Thought Overflow

I copy and paste a chat I had with an ex-classmate of mine (name withheld, just in case he objects):

he: hey gurdit..
hw r u??
me: hi
he: wassup?
me: nothing much
college begins day after tomorrow
he: ya i knw..
jntu..all at once na
me: yeah
I wonder when my results are coming out?
he: lol.. dude. u da topper.. y do u worry abt results..
me: Actually, I’m hoping to pass in the last subject
he: oh.

And that’s that. Notice the use of the word “topper”. Why do I keep getting that from people? As a reader of my blog, you know that I genuinely didn’t do these exams as well as I should have. You also know that I messed up my last paper. As a policy, I don’t generally lie about how I’ve written my exams. If I get more marks than I expect, it’s because I start off expecting low marks by policy… expect low; if you get low, you were expecting it, and if you get higher, it’s a bonus. I don’t tell people I did badly to throw them off or to make them overconfident about the coming exams. I really do study as less as I tell you, and the only reason I answer questions in class is because I pay attention in class (well, at least in the classes I manage to stay awake) and/or if I find the subject interesting enough to come naturally to me. So then… why this “you’re a topper, you’ve done it well, there’s no need to ask you” standard line that naturally seems to appear when someone asks me how I’ve written an exam (irrespective of how I answer). Well, let’s get some facts straight:

1. I was nowhere near the top of my class in the first year. The topper got 89.2%, I got 79.2% and there were a bunch of people who got between 79.2% and 89.2%. That in itself should free me of the “topper” tag.
2. I really, honestly do not enjoy studying. I only study when I absolutely have to. I don’t come home everyday and run to my desk with my books. I run straight to the computer, in fact.
3. All my “knowledge” really pretty much is book-knowledge. I have no freaking idea how the hell a transistor is fabricated, or how much current you can practically pass through it before it blows up (they do blow up, don’t they?)
4. That being said, I must say that I do not advocate roting (learning by-heart) notes or answers. As it is, the education system is pathetic. Be a little considerate to yourself and understand what’s being taught. You may never again need to work with differential equations, but that doesn’t mean they doesn’t improve your mathematical and analytical ability. (oh yeah… by the way, I just remembered transistors with too much current passing through them just burn out, not explode… didn’t that happen a number of times in the lab to me? )
5. When someone asks me some doubt, and I seem hesitant to explain, it’s not because I don’t want to share my “knowledge”, it’s not because I don’t want anyone else to get good marks or because I’m being over-competitive… it’s simply because I just honestly don’t feel like going over the concepts and have to think about them again (that’s a consequence of being lazy, by the way).

Basically, a word of advice to anyone about to ask me anything to do with studies… don’t ask me unless you’re prepared to believe my answer. If you’ve already formed an opinion or if you already think you know the answer to the question you’re going to ask, then please don’t ask me the question at all unless you’re prepared to hear lies or sarcasm .
Well, anyway… back to college we go from tomorrow. Time for me to start waking up early, going to sleep early, and forget about having a life all over again… *sigh*, here we go.