Wake Me Up When September Ends

It’s suddenly dawning on you that the year is coming to an end (pretty soon) and all you can seem to wonder is “Where did all those months go?” While you struggle to measure the level of productivity you have achieved and judge yourself on where you stand, you end up wasting further time (read: precious time) by self-wallowing and beating yourself up for having had a tad more fun than the usual. You regret going to Pintu’s birthday party where you ended up having extra cake and when back home, you hear “Sharmaji ke bete ko dekho” rants from mother dearest.

“Kal se karunga”. That line has been used in such a manner and so very often that even Kabir would have given up on you with his dohas. But then again, there’s no point in worrying about how judgy a mystic poet gets. All you can rectify now is your procrastinating-self.

CLAT 2018 is eight months away. That looks like a long time away, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. Much of your preparation should have started by now and should have taken some shape. You could have started off by analysing what your strengths and weaknesses are, based on the sections that appear in CLAT. Is the vastness of the ocean of general knowledge scaring the daylights out of you? Are those numbers numbing you? Is there trouble in comprehending and logically deducting a problem and reaching a conclusion? All your worries can be put to rest if you act upon them soon enough.

Forgive me for sounding preachy (if I am) but then, this is your wake-up call. Each year, the CLAT paper has come to be tagged as being either tough, lengthy or “out of portion”. Now, nothing can be done about random surprises being thrown at you in the form of hot pancakes. But with practice and time management, you can manage to sail through. For example, CLAT 2011 had only reading comprehension passages in the English section which came as a surprise to most of the test-takers. Are you ready to face something like this? If yes, good for you! If no, then isn’t it time to buck up?

At the end of the day, if you ask me “What level of preparation would be really enough?” and expect a definite answer, then I’d be at a loss for words. “Would the paper this time around have a difficulty level that of the Civil Services?” is also something that I can’t predict. But what can be done is practice. Loads and tons of it.

The CLAT paper has been changing every year and in 2013, negative marking was introduced. This made the selection process almost Darwin-like. Intelligent choices had to be made and you couldn’t really inky-pinky-ponky your way through something you had no clue about. And we all know what a point difference in scores does these days.

For those with board exams, you will soon be running around getting as much as material on what’s coming for the exams. Those who’ve dropped a year or are retaking the test must be quite busy finishing marathons of sitcom-watching. Or busy catching up with that friend who is very well on his way to making a career. When’s your time to get onto that path?

There is still time for you to clear the mess that you’ve made or are in. To change your game and buck up the speed at which you are working towards making it to one of the best law schools in the country. And do you really want to wait for the months of March or April to start preparing when those months are best to be used for practising and staying calm?

If you don’t hit the button to proceed now, you will only be hitting panic buttons as the D-Day approaches. And we all know what panic can do. It just makes things very difficult for yourself and others around you and end up wasting further time by using short-cut methods to gain some wisdom (which also includes putting your notebook under your pillow because you start believing that this method might just work). And then, the “making it to the top 5” dream remains just a dream. Not because you lacked the potential but just because you couldn’t get yourself to truly value time.

And maybe when Billy Armstrong penned down the lyrics for the song whose title is this article’s inspiration, he could have also meant it to help in transforming ourselves and “becoming who we are” supposed to be. Making your way to the top law schools might just be it.

Zainab.