The story of the 'untold' 'hirsute'

'I am sorry, you'll have to leave', said she with no efforts whatsoever to hide the hint of nonchalance. It was indeed baffling to find that a driving license aided with the institute identity card (the institute just happened to be an IIT) proved insufficient to confirm one's identity.

We(I and my friend. Co-incidentally, a third college-mate had also scheduled at the same time) were at the prometric (blah blah) center - the organization which conducts the GRE in Kolkata. Both of us had this queer and nervous enthusiasm about GRE and wanted to get over with it as soon as possible to be able to find how much we scored. We had reached the center not before making rounds around virtually the same plot of land twice in search of the Sarat Bose (Sarat Chandra .. ehh) Road - thanks to the great directions we got from the people around. The eerie quietude inside the air-conditioned room where we stood now was a bit disconcerting, for me atleast (I am never comfortable with falling temperatures, particularly when I had just come in after experiencing the famous Kolkata humidity).

But more than the milieu, the more pressing matter at that moment was the refusal to allow my friend to give the exam because he did not have his passport with him. This seemed outrightly unjustified to me. Is a passport the only identity proof which proves YOU are YOU? Ain't a driving license supplemented with an institute I-card more than enough? The logic fails me. Though, it would be incorrect on my part to blame the personnel there for this. It was our fault we did not read the instructions carefully enough to realize that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the sole countries where the passport is the ONLY accepted identity proof...huh!! I felt helpless trying to reason out with the staff; after all she was on the correct side of the rulebook. The disappointed expression on his face made me feel all the more bad - he is a good friend after all. I certainly feel that the rules could be relaxed slightly in cases like this where the genuineness of the person is irreproachable. After all, rules are to help make things better, not worsen them.

We had to relent, and he had to leave - shrugged. More than the 9-thousandish bucks spent for the test which now got forfeited (for what reason??), it was the futility of all the enthusiasm which hurt. Particularly, when this friend of mine was certain to do well too with all the preparation and hard work put into the build up.

Nevertheless, soon enough after he had left, I was shoved into the test room - again an air conditioned room with the temperature falling by another couple of degrees. Was given a brief on instructions and general rules pertaining to the examination and was soon seated in front of the monitor staring at my first set of instructions.

After quickly perusing through them, I started my issue topic which surprisingly turned out to have familiar keywords - 'formal education', et al (remember the 'Issue topic episode 1' post). Though it was slighty on different lines, but atleast it comforted me to find words I had dealt with no longer than 3 days back. I felt the Issue writing section was decent for me. Next, the Argument writing section was a breeze. I had not attempted such an essay before and therefore was a bit apprehensive about it. But found it quite easy and could point out the errors in the correlations the author drew.

At the end of the analytical writing section, I was satisfied with my performance - something which honestly speaking, I hadn't anticipated. A 10-minutes break followed in which I got the fan directed towards me switched off. By the time I returned on my desk, I took note of an ear-plug provided. I tested it and found myself comfortable in it. Immediately then, I began my next section, which to my surprise turned out to be the quantitative section. I did not know earlier that we could've got either the quant, or the verbal section first. This did stir me a bit, because I had been mentally prepared to deal with the verbal section first. But then, I had to give the test, couldn't have changed things.

I found the quant section to be of a level or two higher than the ones I had practiced from various sources. A bit of calculations were also involved in a couple of questions which were virtually absent from the mock tests I gave. At the end, I thought I might have faltered atleast in one question - something I did not want. But then this could be known only after completing the test and there wasn't time enough to fret about it then.

Moving on to the final verbal section, and this is when things started to go wrong. In the mock tests, I had realized my tendency to make mistakes in the beginning of the test. Knowing this fully well, I was extra-conscious this time - and probably that doomed me. I was asked an antonym in the first question, a straight-forward Barron's word. Unfortunately, in a slight instance of over-confidence, I went ahead with a word with a near-about opposite meaning and realized my mistake as soon as I clicked the 'confirm answer' button that the exact opposite word was given in one of the lower options. A loud "F&*$" was all that my mouth could utter. The blunder had been done and it was just the beginning. A first-question mistake is the worst thing you could do in GRE. You are heavily penalized for it - more than you can imagine. Something to the tune of as much as 30-40 marks depending on the question. At that moment, all those hours I poured into Barron's seemed to have become futile.

Within a couple of minutes, I encountered a question (this time an analogy) in which I hadn't heard words from two options in the answer options ever in my life. The other options were seemingly incorrect, and I had to go ahead with a pure guess. And the final nail in the coffin was a word so commonly used, but the question clearly wanted the test-taker to think of a secondary meaning of the word which he (that is, me) failed to. Barron's had left out that meaning too :( . This time, a pure guess from 5 options. Taking a humble figure of atleast 2 mistakes (shouldn't be more than 3 .. the rest of the questions were not that difficult) apart from these 3, I easily made a total of 5-6 mistakes which included a first-question mistake. I had realized this by the time I completed my test and knew my score won't be impressive at all - which was exactly what happened.

I just wanted to get out of the place as soon as possible. Just imagine the absurdity of having to fill a "feedback" form after such an experience before being allowed to leave. All in all, there were quite a couple of things to learn from today. Apart from the regret I have for having destroyed a chance to get a good, decent score myself; I hope I don't make such mistakes in such important junctures where a step here, a step there could make or break.

PS1: What's my score? Don't ask, don't tell...
PS2: Am thinking over re-appearing for the test .. what do you say?
PS3: Questions not revealed due to a clause in the test which prevents me to do so. Those who would go any lengths to know them, improvise.
PS4: GRE is one of the most money-hogging examinations undoubtedly.
PS4: I have a class test tomorrow .. and I don't yet know a thing :( Someone save me...

Update (around 12 hours after this post):
1. I'm already coughing!! damn those air conditioners :(
2. Wow test .. thanks to my aage-wala, peechhe wala and bagal wala :P