The Hindu : Front Page : Invigilators' confusion costs candidates 30 minutes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 13, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Invigilators' confusion costs candidates 30 minutes

Shastry V Mallady

Confusion over allowing scientific calculators at examination centre

Even one per cent shortfall in score will make a lot of difference Calculators allowed at other two centres in Madurai

MADURAI: Confusion on the part of invigilators over allowing scientific calculators cost the candidates, appearing for Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering in Madurai, 30 minutes on Sunday.

Nearly 400 candidates at The American College centre faced anxious moments when the invigilators in the two halls announced that scientific calculators would not be allowed. Even as students pointed out that they were required to answer at least 85 per cent of the questions using them and also referred to the hall ticket on permitting use of calculators, the invigilators were in no mood to listen.

When attempts to persuade the invigilators failed and students went about writing the test, a clarification came that scientific calculators could be used inside examination hall. By that time, half-an-hour had elapsed. The students hurriedly rushed out of the hall to fetch their calculators.

"Though we tried to explain that only programmable calculators were not allowed in GATE exam, the invigilators did not heed to our request," G. Elango, a final year student of Thiagarajar College of Engineering, said.

One of the M.Tech aspirants, P. Rajkumar, wondered how the invigilators were unaware of the fact that the exam could not be taken without a scientific calculator.

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