What was going on when I was born?

If there is a single emotion that united all factions today at the close of the extraordinary Synod of Roman Catholic Bishops here, it was one of relief. The relief was bred by an outcome in which no one was clearly the victor and no one was openly vanquished. For the Vatican and the bishops, as well for liberals, conservatives and those not readily classified, the conduct of the Synod and its final documents offered ample ground for expressions of contentment. ''Who won the Synod?'' asked Bernard Cardinal Law, the conservative Archbishop of Boston. ''I think the church won the Synod.''

In its heyday three decades ago, Inco Ltd. produced 85 percent of the world's supply of nickel, setting the price almost as a matter of divine right. But in recent years, Inco - along with the other big mineral companies in the United States and Canada -has been staggered by stiff new foreign competition, largely from third world producers. The world's nickel capacity has surged just as demand turned sluggish, driving prices downward since 1980. Tin and copper have plummeted as well, and the precious metals - gold, silver and platinum -are also far below their highs. For Inco, the harsh new environment translated into $1 billion (United States) in total losses from 1981 through most of 1984. But since the fourth quarter of last year, the Toronto-based company has been in the black, despite the continued price slump in metals. During the first nine months of 1985, it managed to earn $44.6 million.

Leading a tour of high school students and their parents around Wesleyan College, David Silverberg took a deep breath and began to enumerate his school's charms. ''One of the best aspects of the atmosphere at Wesleyan,'' Mr. Silverberg, a personable sophomore, said, ''is that the majority of students here are --'' ''Sick,'' a young woman walking past called out, finishing his sentence with a sly smile. Mr. Silverberg recovered quickly. ''The majority of students here are very candid and not afraid to say what they feel, as you can see,'' he told his group, ''which makes the school looser and more easygoing and, at the same time, more challenging academically.'' Balloons and a Message The great college courtship is under way. In a crazed flurry of activity, New York's high school seniors are shopping for schools, and colleges from Berkeley, Calif., to Brunswick, Me., are wooing the city's students - a group that always includes a particularly high number of bright and competitive applicants.

A dispatch from Rome yesterday about the Roman Catholic Synod of Bishops was accompanied by a translation of the Synod's final report. In some copies printed early, parts of the translation were imprecise.

A headline Saturday on an article about Jaguar Cars Inc. misstated the amount the company has been fined for failing to meet federally mandated fuel economy standards. It was $6 million.

International A change in OPEC's pricing policy was agreed on at a meeting in Geneva. It will no longer defend a $28-a-barrel price through cuts in output. All members of the 13-nation organization had been flouting the official policy. The change in market strategy indicates that the organization is preparing for a price war against its rivals. [Page A1, Column 6.] A tenuous unity in Manila among the contending factions of opponents of President Ferdinand E. Marcos unexpectedly broke apart and it was unclear whether the breach could be healed. [A1:5.]

Shop windows glittered with chrome, gold and cut glass. Aromas of evergreen and roasted chestnuts filled the air. Bells pealed on corners and in cathedral towers. Great throngs crowded the stores and avenues. It was no special day for a weekend in December. But New York City was alive yesterday with the sense of Christmas.

The tax bill that goes to the House floor this week was originally supposed to be a wholesale cleanup of special tax breaks. Yet, the bill left open plenty of opportunities for individuals and corporations to take advantage of many of the deductions and other preferences that are the heart of tax shelter deals. However, the 36-member House Ways and Means Committee that drafted the bill added a trapdoor. The bill contains what accountants have discovered is an extremely powerful minimum-tax plan that would render many tax preferences impotent and insure that almost no wealthy individual or profitable corporation could escape paying a minimum amount of taxes.

International An oil-price war may break out next year as a result of a change in strategy agreed to by OPEC oil ministers. The 13-nation producer organization agreed in principle to abandon its policy of curbing output to defend a $28-a-barrel oil price, and instead will cut its prices, as needed, to secure sales. [Page A1.]

''This is the tiredest I have ever been in my life.'' - Corazon C. Aquino, after breakup of alliance against President Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Philipines. [A8:6.]

The leader of the State Senate's Republican majority said this weekend that he expected passage of only one bill out of the six that Governor Cuomo has ordered the Legislature to take up this week in a special session. In response, the Governor, who has been getting an approval rating of more than 75 percent in public opinion polls, said today that he would personally campaign against any Senate Republican who failed to act on his programs by next year's election. ''I'm not threatening or targeting,'' Mr. Cuomo said in an interview. ''I'm saying that of course in an election year, the agenda will be those things you don't agree on. Of course, I'll have to talk about those issues.''

After more than a year of writing and rewriting tax legislation, of speechmaking, lobbying and political horse trading in the Treasury Department, the White House and Congress, the question of tax revision will come down to one 15-minute vote in the House of Representatives this week. The consensus in the capital is that if that vote is not an affirmative one, the chance of changing the tax law in any comprehensive way will be nil for years to come. ''If we don't move something out of the House of Representatives,'' Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d said in a television interview today, ''tax reform is dead.'' Before arriving at the conclusive vote on whether to send the bill to the Senate for action next year, the House will be allowed to vote on only one amendment, a Republican alternative tax plan that would be more favorable to business as a whole than either the plan submitted to Congress by President Reagan last May or the bill adopted by the Ways and Means Committee last week. All but a handful of Republicans will vote for the alternative, but, by the end of last week, not a single Democrat had agreed to support it. The Democratic majority in the House is so large, 253 seats to 182, that the alternative will surely be rejected.