411. Who Will Score More?

"We study in the college attending classes for one whole year. But what we write in a three hour examination decides our fate. Doesn't this system appear to be unfair?" asked Jayanth.

"There is a system of continuous assessment in some institutions. This is a method of aggregating the scores a student gets in various tests taken by him during the whole year. Will you say it is better?" asked Kannan.

"Oh, that will be horrible. It is better to take the examination once in a year" said Natarajan.

The friends would indulge in this type of light-hearted exchanges in between study sessions, to ease the tension created by the approaching examination.

There was a discussion about who would be the top scorer in the examination.

"It will be either Santhanam or Sivaraman. Can there be any doubt about it?"

"Yes. But, can you say which of the two will be the topper?" asked Jayanth.

"My bet will be on Sivaraman. I see him making hectic preparations for the examination. He keeps reading the textbooks the whole day. But Santhanam seems to be somewhat relaxed, like us!" said Kannan.

"Don't compare him with us? You can't compare the maximum with the average!" said Jayanth.

"Don't certify yourself as average. You are well below the average!" quipped Kannan. "Coming to the point, what I meant was that compared to Sivaraman, Santhanam is much relaxed." 

"Maybe. But, look at us! Instead of studying for the examination, we are wasting our time, analyzing how others are preparing for the examination!" concluded Jayanth.

The examinations got over. Every one found the Physics paper to be tough.

When the results came, Santhanam had scored nearly as much as Sivraman in some subjects and more than Sivaraman in some other subjects. He had scored 10 marks more than Sivaraman, in Physics.  

Sivaraman asked Santhanam, "How did you manage to score so well in Physics? I had pored over the textbook. But the textbook didn't have answers to some of the questions asked in the examination. Did you read some book, other than the prescribed textbook?"

"I didn't read any other book. But the professor covered those topics exhaustively in the class. I made class notes and referred to those notes while preparing for the examination. That helped me in cracking the questions" said Santhanam.

Sivaraman was silent. He realized how his skipping the classes, with the complacent attitude that he could gain knowledge by reading the textbooks, had affected him. He also realized that unlike him, Santhanam, even without preparing for the examination as hard as him, was able to score as much as him in some subjects and more than him in some other subjects, because of his having attended the classes, listened to the professor and absorbed his teaching.

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 42
Learning through Listening

Verse 411 (in Tamil):

selvaththuL selvam sevich chelvam achchelvam
selvaththuL ellAm thalai.

Meaning:

Learning through listening is the most valuable wealth among all kinds of wealth one possesses.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'thErvu mudivugaL' by the same author.)

Verse 411
Verse 410