen. And then R. came in. I started to doubt.. Maybe I had picked the wrong gymnasium?
A teacher helped us out. Or rather kicked us out. 'This is HAVO MATH EXAM. Vwo is in THE OTHER GYNASIUM!'
Sorry, sorry, excuse me. I didn't know that...
So we repeated our little search for seats in the other gymnasium. Were not only vwo History took place, but also AP Math for vwo and havo. It was crowded. And it struck me as very funny.
I got annoyed at the second question of the exam. You could hear nothing but silence in the gymnasium, but inside my head it was like: USE THE FREAKING SPELLING CHECK THINGY.
History has never been my favorite subject, but my second question was this: Explain these concepts in correctHuguenots.
I suppose it meant 'correct Dutch' and 'Huguenots', but please, this is an exam. Correct sentences would be the least you could do as a teacher. Within the first five questions, I found three spelling errors. That's just pathetic.
As time passed, some people's nerves started to influence their bladder. Only 30 minutes in, the first dude had to go to the toilet. After that, Maze had to go. And Maze always has to go. Doesn't matter where or when, Maze always has to go to the toilet. And because I was already having a giggling fit which I had to surpress, I snorted, which made the girl in front of me laugh.
A short ten minutes later, someone's cell phone rang. Cell phones are prohibited from the gymnasium during exams. So the teachers went and searched the entire left side of the gymnasium without finding anything while the cell phone kept doing it's little jingle.
It won't surprise you that it became impossible for me to concentrate on History. I gave up on Huguenots and watergeuzen and whatever it was that happened in 15-I-don't-know.
I handed it my exam and left the gymnasium. Just in time to have another giggling fit.
Flipping, tripping, shaking and screwing your exam up. That's how E. described it. Maybe it was like that for him. For me, it's more like: giggling, writing, giggling and giggling some more. Especially when my Latin teacher started talking to me during the exam. I mean, come on, I'm making an exam. Not very well, but that's not a reason to start talking to me. Not that I minded. It only added more surpressed giggles to my first attempt at passing exams.
It sounds weird, but I'm actually having fun. Maybe, just maybe, I'll make it through without the flipping, tripping and shaking. I'll know next week. Until then, there are seven more exams to pass - or fail if I keep having giggling fits.
