Five more minutes of sleep almost cost me an entire semester.

I still don't understand how I managed to sleep that deeply.

My exam was scheduled for 8 a.m., and I had set three different alarms the night before.

Three.

One on my phone.

One on my roommate's phone.

And one alarm clock that sounded like it was about to announce the end of the world.

I was prepared.

Or at least, I thought I was.

The plan was simple: wake up by 5:30 a.m., take my bath, revise for one last hour, eat something small, and leave the hostel early.

But somehow, when I opened my eyes, the room was already bright.

I looked at my phone.

7:12 a.m.

My heart stopped.

“WHAT?!”

I jumped out of bed so quickly that I almost fell.

My roommate woke up.

“What's wrong?”

“My exam!”

She looked at me.

“Which exam?”

“The exam I'm writing by 8!”

That's when the whole room became a war zone.

I was running around looking for my clothes.

My roommate was shouting, “You should have woken up since!”

I was shouting back, “Please, this is not the time!”

I brushed my teeth like I was competing in a race.

There was no time for breakfast.

No time for makeup.

No time to properly arrange my hair.

I grabbed my bag and ran out of the hostel looking like someone who had just escaped a kidnapping.

The funny thing was that I wasn't even sure I had packed everything.

My pen?

I hoped it was in the bag.

My student ID?

I prayed it was there.

My calculator?

At that point, I had accepted my fate.

As I ran across campus, I could see other students walking calmly towards the exam hall.

Some were even laughing.

I wanted to stop and ask them why they were so relaxed.

Didn't they know the exam was starting in less than 30 minutes?

Then I remembered.

They probably weren't the ones who had just woken up at 7:12 a.m.

I finally got to the exam hall, sweating and breathing like I had just run a marathon.

I looked at the time.

7:56 a.m.

Four minutes to spare.

FOUR.

I entered the hall, found my seat, and sat down.

My heart was still beating fast.

The invigilator walked in.

“Good morning.”

Nobody answered.

We were all too busy staring at the question papers.

Then the papers were distributed.

I turned mine over.

And that's when I realized something even worse.

I had spent the entire semester worrying about this exam.

I had stayed up late reading.

I had complained about the lecturer.

I had told everyone I was going to fail.

And now that I was finally sitting in the exam hall…

I couldn't remember anything.

I stared at the first question.

The question stared back at me.

For a few seconds, we just looked at each other.

Then, somehow, my brain finally came back online.

I started writing.

By the time I submitted my paper, I was exhausted.

I didn't know whether I had passed or simply survived.

But one thing was certain.

I never again trusted myself to wake up with just one alarm.

That experience taught me that sometimes, the biggest obstacle between you and passing an exam isn't even the difficult questions.

Sometimes…

It's your own sleep.