When he checked the answer key, his heart pounded. He had made only two minor errors. He scored 78% on that question.

Every Saturday, from 9 AM to 1 PM, he sat at his desk and wrote answers under exam conditions. No phone. No music. Just the slow, maddening hum of the air conditioner.

He wrote. Page after page. The clock ticked. Other candidates sighed, cursed under their breath, flipped pages frantically. Arjun stayed steady. He saw Question 3—a financial instruments puzzle. He smiled. He had failed that very question three times in past papers. But the fourth time, in his Book of Sins, he had written the solution in red ink: “Fair value through P&L if held for trading. Otherwise, FVOCI if business model is both collect and sell.”

He scored himself. 23%.