Pride goes before a fall is a popular saying most of you have heard, but it wouldn't be a bad thing if we have a couple of moments where we are proud, right? I have a lot of those proud moments and some of them have become second nature to me that I no longer celebrate after repeating them. I am only going to talk about the one that happened a few years ago at the university.
All students in my university are mandated to take a computer science course either in their first year or the second year. I took the course in my second year but I didn't take it seriously because I assumed I already knew most of the things in that course. The first time I went to the computer class, the lecturer was teaching things I already learned back in computer school.
I bragged to my classmates that I won't attend any more of the lectures and I will still get an A in the course. Everyone believed me because they knew I am very talented when it comes to computers. Before the day of the exam, everyone was calling me and saying they will like to seat close to me in the exam hall so I can help them out (including someone that failed the course the previous year!), and I said "no problem, you can count on me".
I got home later in the evening and one of my friends advised me to practice some of the past examination questions from previous years and I agreed. I looked at the past questions and I was completely blown away, "what is this?", I started asking myself. I couldn't answer up to 70% of the questions and I instantly knew I was in big trouble, I am going to fail the course!
I ran to my neighbor that took the course the previous year and I collected the textbook from him (I didn't even buy the textbook! Overconfidence!). The book is about 300+ pages and my friend told me it will be impossible to read the entire book that night and understand everything in it. "Impossible? Challenge accepted!", I replied him.
The time was roughly 9 pm at that point, I sat down outside my room and started reading. I didn't want to read in my room because my bed will be inviting me to come lie down; "just a few minutes nap wouldn't hurt you, just lie down and close your eyes for 5 minutes to refresh your brain", that's what my bed usually say!
I finished reading around 3 am; I did the impossible and read the whole book. I decided to practice the past questions again just to make sure I understood what I read and I did much better than on the first attempt. The time was 4 am and I was battle-ready for the exam which is scheduled for 8 am! Time to sleep.
I got to the exam hall and it felt like I walked into a celebrity red carpet event, everyone was flocking around me and it was very weird because many of them didn't come around me in other exams. The exam started and I got to work; there were 50 questions to be answered (it was a multi-choice exam) and I was just smiling as I breezed through them.
I got out of the exam hall feeling like a king, "I totally owned that paper", I said to myself. Some of my classmates came out with gloomy faces and some were praying they should at least get a C because they didn't write well. I went home and cross-checked the answers I gave during the exam (we were allowed to go with the question paper) and I realized I failed only two of the questions, out of 50.
I already knew I will get an A but I didn't say anything because who knows what might happen before the results are officially released? I kept calm until the day all the results were released and pasted on my department's notice board. I checked my grade and it was really an A, I wasn't surprised because I knew that was what I will get.
You know what's even more interesting? Everyone that sat around me during the exam got at least a B! (Including the person that failed the course the previous year). A lot of people struggled to sit close to me but only about 12 of them were fortunate enough and they all got good grades. They thanked me profusely for the support I gave and my head swelled with pride at that point, but I have learned my lesson and will always take all my courses seriously, no matter how simple they may look.
I was able to read 10 weeks of course material in just 6 hours, dominated the exam, and still got an A, that was something to be very proud of. This was just the first semester, we also took another computer science course in the second semester but I was more prepared for that one. As usual, I also got an A and everyone I helped during the exam got good grades too, I dominated back to back! Everyone in the computer science department will probably be like "who is this guy?", Nah just kidding 😆
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