May your calling be victory!

It's an exam which many have sat

Some are currently sitting

Others are yet to sit

3 hours is all it is

But each hour feels like a number of years.

Childhood. Maturity. Old Age.

Though most exams are three hours, there's a great unknown,

whether yours would be one, you weren't prior told.

Some classmates' exams are taken by the examiner early,

without notice the end has come for their turn,

they must leave the exam hall at once,

leaving us to pray for their success,

and from their methods learn.

Others get a golden ticket, a longer timed exam,

the only problem is the more time you got the more mistakes you can make

and the more likely you'll forget the plan.

So too is it true that the longer the exam, the harder it gets to find the pages

which were wrong and the parts to rub out

for realisation and rectification has many stages.

Some choose to submit their exam in early, though this is against the rules,

they give up, sometimes due to their fellow classmates,

sometimes due to other pressures of the examination room.

But alas they didn't realise,

before choosing to depart,

that you must stick to the end of the time given,

to even be considered for a final mark.

Ah, the final mark.

We will all gather soon to find out our results

and our Examiner will be Most Kind with feedback

every word that was written will be annotated clearly, with a tick or a cross-

the marks weighed on a scale to keep track

Graduation will be held on a thin bridge,

not really what most would call ideal,

for those who fail will realise it then,

but there's no chance of retakes or repeats!

It said so on the instructions of the exam,

but not everyone did read.

But those who read and did pace themselves

may find they passed with flying colours indeed.

Even those with basic pass grades will have such joy on their faces

such joy that joy will be realised never to prior have held any meaning!!

What can be said then of those who got the best mark in the class?!

Amongst a class of trillions of billions of millions of students,

how amazing if one has a top mark!

They will be sent to a unique VIP graduation party

where the Headboy and school prefects too will be

Their calling shall be victory.

Understandably, the exam seems mystical and many will not believe what I profess

For surely you must be questioning; "such rewards for but a 3 hour test?!"

Know that this is the examination hall

You are in the 2nd hour of the exam

The exam better known as Life itself.

It's the circle of life

"This world is a mountain, and our deeds are a shout echoed back to us"

-Tales from the Masnavi