Important, Very Important, V.V.Important and As Sure As Death

Whenever the elections are announced, the opinion polls – to predict the
stand of the particular party – I feel that what opinion polls are to
elections, the guess papers are to examinations, especially the
matriculation examination in the 60s.
Near the examinations, the teacher of every subject used to categorize
the probable questions ranged from being important, very important,
very very important and as sure as death.
In those days, passing the matriculation examination was a mark of
respect and distinction as it was a stepping stone to scale new heights in
college life. And for those who could not afford to join the college, it
was the gateway to skill development institutions like polytechnic,
industrial training institutes or to settle with the private industrialist,
mechanic, etc.
Every one of us, including the toppers or front sitters, used to have
access to probable questions which were easily available at the stationery
shops, newspaper vendors at the bus stand shops and in bookstalls on
railway platforms but these were not allowed on the school premises.
I recollect, Star Guess Paper was available in those tightly wrapped in
polythene papers and stapled hard so that no one has access to its
contents before making the payment to the shopkeeper.
Guess papers were so blindly trusted that the students – the gullible little
souls worked hard on all possible questions besides giving a reading to
the notes prepared in the class. Since the questions from these guess
papers had a part of annual papers, these become so popular and created
a trust to enhance their scope of achieving excellence. Sometimes who
had put trust solely in guess papers, could outsmart even the bring
scholars. Really such was the magic of guess papers.

But now with the passage of time, the guess papers are things of the past.
Now the students have to understand the basics of each subject to answer
any question, even out of the syllabus.
Coming back to the matriculation examination, everyone used to walk
into the examination with a lot of anxiety. The first thing most of the
students do after the question papers were distributed was to close the
eyes and touch the paper with the forehead with a hope to get the
questions for which one has prepared himself.
Those who found what was promised, it was a dream that comes true but
without wasting any time, they poured all their knowledge on the answer
sheets and for others it was unfortunate as to how to tackle the question
if the same is out of the syllabus or they have not trusted the guess
papers or could not find anything predicted in their guess papers.
Frankly speaking, because of tender age, some students were seen crying
in sobs out of their helplessness and fear of failure seized the young
aspirants. But a good luck for me, majority of the questions marked as
‘as sure as death’ from my guess papers had appeared in the final papers.
My total dependence on these questions made me understand the
meaning of ‘as sure as death’ in relations to the questions marked like
this, which once declared by a doctor will not be a guess