The tragedy of my Physics exam

When I started eleventh grade, a lot of classmates used to ask me if I really had ADHD or if I was just faking it. After an incident that occurred during my physics half-term paper, they no longer doubt me.

Out of all my subjects, I was definitely the most anxious about Physics. A few weeks before the exam, I was behind in class as I was struggling with the questions of a worksheet given earlier to us. My teacher saw this and asked “Are you sure you’ll pass?”. This motivated me (because I knew it was a valid question) and I started working hard at physics, reading through textbooks and trying to do as many complicated questions as possible. The day before the exam, I felt I had prepared well enough to pass.

For this paper, I had been given a full hour of extra time. This meant their was zero stress and I would be able to attempt the paper in a healthy state of mind. I read through the instructions, not giving them much thought, and started doing the MCQs.

In IGCSE, students have “multiple choice”, they are given options between sets of questions in certain tests, the choice is signified by “OR” written in bold letters. In CBSE, their is only “individual choice”. In this case, students cannot choose between sets of questions and are only given a choice between two questions. This was specified in my paper too. Now guess what happens when you give a former IGCSE student with problems processing clearly written information, a CBSE style examination? Disaster.

Let me explain visually:

28.

29.

30. xxx.

OR

31. yyyy.

SECTION-B

Here, the choice given was just for question 30. However, like the certified ADHD student I am, I thought it meant I could skip 28 and 29 and do only the stuff shown after OR.

I was done (I thought) at the two hour mark, and I had just as much time left to go. I felt like a genius and just whiled the remaining time away. Unfortunately, I realised I wasn’t a genius when my friend deduced I had only attempted half the paper during a Whatsapp call.

I ended up barely passing. Ironically, this improved my teacher’s opinion of me as she believed I would get a single digit score when she heard what I’d done. To conclude, please read through your paper carefully before you start writing. The accommodations given help but they don’t erase the disability, so be careful.