The thing about results is...

It starts the weekend before. You begin to realize how irregular you visits to the temple have been! You think how nice it would have been to have known the lecturer on a name-to-name basis - how nice it would have been to butter her/him up, and have thrown at her/him random hints of how your handwriting usually looks like! You realize that instead of watching all those movies during the term time, you could have watched them in the vacation, like you are doing now! You think that if only there had been another day's gap between the exams, how you could have raced through some past year solutions and aced the exams! But now all you can sit and do, apart from spending the dreaded 24 hours before your results are announced refreshing that page you blankly stare at, is pray - that everyone screwed up as you much as you did!
Yep! Results in NUS are nothing short of 'miracles' - what you totally don't expect pops up! I remember how I clearly feared failing my C exam and my pleasant shock when I got a B (that's still only an average grade) but man! I was all phew!!! That being a module I took up in my first semester too, I was too busy making comparisons to my school exams to notice how differently we are graded here!
I never get tired of repeating this one particular incident though - which I think summarizes my opinion on 'results expectations' In my third semester, I did 2 core modules - Analytical methods in ECE and Signals. The thing is I loved the Signals module. I loved the lecturer, I loved the materials, I loved the labs and so naturally, I followed the module throughout the semester like a chammathu (good girl) And analytical... well, I must admit that it is a wonderful module as well! The materials represent the complete transition from pure to engineering math! But well, Math n me are like the 2 ends of a magnet!! I'm a more nature loving Physics person..hehe! Anyways, the thing is that I didn't like the module too much - though the lecturer is really sweet :-) - and so I ended up studying the entire module in the 2 days before the exam. You can imagine my shock when I got the same B+ grade for both the subjects! I was expecting an A- in Signals and a B in Anal! You may say - Pah! What's the big difference! But to me it is still uncomprehendable!
I realized that in this 'bell curve grading' system, you grades only reflect how you stand with respect to others. They do allow people to judge you among others, but good grades hardly mean that you know the things you are supposed to know! I mean, I got a B+ grade in C++ module as well, but though I can chalk out a few algorithms and pseudo codes , I can hardly say with authority that I'm good at the language!
Okay...I suppose that's about it for my ramblings today! Tomorrow's the D-day! Pray for me ppl!!