Obtaining the results

When I was staying in the hospital with DD (and DH), I received an e-mail from the Management Center, informing me that the exam results would be announced by 3 pm on the next day. The news caused my heart beat to gallop for a short while, but I didn’t lose any sleep over it. It’s just the semester exams.

DD was discharged from the hospital on the next day. In between packing our stuff and collecting the medicines from the pharmacy, I completely forgot about the exam results. It was only much later, when everyone had settled in at home, that I remembered about it. So I checked the results online, nonchalantly asked DH if he was interested to know (I received an equally nonchalant response) and that was it. It was such a non-event.

It occurred to me how easy it is to obtain our results these days. Just log-on to the university’s portal within the confines of your own home, and then with just a few clicks of the mouse, you can obtain your results. It’s up to you how you want to respond subsequently. You can shriek in delight or scream in horror and no one would know. There really is no need for self control.

How times have changed. I recall the numerous methods that I had gone through to obtain my exam results in yester years.

The first ever significant exam in my life was the Penilaian Darjah Lima (‘PDL’). I couldn’t care less about the exams, much less about the results. I didn’t really feel the pressure to excel, except occasionally, and that was due to the eagle-eyed monitoring that I received from the school headmaster. Anyway, I didn’t look forward to getting my results. So it was just as well that nobody talked to me about it after the exam.

I got curious at times. The school holidays were approaching and yet the results had not been released. Then the prize-giving day arrived. This was usually held at the last day of school. There I was, standing in line, waiting for my turn to receive the prize for the school exams. When my turn came, the MC took the liberty to announce that I had obtained 5As in the PDL. So that was how I obtained my PDL results.

The next exam was the Sijil Rendah Pelajaran (‘SRP’). I don’t know why, but I really don’t remember how I obtained my results. I’m guessing that I might have called the school because the results were usually announced during the year-end school holidays.

And then it was the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (‘SPM’). It was announced on television that we could obtain our results on the next day. I couldn’t get much sleep that night. I told my mother that I would just make a call the school to obtain my results. My mother decided to exercise her veto power then. For reasons best known to her, she insisted (read: forced me) that I go to the school to get the results. I knew when to pick my fight with her, and that was not one of the instances that I could.

My sister, Kak Z offered to accompany me to the school, which was located about 40km away from home. So the next morning, we got ready early, and off we went by bus to the school.

As I walked into the school compound, I saw my schoolmates smiling at me. Some of them congratulated me. But I was always the blur type. It was only when I had the exam slip in my hand that I found out that I had obtained good results.

My A-levels exam was taken in a faraway country, so there was no way that my mother could insist that I pick up the results by hand. In any case, I didn’t even tell her that the results would be released on that particular day. So I acted as normal as I could during that day, which was no easy feat because of the long wait that I had to endure (try 8 hours time difference, and you’d be waiting almost the whole day before the school office opens for the day). It didn’t help either that most of my sisters were home (I think it was during the school holidays).

At around 5 pm, I discreetly walked to the phone which was placed at the staircase. I sat on the staircase and started dialing. I caught my sister, Kak B, observing me intently. She must have noticed how strange I had been acting the whole day, watching the clock every once in a while. The phone call was very short (I only took 3 subjects for A-levels).

I immediately tip toed to the bilik ujung (the room at the end of the house). Kak B followed me. She asked what the phone call was about. After I explained about my results, she said she didn’t understand why I had to be so nervous. She didn’t know that I had always had the fear that somehow I had failed my exams. This fear was not confined to the A-level exams, but to all the exams I had taken save for the PDL.

Final year of university exam results were released while I was in the UK. I spent the entire night prior to the day tossing and turning in my bed. I couldn’t sleep at all. The next day, the results for other courses were released first. The university posted the results on notice boards outside the Old Theatre (that’s our lecture hall, by the way). So I experienced more nervousness waiting for my results to be released in the afternoon.

Around noon, a friend dropped by at my house and told me that the results for my course had been released. She congratulated me. A few more congratulations came in but I had to see it by myself, so I took the train to the university to see the results with my own eyes (it took about 30 – 40 minutes to get to the university). The results were actually released on my birthday so that was one of the best birthday presents ever.

My professional exams results were released via archaic method: snail mail. I was already working by then so I didn’t have the time to worry about my exam results. Time just flew by. Before I knew it, a letter from overseas would be waiting for me in my mail box. This took place a long time ago. I’m sure nowadays the students can check their results online.

How times have changed..