Everyone was looking around!

Some facts about IIT JEE - 2004 Mathematics Paper :

Duration of paper : 120 minutes
Total number of questions : 20
Maximum marks : 60 ( 10x2 + 10x4)
Cut-off : Less than or equal to 09. ( IITs don't release cut-offs. However I came across a guy who scored 9 marks in mathematics paper and still made it through)

It was one of the most gruelling papers in the history of IIT JEE. Needless to say that candidates were tormented all through the paper.

A friend of mine, Animesh was one of the fortunate few who cleared JEE 2004.
This is what he said about the Mathematics paper of JEE 2004 and his secret of success.

"I looked at the first question for a long time. And after a Herculean effort, I solved it but my gut feeling told me that the answer was not correct."
"I looked at the second question. I couldn't do it."
"I tried the third one. It tore through my gray cells without producing any useful result."
"The familiar story repeated itself in the fourth question."
"Then I looked at the 20th question. Forget about solving, I couldn't understand the question either."
"19th question. And I thought to myself if I had seen anything remotely related to it ever before!"
"I was petrified. I turned the pages of 40 page question paper cum answer booklet back and forth, trying my level best to find one question I could dare to solve. There wasn't any!!!"
"Then I closed my eyes and thought that JEE-2004 was over for me."
"But what happened next, diffused all the tension out of my mind."

"I looked around the examination hall. Everyone was looking around!"
"And I smiled to myself - the game was on."