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The Week That Was: 25th October ’10 – 30th October ’10 October 31, 2010

Posted by Karthik Venkatesan in Classroom, Exams, The Week That Was.
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We had no room to breathe after AITS on Sunday cause of the Chemistry cycle test on Monday. But having most of its questions from Electrochemistry calmed us down a bit at the start of the week.

PSOM and CVM had their day off exchanged temporarily. CVM now has his weekly off on Tuesday while PSOM has his on Friday. And during our first Physics period on a Tuesday in a while, we had a lady come and teach us how to improve our concentration. I’m still wondering whether it worked or not.

Meanwhile, Hari and Dutta spent the week trying to kill each other. Or at least that’s what they looked like they were doing. They were playing a game where they were to say “Nickals” everytime they stood up and “Kundals” everytime they sat down. And when they didn’t, well, we got to hear some pretty loud sounds coming off their backs.

Computer Science period started on 8.30 on Wednesday morning. That was when Sarav and Sailesh walked in late only to start a sudden game of rock-paper-scissors with Siva. We learnt later that the game was to decide who got to sit in the left corner and who had to sit in the boring right corner.

Sarav’s new bag had a whistle attached to it, which was a cause of attraction in our class. On a dare from Sailesh, Siva actually blew it out loud during Computer Science class. And when CUM asked who it was, the whole class, including Siva, put the blame on Sailesh. Later, when Siva went to apologize and admit that he was the one who blew it ‘accidentally’, she said that it was ok and knew that we were bunch of very good children :).

On Thursday, unfortunately, there wasn’t an F1-F2 game since most of the F2 students were busy writing their PT cycle test (I say ‘most’ cause there were a few who bunked the exam and others who wrote it in like 20 minutes for the sake of writing). But we had that afternoon pretty much to ourselves with MJ taking two Chemistry periods. We didn’t do anything in the third Chemistry period either since CVM didn’t want to teach for just one period.

With the phase test coming up, hardly anyone came to school on Friday. There were in all ten people in class. We asked MJ to let us go home half-day since there wasn’t much happening in school, but Amudha for some crazy reason didn’t let us.

Phase Test 7 was on Saturday. But that wasn’t all. We had the Velammal Talent Search Test too, which meant that we had seven and a half hours of exams that day. And with that, it was the end of all the seven main phases in our FIITJEE course. Not that anything is gonna change, but still…

The Week That Was: 18th October ’10 – 23rd October ’10 October 25, 2010

Posted by Karthik Venkatesan in Classroom, Exams, Sports, The Week That Was.
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The Duke students were back at the start of this week. And the one who made most news was unsurprisingly Hari. He was back with a tan from all that sun-drying, which made him the butt of the some so-called “racist” comments.

It was also the reopening of normal school, so we had more than just FIITJEE periods. It began with the Physics cycle test, which went refreshingly well after that horrible quarterly exam paper.

MP gave us like a million assignment sheets on Tuesday for us to prepare for the upcoming cycle test and AITS. There wasn’t an exam on Tuesday, but we the distribution of our quarterly exam report cards ensured that we weren’t relieved from the exam mood. Shivam topped this time, and was second in all of 12th.

The Math cycle test on Wednesday went on pretty well. What happened later that day though was the main highlight. We were walking back to class from the Chemistry lab when Hari found a pen on the ground and went “Nice pen da. I’m keeping it”. That’s when some junior girl walked up to him and said “Excuse me, that’s my pen. Give it back!”. Hari was speechless for the next five minutes and all you could see the poor lad do was cover his face and say “Insult!”.

After a pretty good Computer Science cycle test on Thursday, we finally had a good day at the football pitch. Shivam seemed to have got us off to a flyer by finding the back of the F2 goalie’s net, but the goal was denied after claims that the ball had earlier crossed the line for a goal kick before being brought back into play. Despite some good play following it, Esaki managed to give F2 the lead. Akshay’s perfectly timed header a couple of minutes later brought us back on terms, but Akhilesh ensured that we were trailing at half time with a goal through near post. We overcame a few tense moments in the second half to finally score the equalizer with Dutta just about managing to not muff up a Karan Sharma cross. At the end of it all, the game finished 2-2, but the scoreline didn’t tell the whole story. We looked like the better team throughout for once and are eagerly awaiting the next game.

We had to go for our health check-up that afternoon, which meant that we got to miss Chemistry class. But since we were done with it sooner than we expected, we got to hear CVM’s story of how his photograph once made to the newspaper. Apparently, owing to some dispute over his school’s land when he was a kid, some people mixed copper sulphate in his school’s water tank. All the students, thinking it was Pepsi, began drinking it, only to find themselves at the hospital a few hours later. This story made it to the newspaper, which also included a photograph in which he featured as one of the victims.

We had a mock AITS on Friday immediately after our English cycle test. It started at 10.00 and went on till 1.00, so for the first time on a normal school day we had a weird lunch hour. And we didn’t have any other FIITJEE periods since CUM took our Physics period on Friday to take us to the AV room and show us how SQL is programmed.

Saturday was a holiday to study for Sunday’s AITS. And as you can expect, it was super tough. Our cycle tests get over next week after which we have our phase test, and then KVPY and then something else. Exams just don’t get over, do they?

The Week That Was: 11th October ’10 – 16th October ’10 October 19, 2010

Posted by Karthik Venkatesan in Classroom, Exams, The Week That Was.
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We were done with FTSE on Sunday, but surprisingly, we were still greeted to the new week with a bunch of question papers. MP started his class at 8.00 in the morning and it was all FIITJEE until 5.00 in the evening. AITS preparation it seems.

The class was short of a few people from Tuesday onwards cause of their Duke trip to Mysore. So we had a much-needed break from the daily Siva-Hari happenings. Later that afternoon, CVM allowed us to go play football during one of his periods. I guess that’s one of the good things about having an all-FIITJEE day!

Our class was busy being cleaned up on Wednesday, so we had to shift one floor upwards for our classes. We occupied a rather large fifth grade classroom, but we felt nothing like them once the classes started. And at the end of it all, our old classroom didn’t seem any cleaner than it originally was.

Dutta’s absence on Thursday hindered the chances of us getting a PT period on Thursday. His phenomenal ‘convincing skill’ was missed badly, but we sorta made up for it by playing after school for the first time in ages.

Friday was only half-day. It was initially supposed to be full-day, but then we convinced MP to let us go home after writing the Mock AITS so that we could finish studying for Monday’s cycle test before we got busy with the Puja and all that (yeah, right!).

The weekend was off, making it three consecutive Saturday holidays. And there’s another Saturday holiday coming up too – a study holiday for Sunday’s AITS. And oh yeah, there’s the PTM next Satruday too. Good luck!

The Week That Was: 4th October ’10 – 9th October ’10 October 12, 2010

Posted by Karthik Venkatesan in Classroom, Exams, Sports, The Week That Was.
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The week started with Hari and Siva arguing over who had the better ass. Hari, who owns the king tag sneakily tried to pass to on to Siva, which left the two of them competing.

CUM gave us something to cheer about on Monday by borrowing a FIITJEE period. She was in a hurry to complete the portions quickly, but guess what? We still asked her for a free period ;).

CVM made up for it on Tuesday though by taking advantage of MJ not coming to class. We wrote the evening test at that time, as we were doing the whole day in Math and Chemistry classes.

Vanishree was busy for some reason on Wednesday, which meant we had to go to the Physics lab to play. Yes, to play. Guru, who didn’t want us to waste time, but at the same time didn’t want to stop us from playing, suggested a game of his type – Physics formula recitation. Each person was supposed to enlighten us with a Physics-related formula when their turn came. Anyone who didn’t come up with one in 10 seconds was out of the game. But as you would imagine, the game had its name changed to ‘Pictionary’ once Guru was out of sight.

Thursday was the last working day for the mainstream. I know its irrelevant, but there was a good side – our English and Computer Science classes were free periods. We managed to avoid a Computer Science test by telling CUM that we’d write the test in the other Computer Science period that was to be in the afternoon. But when that came along, we convinced her that since it was going to be her last period with us in nearly two weeks, she should give us a free period.

One thing that didn’t go right on Thursday, however, was the match against F2. Some sloppy defending enabled them to take a 3-0 lead pretty early in the game. After halftime though, we managed to hit the right kind of form, creating chance after chance. Sarav finally took one, and not too long later, assisted another for Karan Sharma to make it 3-2. But our inability to convert our infinite chances at the end of the game cost us as F2 managed to hold on to their solitary goal lead for a tense 3-2 win.

With the FTSE scheduled for Sunday, most of the class stayed home on Friday to study for it. Hardly anyone was present to attend the first proper Math class in ages. All other Math classes until then were either optional or had only tests. Saturday was the actual holiday to prepare for the exam.

The exam was on Sunday. It was a pretty challenging exam. Not quite like the AITS, but certainly on higher scale than our phase tests. We’re gonna have only FIITJEE classes for the whole of next week, but thankfully we’ll have some respite with Saturday being a holiday.

The Week That Was: 27th September ’10 – 2nd October ’10 October 3, 2010

Posted by Karthik Venkatesan in Classroom, Sports, The Week That Was.
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The week started off with us getting our Chemistry practical exam papers. Most of us managed to do decently. Little did we know, however, that it would eventually be our most pleasing mark. Barring the English and Computer Science marks, which didn’t spring up many surprises, the other subjects all were evaluated rather strictly. The CV teachers were correcting our papers for the first time and they all managed to give us as low scores as possible, reducing a whole lotta marks for minor mistakes. The Physics papers we were dreading the most came on Friday, and seemed horribly evaluated, as agreed on by PSOM himself. I guess that’s why he wasn’t all that disappointed at our barely decent returns.

And with all this going on, MP wanted us to perform well in FTSE, which is supposed to happen on the 10th of October. So we’re having preparatory classes/tests, which requires us to stay back at school till 5.00 in the evening!

Vanishree came to class on Tuesday to discuss the Chemistry paper with us. She told us how to answer board questions and all that and gave us a polite explanation for the harsh evaluation.

PGS, well-known in our class for his AC antics, walked into class after school on Wednesday to conduct a surprise Physics test. On seeing who the invigilator was, most of the class decided to make up excuses to leave, but MKS messed it all up by forcing us to stay.

‘The Thursday’ was back after so many Thursdays that failed to see F1 take on F2 due to various reasons. This Thursday seemed threatened too, with F2 getting their PT papers, but thankfully that got over quick enough for war to break out. The game remained goalless for quite a while before a Sarav corner saw Sailesh ‘fake’ a back heel, allowing Dutta a clear route to the bottom corner to make it one nil in favour of F1. Just as the game seemed to be heading for a 1 – 0 win, Esaki levelled the score by beating Girish to the ball. And as the kids who intruded during break caused havoc for the defenders, Esaki added another goal to his name, after which Shreyansh joined the party to seal a 3 – 1 win for F2.

The good bit was, however, that we didn’t have to brood over the loss for too long since the school was working only half-day. Predicting violence over the Ayodhya verdict which was due later that day, the school played safe by making us go home early.

Friday was ‘Towel Collecting Day’. Ok, it wasn’t, but the school came collected towels from everyone in class to donate to the orphanages and old-age homes, performing one of their rare good deeds. After we were done with that, it was time to go get our doubts over the Physics papers clarified from Guru. While we were waiting for him outside his class, one of the teachers asked Hari to call some girl who was walking back to her class. He called out to her, but not surprisingly, she ignored him. So he then had to go tap her shoulder and point in the direction of the teacher. Embarrassed at what happened, he came and buried his face in the crowd. Meanwhile, that teacher turned away just at that moment – what timing! So the girl saw no one calling her, and after she saw Hari’s expression, she thought it was a prank and took off with an angry “Chi!”. Hari’s efforts to explain were shortened with the sound of the teacher’s voice – “Where is she, ma? Call her!”.

That brought to end the week since Saturday was a holiday for Gandhi Jayanthi. Let’s hope we have a few more with the festival season coming up ahead.