The Lesson.

I wrote two FGC exams,one in 2019,and the other in 2020.As a child who was mostly homeschooled,it was my first time writing an exam at national level. This is how the FGC exam in 2019 went:

It was a Saturday morning and there was sanitation. The exam as stated,was to begin at 7:30.a.m, so we left the house at 7:00a.m to catch up with the time. Unfortunately, the exam didn't hold until 11:00a.m so we had to wait. While we were waiting, my mother gave me some advice on what to do in the exam hall(it was my first time).She said"Skip the questions that seem hard, do the easy ones,then go back to the ones you skipped. It will help you not to waste your time. When you are done,if there is still time left, crosscheck your work as there may be some mistakes."One of my friends was also writing the same exam and so I got excited. I knew we were going to sit together because she had her name registered right after I had my name registered. After that, the roll call was made to see if we were all present. We entered the hall and went to our seats,and I was nervous. We were given question papers followed by the answer sheets.

The examination commenced,and my extreme nervousness caused me to be in a big rush. I was in a hurry to submit my answer sheet.I did my English well but my math and verbal aptitude wasn't very good,and,to add fuel to that, I skipped halfway through my quantitative aptitude.I was busy chatting with my friend.I did what I could, but I didn't realize time would be up and it caught me unaware.

We went out of the hall,my mother asked me to tell her about how the exam went,as any other parent would. I somewhat dropped the bad stuff and told her only the good stuff.

After three weeks,my mother went shopping and picked up the result on her way back. She came in dead nonchalant and asked me to check my result,I opened it and read. My mark was 109. I felt bad,really bad. My father told me it was okay, that I could go next year.  I felt bad for not following my mother's advice.  From that day on,  I learnt three lessons:

When you get advice, value it.

When you have goal,reach it without distraction.

Be confident in your abilities.