Hope - Episode 22

At exactly 7:53 on a Saturday morning, 9 students and 2 teachers arrived at the Ultimate Examination Centre (TUEC). TUEC is the venue for the Mathematics Olympiad qualification examination. The students and teachers that arrived just now are none other than from Nightingale Academy.
TUEC is a Centre owned by the state government. It has 2 large halls where students write examination and each hall can accommodate up to 2000 students at once. It was constructed for the sole purpose of the Mathematics Olympiad. One hall for the junior students while the other for the senior students.
For the competition to run smoothly, the state was divided into 4 educational zones and more than a hundred schools are under each zone. Each schools from each zones are allowed to select six students from their school, three JSS 3 students and three SS 2 students, to write the qualification examination in the junior and senior category respectively. Every year since the beginning of Olympiad in 2011 up to a thousand students register in each category and from this number only the top 54 performing students are chosen from each category.
Ayo has never seen so much students before when she stepped into the examination hall. According to what she heard, this year is the first time the number of registered students will exceed 1000 in each category

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. If she wasn’t scared before, she was now. To be among the 54 selected in more than 1000 in the junior category would be a tough task, she thought. She couldn’t help but imagine ‘What if I don’t qualify? Would I have to wait two more years when I get to SS 2? Would I be given another opportunity like senior Emma? Despite her thoughts, all she could do was hope she qualifies.
“Welcome students”, the chief invigilator said after each students in the examination hall have been given the optical mark recognition sheet (OMR) along with a question paper. “Please listen”, He paused and only continued when he was sure he has gotten the students attention. “First and foremost you are to read the instructions on the question paper carefully. Then, on the OMR sheet, you write your name, the name of your school and your examination number in the spaces provided. Mind you, make use of a pencil to write all these”.
“Now”, the chief invigilator continued raising a sample of the OMR sheet. “You shade the correct answer with the use of a pencil on this. Erase completely any answer you wish to change. Do not...”
Ayo had heard this plenty of times from Bayo, Perfect and Bidemi. It has now become a memory verse for her. She awaited the last instruction, ‘start’. She saw the chief invigilator check his wristwatch, take a look at the students and 20 other invigilators in the hall and said the word she was waiting for.
50 minutes into the examination, Ayo raised her hand.
“Yes, what is it?” a female invigilator asked on seeing her hand raised.
“I have finished with my work ma”, Ayo replied and attempted to move out of her seat.
“Go through your work again”, the invigilator instructed and checked her wrist watch. “You still have about 40 minutes left.

Read " Believe " by the same author ( HABEEBLLAH DAMILOLA )

. So have a sit”.
“I already did ma”.
“Okay how about you check one more time. You never know which mistakes you might have made. Moreover, I can’t let you leave until you have spent an hour”, the invigilator said. “Besides how come you manage to answer hundred questions in 40 minutes?”
Ayo sat back and looked in silence. She was surprised herself. It seems she’s faster than she thought she was or the questions were so cheap. The invigilator left her to attend to another student.
“Excuse me ma”, Ayo called the invigilator again just after 5 minutes she left.
“You want to submit right?” she asked when she was now in front of Ayo. “Since you are so eager to submit go there”, she said pointing in the direction of a table near the exit.
Ayo took her belongings and went forward to where the chief invigilator was sitting, a table in front of him. When she got there, the man just pointed to a portion of the table. Ayo took the cue that she should put her OMR sheet there which she hurriedly did and stepped out of the examination hall almost immediately. When she got outside she sighed and was rest assured to be among the chosen few and she could equally say the same about her classmates.