Journal on 11th October 2012

In one of my earlier posts, I wrote ‘I am a busy man because I have many exams to write and I have pregnant wife at home who may deliver anytime anywhere.’ Well, Bhutan on 8^th October 2012, I attended written examination for the post of Natural Resources Development Corporation for the post of Assistant Manager in one of the Stone Crushing plants somewhere in eastern. That examination was hardest non-math examination I have ever written in my life. In my life, I have always managed to bluff my way through examinations but I was struck there. Combined with lack of preparation, the paper seemed to be asking many technical questions which weren’t part of my expertise. There were 40 objective questions and 20 marks for subjective questions where we had to attempt 1 out of three questions. The full mark was 100.

I was confident I answered 10 objective questions very well out of 40 questions. I wished to get 10 marks out of 20 in subjective question because as I am peripheral neuropathic recovering patient, my hand writing was too bad for other to decipher. I also couldn’t reason quite well as I was too preoccupied thinking whether I could write during RCSC examinations. So I calculated my marks at 30 out of 100 in the said exam. As examination rule was such that for every 1 wrong answer, one negative mark would be awarded. Assuming I gave 30 wrong answers, I calculated 30 minus 15 would be my actual marks. But when result came out, I was surprised to see I scored at least 50 out 100. In other words, 12.5 from 25% weightage. When I was shortlisted I was in the second position because class ten, twelve and degree marks are taken into considerations. I scored 33 out of 50 marks weight age from academic.

However, number one rank has gone down after written exam. That was a little solace. However, third position has jumped to first as he had scored 64 marks out of 100 in written examination. As of now, I am still at second place. The final exam which is viva-voce is on 16^th October 2012 will be all-out fight for two vacancies. I don’t expect to nail the job and I don’t need that job but I am at least going to give my best. My viva-voce will go into long way measuring my strength and weakness and testing my ability to speak in front of panel.

Till then, I have to wait for one more result for written examination, the result for post of executive secretary in DHI. I also have to write biggest exam of my life, the RCSC that defines what we are made of and which will compare my ability against best of the best in the country.