This post is written as an epilogue to the post I had written exactly a month back. It was about my exams and my apprehensions on whether I will be able to handle the exams well.
Fortunately or unfortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm. The examinations were such a damper, that after writing a couple of papers, most of the students actually lost interest in the exams. There were two particular reasons for it, maybe three.
Firstly, the question paper was printed in the answer booklet itself and after each question, there was a limited space to answer that question. And with that kind of space limitations, you cannot simply beat around the bush. Your answer needs to be specific, precise and to the point. This was actually appreciated by the faculty and majority of the students as well.
Secondly, some of the papers were so simple that it was nothing more than elementary fill in the blanks. One paper was even so straight forward that some people were actually wondering if there was any hidden catch in the paper. Few other papers tested the concepts and that did not obviously require lengthy descriptive essays to be written. So the exams were a case of ‘either you know it or you don’t ‘type of questions.
Third comes the grading system. Though it’s said that relative grading is followed, it’s not truly relative or normally distributed. In a normally distributed grading system, someone ought to get the highest grade and someone ought to fail. Our system gives more weightage to the class average. Based on the class average, if you are in certain bands above or below the average, you get a certain grade. Now, what happens in a very easy paper is that everyone scores well. The average is very high. And to pass, one needs to score atleast 70% of the class average. Which usually happens quite easily. And to get the highest grade of 4.0, one needs to score atleast 125% of the class average, which becomes difficult in the case of a high scoring paper.
The paper itself is so easy that it ensures nobody fails and also ensures that nobody gets the top grade!! When the college public realized this, nobody even bothered to study properly. Cricket was the most famous pastimes during the exams. Something which I had not seen even once during the last 5 odd months, had become so common in the last couple of weeks. Some other people kept themselves busy by watching movies and some more slept their way to glory.
I remember only a couple of papers where I sat in the exam hall for the entire duration of the exam. With a major part of the evaluations already done internally, there was no real motivation to study. Plus when you have a question paper where you need to answer 3 questions for 20 marks each and each question has a maximum of two blank pages to be answered, how long can you actually sit in the exam hall? Time was never a constraint anymore, only the space was!!
And for people who have seen work pressures earlier, the last 10 days were probably the most chilled out in the first semester.
Fortunately or unfortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm. The examinations were such a damper, that after writing a couple of papers, most of the students actually lost interest in the exams. There were two particular reasons for it, maybe three.
Firstly, the question paper was printed in the answer booklet itself and after each question, there was a limited space to answer that question. And with that kind of space limitations, you cannot simply beat around the bush. Your answer needs to be specific, precise and to the point. This was actually appreciated by the faculty and majority of the students as well.
Secondly, some of the papers were so simple that it was nothing more than elementary fill in the blanks. One paper was even so straight forward that some people were actually wondering if there was any hidden catch in the paper. Few other papers tested the concepts and that did not obviously require lengthy descriptive essays to be written. So the exams were a case of ‘either you know it or you don’t ‘type of questions.
Third comes the grading system. Though it’s said that relative grading is followed, it’s not truly relative or normally distributed. In a normally distributed grading system, someone ought to get the highest grade and someone ought to fail. Our system gives more weightage to the class average. Based on the class average, if you are in certain bands above or below the average, you get a certain grade. Now, what happens in a very easy paper is that everyone scores well. The average is very high. And to pass, one needs to score atleast 70% of the class average. Which usually happens quite easily. And to get the highest grade of 4.0, one needs to score atleast 125% of the class average, which becomes difficult in the case of a high scoring paper.
The paper itself is so easy that it ensures nobody fails and also ensures that nobody gets the top grade!! When the college public realized this, nobody even bothered to study properly. Cricket was the most famous pastimes during the exams. Something which I had not seen even once during the last 5 odd months, had become so common in the last couple of weeks. Some other people kept themselves busy by watching movies and some more slept their way to glory.
I remember only a couple of papers where I sat in the exam hall for the entire duration of the exam. With a major part of the evaluations already done internally, there was no real motivation to study. Plus when you have a question paper where you need to answer 3 questions for 20 marks each and each question has a maximum of two blank pages to be answered, how long can you actually sit in the exam hall? Time was never a constraint anymore, only the space was!!
And for people who have seen work pressures earlier, the last 10 days were probably the most chilled out in the first semester.
1 comment:
I liked the 'Either you know it or don't' .. coz thats what matters in life .. no half-measures :)
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