A Comedy of Errors

I had my third paper at 9am Thursday morning at Temasek Hall. It was for my Mass Media sociology class, and I decided that I did not want to bring anything to do it to school. But I thought I needed to look through some stuff to "ramp up my engine," so I decided to do it at home before I leave home.

Problem was I woke up later than the intended 7am and by the time I was done with my morning shower, it was 8.30am. I decided that I will give the bus a miss, and read for 15 minutes and catch a cab to school.

The cab ride, that would have ordinarily cost me less than 4 bucks, cost me a cool 10 bucks instead. Because I had grossly underestimated the rush hour demand for taxis, I had to book a cab and the booking fee was 4 bucks plus 1 buck for peak hour surcharge.

Then, between alighting from the cab and getting to the exam venue, I dropped my Nalgene bottle on the road, denting my bottle for the second time. And then I nearly slipped on the steps leading to the dining hall.

I was late by a grand 3-5 minutes, I think.

And then I got more blurred by the questions. I realised I have shot myself in the foot, because I had disregarded my lecturer's advice.

I forced myself to calm down after rushing to the examination venue and committed the paper to God in prayer. I prayed for God to prevent my thoughts from wondering and just finish the paper. Thank God I managed to get down to work after that.

But after the paper, I did the very thing that I told myself never to do and have not been doing till today -- ponder about what might have been about an examination immediately after.

Dr. L said to study for propaganda in the first section, but somehow along the lines, while I knew that was the thing to be doing, I was obsessed with observing trends from past year questions and ended up doing something along the lines of media ethics.

It is nothing too drastically different, but I ended up not being able to define propaganda as much as I should have.

It was a paper that was there for the taking, but I do not think I nailed it well enough. I just hope I do not do too badly for this.

The last time I was late for an examination was also for a paper that I had thought was my best chance of an A-grade. I ended up getting a B- for Ge1101E, but I think a crucial difference was that while my confidence was misplaced since I hardly did any of the readings for GE1101E, I am very much more prepared for this.

I just hope history would not repeat itself.