Examination centres always present a feeling of uneasy expectancy amongst the candidates. As they start assembling at the centre, they discuss probable questions, have a last minute glance through their note-books to refresh their memories. They take their marked seats, and on receiving the answer scripts at once fall to writing their names, roll numbers on the title page. Comes the zero hour and the question papers are distributed. A hurried glance over the question paper change their faces quickly. Some become nervous, some dazed, and some beam with satisfaction. A sudden hush falls upon the hall and the candidates start writing out the answers-some with ease and others scribbling with knitted brows.
As the moves on, the candidates react with mixed feelings. One of them needs a glass of water to quench his thirst. A few are restive and fidget all the time looking this way or that. Some murmur that the questions are unusually stiff. Some take the questions with assurance and go on writing confidently. Time is wearing out and an air of anxiety seems to descend in the hall. Those finishing the answers start revising them. Some find a few questions still unanswered and they look flurried.. At last, the time is over and there is a sudden ruffle in the calm atmosphere. The answer scripts are collected. The students gradually stream out of the hall. Outside, they hotly discuss the questions-some with happy moods and some with long faces and they melt away gradually. (255)
