Nightmare - Do you have one?

I had a rendezvous again with my regular pensioner friends at this food outlet which sold mainly mee rebus.

As usual, our discourse delved into a fairly wide gamut of topics, ranging from share dabbling to travelling to personal life.

As three of us graduated from the same University, so we had many sweet and sour experiences which we could relate to each other.

By virtue of their brilliant results in HSC, my these two friends were admitted directly to second year in science faculty. They were called the "super fresh."

I did mention in one of my posts about my academic performance which had never been up to mark. I like to show you a copy of my LCE result. If you look at the marks scored, you may be able to find some technical error here, better let sleeping dogs lie.

Over the years, sitting for examination had gradually developed into a nightmare.

In my second year of University, I wrote a very long letter to my father, telling him to expect the worst as I had totally no confidence in my examination. My varsity life might suffer a miscarriage. Due to the extreme stress environment, my hair became salt and black pepper. To the contrary of my fear, I did very well in my second year examination, especially maths.

However, I did not want to major in maths as it was a very difficult subject indeed. The maths were so tough that I had two very good friends doing maths repeated twice in third year, so much so they shared the same year of convocation as me. Were they practising "A good friend in need is a good friend indeed." LOL.

My choice to major in chemistry also proved to be another classic case of Achilles's heel. I dug myself further into the hole.

One of the subjects that I liked most was the theoretical chemistry. Dr. T.K.Lim was my lecturer. He introduced computer programming into the subject. It was my first taste of main frame computer. I was so engrossed with this IBM 1130 main frame computer that I totally neglected my other studies. I would spend hours and hours figuring out how to write a sub routine program for the calculation of Schrodinger equation. When the final examination was around the corner, I realised that my study was ill prepared.

To sit for examination, I was given this piece of paper signed by the Registrar. When I never prepared well for the examination, how could I answer the questions. I was deeply in vexed distress. By the way, this piece of paper was printed with the IBM 1130 main frame computer too.

Later, this third year examination strengthened my nightmare and true enough, it haunted me since then. I would wake up from the nightmare, thinking that I did not pass the examination.

After listening to my story, my the other two friends also related their experiences in varsity.

Truth be told, they said they too found the examination to be a nightmare because they did not understand the lectures delivered. With their scholastic achievement, it came as a shocking revelation. The science subjects taught in the varsity were simply too difficult to understand. I thought I was the only one who could not grasp the concept.

Thanks to my friends, my paradigm about the varsity exam did shift a bit. Many things I thought I was doing wrong I were in fact doing right. Now, I am able to remove this lurking shadow of nightmare because of the enlightenment given by friends.

Looking back now, I was glad that I did not have to sit any more examinations. Now, it was time to enjoy the mee rebus and thick coffee O.