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All in a day’s play?
DEEPA KURUP
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The CET schedule has many students and parents fuming
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— Photos: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
Mixed feelings: Kiran Kumar, Don Caeiro, Sajeeth Joseph, Prakash, Carl Hsieh, Brijesh.
The months of April and May will prove to be the turning point in the careers of Pre-University students aspiring for medical and engineering seats. With the Karnataka Examination Authority and the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental colleges announcing that their examinations will be a one-day affair, there has been a spate of reactions to the schedule. Colleges and parent bodies submitted memoranda to the Governor to conduct the examination over two days instead of one. Protest rallies were held in several parts of the State to voice their opposition.
The Opposition leader in the Legislative Council, H.K. Patil, presented a memorandum urging the Governor to hold the CET examination over two days instead of one. The appeal said: “All the papers — Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology — have been scheduled to be held on April 19, 2008. The timetable issued by the Karnataka Education Authority is impractical and without just consideration for the entire student community.”
Last year, the KEA and COMED-K announced that the exam will be a one-day affair in order to make it easier for outstation students and rural candidates to appear. Both bodies maintain that they think that the students can manage the stress and it is better to stick with this pattern.
The Hindu
EducationPlus spoke to students from Bangalore to see where they stood on this issue. While a few of them said that they had no problem with the schedule, others argued that the authorities cannot cram the exams into one day in order to minimise their own burden.
While some said that they wanted to get done with it in a day, others felt that they needed some time to revise. Here’s what the students of St. Joseph’s College had to say:
Kiran Kumar (second year PUC): Personally, I prefer a one-day CET. I do not see the need for anything more than that. Several others may say that it puts undue stress on us, but I think that if we are well-prepared for the exam, we need not be worried. Whether it is one day or two, the amount of effort we have to put in is the same. We do not need to fuss over the duration. I would like to just get done with it and relax. There are several other competitive exams also to be written, so it is better to get done with it! Parents who are protesting are perhaps anxious or feel that their wards are not up to the mark.
Don Caeiro (second year PUC): I would like the CET to be a two-day examination. It is not fair on the part of the authorities to cram all examinations into one single day. Perhaps, they can conducts two exams a day…that is more acceptable. But to finish them all on a day places undue stress on us students. We are not asking for one exam a day, which would have been ideal…even we are being practical about it. It is not too much to ask them to extend it to two days. They do not realise how important it is for us to revise. We may know a lot but sometimes we cannot recall and apply if we do not get the time to revise.
Sajeeth Joseph (second year PUC): I would prefer a four day CET (grins). But really, I am serious about it. One day for each subject is ideal. No matter how much we study before the exam, it is of no use if we are muddled up, confused and not relaxed. Having to write around four exams on a single day gets us all stressed and mixed up. I do not see the purpose of conducting an exam for the sake of conducting it. Students should be able to perform to the best of their ability.
Prakash P. (second year PUC): I would be able to perform to the best of my ability if I write one exam a day. Instead of allowing us to take the exam in a relaxed manner, they are making us take all four on the same day. The colleges we will study in, the course we will be able to choose and the jobs we will get in future, all depends on this one exam.
Those who say that they want to be done with it in one day should realise that there are several months to relax after that. The CET is too important an exam for us to take lightly.
Carl Hsieh (second year PUC): I do not think it matters whether the CET is held for one, two or four days. I think we should be open to any schedule. It all depends on the approach you take to studying.
If you have been preparing all year along, how does it matter how the exams are scheduled? All of us go for coaching classes where we are used to writing mock exams.
The syllabus for the exam is the same as what we study for our pre-university exams…so all we need to do is sharpen our time management skills and work hard. Personally, I am happy with any schedule.
Brijesh G. Rao (first year PUC): I will be appearing for the CET next year, and I hope that by then they revert back to their two-day schedule. There are several competitive exams for us to think about besides CET. But for students in Karnataka, CET is the most important.
We need time to revise and no revision can take place if four exams are conducted on one day. An exam a day would be a better option. The physics and chemistry combined paper itself takes a lot of our time, so clubbing another exam with it makes us nervous. I hope it is changed by next year.
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Education Plus
Karnataka
Chennai
Coimbatore
Hyderabad
Madurai
Tiruchirapalli
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
|
