Did my first CAIE exam!! Did P1 Islamiat yesterday (24/4/2026 Friday) at DHA Event Halls (phase 5) in Hall 1 for me. I’m just gonna blabber about what happened at 12:24am as I listen to “Go Away” by weezer lol.
Some context:I do IB so Islamiat is the only IGCSE exam I’m taking. It isn’t offered by IB, and we only have to do it because its requirment for collage/university in Pakistan. So my only exams are the P1 I did today and P2 Islamiat on 5th May. hehehe go cry o level kids I get to sleep.
Before the exam stuff
I revised a few things, took a shower, attended a small zoom session with my classamtes & Islamiat sir, then slept around 11:30. So pretty good pre exam day I would say.
I woke up at 6 and had a pretty nice, slow morning. Don’t like to eat very early in the morning, but I managed to slowly eat an egg sandwhich with chai (gotta get ENERGY). I wore the school uniform, which I found annoying because I wanted to wear regular clothes cause I wanted to maximise confidence as much as possible by wearing comfortable clothes. Tbh my school uniform is pretty good so not that much of an issue, anyways I wore my favourite necklace (gift from my friend!) and bracelet. I planned the morning to be like super relaxing/productive, and ig it was but I feel like I imagined some magical effect that did not happen.
Definatly had most anxiety in the car and entering into the hall. Once I had to store my things, get checked in and sit at my chair I calmed down. Idk why I feel like I’ll faint in such situations (especially in the morning) even though I’ve never fainted for such a reason. Its just me making dumb stress scenarios ig. I tried those long breathing exercises people do in my car but idk if that did anything or if I did it right (just gotta inhale and exhale longer, right?).
In the Hall
Wait time was long. I was in my chair at 8:00am. But the wait after the exam was worse then the wait before the exam. Maybe because I could get up from the chair and meet people. I said hi to a bunch of people from my old school, Newlands and one girl from TNS DHA. The wait was alright but I just wanted the exam to start and get over with it as quickly as possible.
I assumed we would have to sit on those chairs where a side table is connected to it, but is was not like that thankfully! The chairs were great with nice cushioning actually. The tables on the other hand could have been a bit better, they were the kind of tables you can remove the legs of to store them away. So they were wobbly. So what happened was that the TNS girl I mentioned earlier’s table fell. The invigialtors fixed it but I felt soo bad for her like bro this is already scary and then that happens like that must have been so truamtising for her.
The whole “tables being prone to falling” would cause some fun later.
The Actual Exam
All the questiones were things I felt I could do, yet I think Q3 and Q2 were kinda new. I say “kinda” because I think the slight variation actually made the questions easier, bad for threshold and for me who wants good grades. Q2 was about legal thinking, but instead of specifically stating the sources it said to write about the relationship between Quran and 2 other legal thinking sources. So you had the choice between Quran, sunnah and qiyas. My paragraphs were like this:
- Quran, sunnah, qiyas definition
- Quran
- Sunnah/hadith + example to demostrate relation
- Qiyas + example to demostrate relation/steps of Qiyas
I choose optional questions, 3 & 4. Q3 was to choose 3 events of Propeht’s interaction with Quraysh after Madina. It didn’t necessarily ask to describe their relationship so what I asuume is that the exam question does not require any analyse. I kinda regret doing it because it became pretty long, which sacrificed time I could have spent on b part questions (I didn’t comeplete the exam. I don’t wanna talk about it more cuz thats my main disappointment leave me alone ok Ib exams are typed we don’t have writing practice achi bachi can’t be good at everything this is just God’s way of ensuring life is fair for you people or I’d be way too op).
Q4 was litrerally just an account of migration to Abyssina. Nothing more to say about that. Despite missing marks, I think I can get an acceptable grade compared to what I’ve gotten in mocks . I was aiming for 70/100 but thats gonna be pretty hard now, unless I do a clutch in p2.
After the exam
The wait after the exam was long. I even started drawing on my hands. Looks like the others kids agreed with me, cause every few moments you heard a crash from one of the wobbly tables hitting the ground. A few would be acceptable, but the crashes totaled to a number called “Not accidental”. At first it was mostly quiet but as time passed, it became engulfed in coversation. Students turned their chairs and faced each other, loudly discussing their thoughts and feelings as The invigilator woman at the mic echoed “You are still in exam condition. Please stay slient. Sit straight. Sit properly. Stay on your seats”. No one gave a shit.
Next they made a row leave the hall. After that another. Then everyone got up to leave. But then they told us to sit back down? It was pretty confusing I didn’t understand when we were supposed to leave. Eventually we all left but I think we did go earlier then was intented.
I brought a bag with some things in it and had to put in on a table outside the hall. Risky decision. My copy, book and clipbaord had somehow escaped my bag onto the other side of the table. Thankfully all my other things were inside and safe and I recovered all the things. Gonna take only pens, ID and entry paper next time.
The rest of the Day
Afterwards I went to a friends house and we chilled. We just talked and ate Mcdonalds and Crumble. I went home and my cousins were there so I played with them. I also worked on this blog and doomscorolled a lot. It was a pretty long day honestly way too much socialising.
Idc about an outro byeeeee. Shameless plugs: check out my insta and this blog is actually interesting you should see it especially if you like linguistics.