Tale of Testophobia...

It was one of those tensed moments that I have to endure at least twice every year. The dreaded Certifications!!! Every year it is the same routine. I try to postpone the exams till the last day. Since throughout my life I haven't flunked in anything but Certifications, I can really never concentrate while studying. The sense of failure keeps coming back to me. Either it is the same Investment Banking domain questions or the stupid Mainframes exam. For God's sake, I don't even work in Mainframes. Thus most of the times I avoid studying, thinking that I'll quit the company this year and then it won't be mandatory to clear them. And when I'll join the new company, I'll make sure it does not have such silly policies.


Quit I did but the story of the certifications doesn't end there. The new company I joined also has some mandatory certi. This is one of the most important reasons I hate working for an IT company. They love playing with your brain until you're convinced that you are good for nothing. I strongly believe that all the policy makers in IT companies are sadists. I still don't understand what a person is going to gain out of clearing certifications. If I am good at my job, I don't need to prove myself by clearing Certifications. And if I am unable to clear the certifications, it is obviously not a relevant one.


Anyways since I was running out of the excuses, I had to take a date for Certification ( Let me tell you I have been taking the dates since last 2 months and everytime I manage to postpone it). So finally I had booked a slot for Friday 3 pm. I usually try hard atleast on the exam day. Wherever I go you'll find me with a book, But this time I had no hopes at all. By 2 pm I had already decided that I wont be attempting it. It was my first certi in the new company and I did not want to flunk on the very first. The only problem was, I was having a very difficult time convincing the same to Ravi. He kept insisting that I I should try and I was like "Why waste 2 hours to know that I flunked when I already know that?". But he's very good at convincing me and so it was decided that I'm simply just supposed to attempt it and come back in half an hour.


So I entered this examination hall and I felt funny for a moment. I thought suddenly all the walls in the room were nearing me. Oh God, I was having a new kind of examination claustrophobia!!! I seriously started wishing that this torture ends soon. So I attacked the exam and started marking the answers (I'll be honest that I could recognise most of the jargon's and was silently waiting for a miracle). In 30 minutes flat, I was done (Can u believe without rechecking anything? This seriously isn't me) and I hit on SUBMIT. I closed my eyes, my fingers were crossed, I was chanting the Mantra and slowly opened an eye and there it was " YOU HAVE PASSED, you scored 60%" (which by the way is the passing percentage). Ohh...it was like a dream come true!!!! I had passed it and I wanted to boogie-woogie rite there. Now I have a perfect excuse for not studying atleast for 2 weeks :)