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Exam 2008 - Some problems & solutions
« on: April 28, 2008, 09:17:13 PM »
Exams

Exam 2008 - Some problems & solutions

For students, exams are just a burden. Irregular studies at schools and at home and resultant lack of preparation at the time of exams makes most of the students depressed at this young age

By Syed Wazir Ali

Examination days are few of the toughest days of a student's life and owing to Secondary and Intermediate Boards' decision regarding delayed examination schedule, these days just got tougher. Earlier, the school examinations used to be held in March and April whereas intermediate and secondary board exams would be held from April to June. However, due to the revised schedule, primary and higher secondary examinations will be held in the extremely hot months of May and June, when scorching heat coupled with unscheduled load-shedding all over the country in general and in Karachi in particular, are the order of the day. In such a trying situation, the students sit in the examination halls, which are devoid of lights and fans.

For students, exams are just a burden. Irregular studies at schools and at home and resultant lack of preparation makes most of the students depressed at this young age. Besides, there are a few students, who are very confident of obtaining a leaked papers prior to the day of examination. Moreover, some of the students are intelligent, but past experiences of getting low marks make them de-motivated.

Why is it so? Why are students unprepared to take their examinations with confidence? What are the forces which makes them afraid of exams?

Some of the reasons were revealed in a survey of about 100 students of different schools and colleges of Karachi studying in different level. Most of these students include those who are going to appear in the Boards' examinations. The most common reasons, which were found include:

1. My parents are forcing me to get good marks this time, else they will detain my further studies

2. The whole course is not yet completed, so how can we pass our exams with flying colours?

3. My teachers are relying on the five-year papers, due to which, we have not focused on many of the questions the whole year, which might be included in our paper.

4. I would rather have many chits concealed in my pocket and pants this time, because this is a routine in most of our schools. There is no transparency and I could pass my paper easily by cheating, rather than by working hard.

5. I have not prepared the whole year, because I wasted my time chatting, playing games in net cafés and roamed about with my friends in my spare time. Now I am confused about what to do.

6. I am a dedicated student but I lack time management, due to which my course work is still pending.

7. My examination centre is black-listed and no matter how much I study, I would not get good marks, because all the blacklisted schools' students get less marks.

8. My teacher at coaching centre will help us give guess papers of all the courses as he has contacts not only in the board offices but has very close relations with the paper setters. Moreover, our coaching centre, it is learnt, also uses its influence in the board offices to get positions so it is pointless for me to work hard.

9. I failed last year, even though I had worked hard. So now, I have lost my courage to study any more.

10. Our teachers gave us notes, which were not explained. So it is impossible for me to learn at this high time without understanding it.

After going through these expressions, one can easily recapitulate the whole scenario of misconceptions and lack of transparency in our examination system.

It has also been observed that students conceal chits or micro-copies in their pockets. Most of the students rely on the papers of the last five years, because they feel that our examination system never makes a new paper from a course book. The questions are repeated continuously which not only hampers students' efforts to obtain knowledge but also shows our examination system's incompetence in giving diversity to the students. All dedicated students know very well that there are many intelligent students who got less marks in examinations even though they had done well because of a lack of motivated and experienced checkers.

Lack of training and capacity building in our students is very common. Teachers are either untrained or the curriculum is changed at the last moment. In fact, the design of the curriculum has many flaws. The books are not updated and are not written according to the needs and requirements of the students. Their psychology is not kept in mind while writing text books.
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