9217: 21

As Dr. Pal, one of our two math profs, called out my admission number, I didn't know what to expect. Though I had written well in his paper, the fact that I'd flunked my math midsems in the second and fourth semesters (in third semester I was down with jaundice, so it was an auto-flunk) had made me paranoid. In the part taught by the other prof, I'd scored a marvelous 8 out of 30. Wow.

But when he read out my marks (you guessed it, 21 out of 30), I didn't heave a sigh of relief. I knew all this while that I'd notch up a decent score in his portion. Though it did dawn on me that it was my best performance in a math midsem, I knew that this was nothing now. I need to break 8 this semester, and for that I simply must score an 8 in math as well. And 29 on 60 in midsem (which is 30% of total weightage) didn't make the situation any brighter.

But in retrospective, it was a good performance, considering my physical condition on the eve of the math exam. Sleep deprivation had literally screwed me, and even keeping awake was a challenge in itself. I was forced to make do with periodic short naps. Earlier, such a situation would've led to me flunking the exam. But times are different now.