I am feeling good today!

I have been away from the world of blogging for almost a month now, as studies, besides work, had been keeping me occupied big time! A few times I thought of writing here and felt like pouring out all my tension and stress, but then thought what would really help me in relieving it is actually preparing for the exams! I am a student of Actuarial Science and am taking my core technical (popularly known as CT) exams. For those of you who do not know what "Actuarial Science" is, please make a google search and you will get loads and loads of detail! But, just to brief you before you actually start looking it up on google, it is a discipline that involves and applies mathematical and statistical methods to the assess risks in the insurance industry, besides other industries. To pursue this course, one has to take exams (and clear them too!) from the Institute of Actuaries of India/ UK or from other actuarial societies in the rest of the world. Well, this is the conventional way to pursue the course, however, there are other options open too but I am in no mood to go into details right now! (I might do so when I am holding a counselling session for someone to pursue a branch of mathematics!!!)
So yes, I was telling that I was and I am preparing for some exams of the CT series and for this session, I chose to study CT6 and CT7, papers on Statistical Models and Economics respectively. When I had to decide on what exams I would want to do, some of my colleagues opined that CT6 is a tough exam and CT7 is bit too lengthy and the two together will be difficult to manage along with the job! But I just decided to go ahead with my decision as there were others too who supported my idea and said that it'll be no problem! (There are always different views and opinions by different individuals, stemming from the fact that they have different calibers too!)
During the course of my preparation, I indeed found it difficult to study after coming back from work but had no option, but to study! Meanwhile, I kept disturbing some of my friends - telling that I am not able to study the way I want to owing to the tiredness after work and other daily constraints! Didn’t even step back from my usual habit of crying every now and then, when tensed!! No one but Saurabh bhaiya and Sumita can tell how much I cry! Ha ha ha! (It has become a part of my life now... just kidding!) Then there is Charchit who constantly motivated me to study hard and instilled confidence in me that I can do it, besides helping me big time preparing for the "Statistical Models" exam! I will just quote one thing that he says each time he finds me tensed, "Exams are for your betterment and not to keep you tensed"! His words often leave me thinking and eventually help me come out of my problems too… can write more and acknowledge too, but for now, I shall keep it short!

The journey of my preparation for these exams had begun back in Germany, when we were relatively away from pressure of work, besides the less time consuming travel & pollution here that is absolutely painful and makes you all the more tired! It was then that I studied a major chunk for my Economics exam and did just a few chapters of the other one! Soon after coming back from Germany, I realised that the other paper is gonna be tough and will get on my nerves later if I do not put in consistent effort! And so, I studied religiously each day, depending on the time at my disposal, carried my rucksack daily to office with all the books and notes that I might just feel like studying, when free. I was lucky enough to have a lot of free time in office too on some days!!! But despite all this, what kept me worrying all this while was the fact that these exams were going to be held on consecutive days and I knew it is going to be very hard to prepare for the exam next day, let alone revising them! (I know, lot of people have already faced such a situation in their lives and some of us have even taken more than one exam in a single day, but for me it was going to be the first time ever and I was really scared as these exams are not at all easy!) It took some time to sink into me and I started preparing accordingly! The two exams were scheduled on 27th of April and today, the 28th of April. In no time these “awaited” days (ummm... yes, awaited!) were here and I appeared for the exams!

As the title of my blog says, “I am feeling good today”, some of you may have guessed by now that the exams went off well!! Well, that’s not really the case! ;) Now, don’t start thinking that I am feeling good because they are over; that’s not the case either!! (I still have two more exams in the coming month!) Ummm… I do not really know whether I will pass these exams or not (depends on the examiner too, you see!) but somewhere there is a sense of satisfaction that I tried my best, given all the constraints. If I pass, it will be all thanks to the blessings and good wishes of all my well wishers, Mumma and Daddy’s constant encouragement, Charchit’s efforts to make me understand concepts, Sumita’s constant support and care and of course my efforts too! At this moment, I am just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best - as my friend Pooju says, “Do your best and He will do the rest!” To pamper myself today, I went to a nice restaurant here in Bangalore with some of my colleagues (who also took the exam with me) and had Mutton Biryani! It was yummm…! Everything tastes good when you feel good, isn’t it?!