I had an unfortunate time doing UG in Computer Science with this University(1997-2000). The university is still following a non-semester pattern for examinations. You do some Math during June of one year and you’ll have to remember it during the exams conducted in May the next year. Absolutely ridiculous.
Basically, its the education system that is completely to be blamed. How can my knowledge I gained over an year be assessed in just 3 hours flat? The examinations tend to test my memory capacity than my knowledge. Am I a Kinder Garten school student to remember A, B, Cs and rhymes?
If I had not had good friends, my knowledge in Computer Science would be zero. Please read following question a Graduate Science student is being asked.
Question in Fortran(Hell, its still used, but only in Universities):
a. Explain about the various forms of DO loops in detail. (10 marks)
b. Compare IF-END IF with DO-CASE statements and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Any 3rd grade school student can cram these answers and vomit it in the exam. Why can’t a question be asked to write a neat program by making use of these loops and IF conditions?
If theory exams are so bad, practical exams compete for a top spot with equal effectiveness. You’ll be given a list of 10 or 15 programs which will be asked at the year-end. One can as well by-heart these programs. I’ve seen quite a number of people who cannot fix bugs when they forget a ’’semi-colon’’ in a C program. For those lazy wizards, there’s always the option of compressing all the programs in one-tenth of fullscape paper which cannot normally be deciphered thru a naked eye!
I took the option of learning Sanskrit instead of Tamil so that I can add one more language to my portfolio. But believe me if I say that I don’t know how to say ’’My name is so-and-so’’ in Sanskrit even after studying that language for 2 years! I was taught Raghuvamsam, Kaadhambari Sangraha etc etc in my Sanskrit paper but not the basics of the language. I was supposed to write my Sanskrit exams in English!! For ’’Explain with reference to context’’ questions they give some sanskrit words and ask us where do we come across the text. Few of my friends remember the words by the symbols coz they don’t know to read Devanagari. If at all they have to write some tiny part in Sanskrit, they draw the symbols and not write it!
Except for mathematics no paper is numerical/problem-solving in nature. This has to change. There should be no sem-end or year-end exams.
While I lash out at the examination pattern of the University, I do injustice if I do not extend this service to those who correct the papers. When I expect around 95% in a paper they give me a whip at my back giving a generous 59%. One of my seniors who studied nothing had to write ’’Instructions to candidates’’, which is seen at the back of a hall ticket, and not surprisingly he topped the class. Yes, you can write about the dog that has bitten you when you were a kid for a question on thermodynamics and be sure enough to pass the subject.
But, in spite of all this, the University has managed to get 5-star accreditation from AICTE. This really shows the hard work put-up by the University staff. Great going.