Finally, the day of exam dawned - 27th November 2007! I went to the closest prometric center, NIIT Ghatkopar,
Finally one girl who was giving the exam got from her seat, and then I went and sat on the PC to give the exam. I was getting goose bumps … I was scared! "Will I be able to pass??!! Will I make any mistake while using the application while attempting the exam??!!" I was loosing confidence, with all such doubts polluting my mind. I closed my eyes for few seconds…said to my self “FUCK OFF! … just give the god damn exam, OMKAR!!!” In the meantime the coordinator was configuring the application for me to give the exam. Believe me, when I actually started giving the exam, I got a feeling, that the exam is so simple! SHIT! I was unnecessarily getting scared. But things were going the other way round. The application was really simple, I could at any point of time come to previous question, whenever I wanted to and change my answer. There was an option to mark a question, if I thought the question was doubtful. While I was giving the exam, I was frequently looking at the far right hand corner of the application where the time (…bomb!!!) was ticking! I was given a Card paper covered with plastic and carrying the logo of the Thompson Prometric Institute. Along with this paper, I was given a sketch pen and an eraser. I was allowed to work out whatever I wanted to on that card paper. I used the paper mostly for solving the questions based on string references and programs based on operators and operands. Soon, I reached the 61st question, and found that I have almost 40 minutes in my hand. “WHAT!!!” I finished so quickly, I started looking here and there, other candidates had left. I was alone. “Phew! Now, what to do?” I was thinking, “should I leave early… to avoid the evening rush in the local trains of Mumbai…OR…should I go through all the questions again? …hmmm…may be I will go through all the questions again”, in the last screen, I could see the list of 61 questions and the ones I had marked. By clicking on the question number I could straight away, go to that question. I went through all the questions …and lo! I still had 20 more minutes with me. Now what??!! I thought may be I will end the exam and submit my answers. After asking the coordinator I clicked on end exam, and after that a printer was printing out my score. The coordinator said from the corner of the room near the printer, “Congratulations, you have passed, 65%”. ... “What??!! 65%??!! That’s it?? But…but, the exam was really easy for me. What the heck! With two years of unfocussed, dishonest, lazy study…this is the score!!! Fine! At least, I passed the exam” and this is how I consoled my self. And now I am “Sun Certified Java Programmer!” Actually, I scored well in those sections which I ignored somewhat, and scored miserably in some sections which I thought I prepared well. This contradicted me to a certain extent.
