Certification I

I had to mention this...I managed to clear the first certification...though a long time ago (21-Aug), the scares and cold sweat remains etched in my memory :(

Reached office early that day, after an unsuccessful attempt at studying, the night before and that morning too. Having no other way of whiling away time between 8:30 (when I reached office) and 10 (when my test was to start), I tried to study (yet again!!!), ended up going through only the exercise questions, about 2 at the end of each chapter...a total of about 30, mugged and remugged them and made my way to the exam centre.
The crowd outside the exam centre was the usual exam crowd, one half made up of people who feared the world would end if they flunked and the other half who had already given up and looked wonderfully chilled out (I, of course belonged to the latter half).
After an uneventful wait outside the exam centre, they called us in and generously asked us to seat ourselves at places of our choice.
I confidently let the others (more religious folks) choose their seats and took the last one left. After all, it hardly mattered...by now my usual overconfidence had taken over.
I started off the exam without a second thought.

Logged in and looked at the questions. There were 50 objective ones, with an hour to mull over them. And then the first question...I saw a star (the "I am seeing stars" type). But, never one to give up so easily, I attacked the others with renewed resolve. By the time I came to the 20th, there were no nails left on my fingers to chew.
The questions were tricky...not one from the 30 exercise questions that I had mugged. I felt betrayed. Nervousness gave way to nausea...I wanted to finish the jinxed exam and get out. And then, after I had tossed a coin in my mind for about 40 of the 50 questions, I decided to revise them. A few more seemingly obvious tweaks here n there, I decided it was time. No more revising would help. A quick calculation...to get the required 65% that would guarantee redemption from this ordeal, I would need atleast 33 questions right...a tall and unfair order, I believed.
I quickly sent an SOS to all my favourite gods...promised to behave myself...study more sincerely for my next certification...and before God had a chance to validate my past record, clicked on the Submit button.
The score calculation appeared to take ages...but then there it was...72% was what I had scored. And much to my chagrin, not unlike a heartless (disinterested, or was it uninterested) I-have-seen-it-all old matron, the system did not tell me if I had passed or not.
Unable to bear the suspense anymore...I screamed for attention. The invigilator delivered the verdict. 65% was required to pass and I had managed to do it... :)
With a triumphant smile on my face, the first thing I did after coming back was to put up a notice on the BB: "Study Material for PM Elite Lite: Printouts available" :)