The Week That Was: 22nd November ’10 – 27th November ’10 November 29, 2010
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Monday signaled the start of the second term evaluation, which kicked off with a decent Chemistry paper. Hardly anyone stayed back for class after that, using the approaching Physics exam as an excuse.
That Physics exam arrived on Wednesday after the Tuesday holiday and left us with a broader grin, or rather, smaller frown that it did last time around. Considering we mostly had “chapters FIITJEE students are not strong in”, Guru should be pretty pleased with our performance.
We had Math that afternoon. After already having been questioned over last Saturday’s bunking, we decided it was best we attended class.
Friday’s Math exam was probably the best one that week. After all those questions we crammed hours of theory for, it was a relief to get back to NCERT problem solving.
That afternoon’s Math class ended the week as we had a two-day study weekend. We had a little break during Math class when Vanishree came and yelled at us about our incomplete Chemistry records. MP somehow missed seeing her as she walked out, so he was just waiting outside until he realized that there wasn’t a teacher in class.
Well, there’s still Computer Science and English left, so good luck!
The Week That Was: 15th November ’10 – 20th November ’10 November 23, 2010
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Monday was a relatively relaxed day after the hectic AITS on Sunday. CVM just conducted a performance interview where he asked us about how we respond to assignments, tests and other related things. Nothing much happened in Physics either as half the class went to the Computer Science lab to complete their projects (not to mention, some went there just to skip Physics class). CUM gave us a free period too, completing a day we would call ‘extremely productive’.
CUM cancelled the last Computer Science practical session of our school life to take theory. It meant that we were left struggling to survive one and a half hours of SQL commands. MJ though, made up for it with a free period later on.
The school wasn’t working on Wednesday on the account of Bakrid, so we had only FIITJEE classes all day! That’s when we found love letters in some CRP student’s unattended school bag. CVM couldn’t control his laughter on reading the poor fellow’s grammar.
Our Computer Science practical exam was on Thursday. It turned out to be a game of chance as we all hoped and prayed that we didn’t pick up the sheet with the tough programs. Around six of us happened to pick up those sheets, with Girish being the only one happy about it.
We didn’t have the scheduled CV Math class in the afternoon as the teacher failed to turn up. That was when MP saw the class with not one soul ‘enjoying’, so he called Anirudh out and told him to have a look at the juniors and learn from them.
Friday was the last day of school for the 12th graders at Chettinad Vidyashram. Everyone was busy partying the last day of school and for once we were allowed to be ‘normal’ at FIITJEE. We had in all, 15 minutes of class on Friday and spent the rest of the day playing in class, roaming around outside and most importantly, had the CV FIITJEE awards (check out the previous post). The awards ceremony that was wonderfully planned by Pooja and Aishwarya ended with Sailesh’s signature dance, the one he came up with during the excursion.
Barring Rajeshwer and Natesan, the entire class was absent on Saturday. Some were convinced that their last day at Chettinad Vidyashram was going to be their last day at FIITJEE too, while most of us stayed home to study for the term exam that was starting next week.
The Week That Was: 8th November ’10 – 13th November ’10 November 15, 2010
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As expected, Monday dissolved in rain water as cyclone Jal gave us a fifth consecutive holiday after Diwali.
Most of us came to school in our Diwali clothes on Tuesday. Hari looked like a miniature version of Sailesh in the shirt he wore. Ironically, CUM asked him why he dressed up like a ‘poriki’ and came to school.
We had our first Math class since Diwali on Wednesday. That’s when MP asked us how many days of our mini-vacation we spent enjoying. It took us a little while to realize that his idea of enjoying was to spent time studying. He also told us not to bunk school before exams so that we could have fun ‘enjoying’ together!
It was two weeks since our last football game and we returned from the break in style with a strong performance under wet conditions on Thursday. Shivam started things off with an accurate cross to Sailesh who headed the ball past the goalie to open the scoring. Shivam just kept going from there on as he finished twice in quick succession to give us a 3-0 lead. Just as the F2 defence seemed to be coming to terms with the conditions, a handball inside their box won us a penalty. Shivam blasted in the rebound off the penalty save to complete his hat trick. Boris made the scoreline prettier with a shot from outside the box to take the score to 5-0 at halftime. Although a fiercely struck half-line shot from Divye gave them some respite, it wasn’t enough to deny us a well deserved 5-1 win.
We had our first CV-taught Math class later that afternoon. We hardly did like two or three problems during the ‘free period’. We spent the rest of our time controlling ourselves from laughing at his English.
We had a ‘real’ free period (without a teacher) after ages on Friday when Guru didn’t come for the Physics class he was supposed to borrow from Vanishree. We were pretty lucky that MP didn’t see us ‘getting bored’.
Saturday was half-day for us. ONLY US! I guess there’s a first time for everything, even if it is something as unlikely as getting to go home when the mainstream has school. Amudha allowed us to go after FIITJEE requested that we be allowed to go study for AITS after the group photo was taken in the morning.
AITS Part Test 2 was on Sunday. The only good thing I can say about it is that is was better than the last time. Not that it means our marks are gonna look any better or something now, but at least we’ll curse FIITJEE a little less.
The Week That Was: 1st November ’10 – 6th November ’10 November 7, 2010
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An NCERT test in Physics and Chemistry started the new week for us. It was part of the Phase 7 subjective tests, which I thought they did away with after Phase 2. Shivam and Dutta submitted their Chemistry papers with their names written in Hindi hoping CVM wouldn’t correct their papers, but unfortunately for them CVM managed to figure out what they were up to.
We went to the Computer Science lab on Tuesday after a half hour delay because of the theory class. That was when one of us was playing Cows and Bulls with the name ‘I ❤ BHAN’. Siva, who saw that a little later asked “Hey, what does ‘I less than three Bhan’ mean?”
Guru came to take Physics class for us after that. Yes, it was part of the school’s new scheme to have school teachers give us tips on how to face the board exam. So we’re gonna have two periods of each subject taught by the CV teachers each week.
Wednesday was the last working day of the week. Unbelievable, but true! With Diwali ’round the corner, they gave us four days off. Incredibly, FIITJEE didn’t have a problem with that and allowed us the luxury. However, it did come with the schedule of tests for next week. But with a cyclone working wonders in the city, we might just get another day or two off :).
The Week That Was: 25th October ’10 – 30th October ’10 October 31, 2010
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
The Week That Was: 20th September ’10 – 25th September ’10 September 28, 2010
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It was another week of exams. We had Math on Monday, which surprisingly wasn’t as easy as NCERT Math exams generally are. Thankfully, the question paper had a mistake in one of the integration questions, which means there were three free marks on offer. Unlike the case with other exams, we didn’t have class in the afternoon.
We had Computer Science on Wednesday. It was a pretty alright paper, but with CUM, you never know! The next exam, on Friday, was the most dreaded one – Physics. With the never-ending syllabus, you could never really “finish” studying for it. And that’s exactly how the paper turned out – one that’d we like to forget as soon as possible.
Math class was optional on Friday and Saturday afternoons, since he was only re-teaching an already taught chapter on those days. So nearly everyone left after the exam on Friday and went home half-day on Saturday.
The exams are done for now, but I don’t think that makes a very big difference with FIITJEE around. They’ve extended our school timings to 5.00 in the evening to ensure we’re prepared for FTSE! Let’s hope it works.
CV FIITJEE 