Just a few days back is sat for GATE(graduate aptitude test for engineers). After the examination i started thinking on -" Does the current examination system for competitive exams really filters out the best students appearing for the test?". In the current system we are given only one opportunity to show case our talent and that too within 3 hours. But can we really judge a student within 3 hours?. It may so happen that on a particular day a student does not do well. Does that mean the he is a weaker student than those who got more marks than him? I guess the answer should be "NO".
Now , if the current system is not OK then a natural question will arise - "what should be the examination system structure?". Instead of identifying a talent within a student on a single day we should conduct the examination on several days (say 3 days). We should then find the average of the marks obtained on all the three days. This system will be better than the previous system.Also this system eliminates the luck factor to a large extent.
Now if we increase the number of tests then certainly we will be getting better output(filtering most talented students). But as we increase number of tests then cost of the examination will increase . So we must find out a proper balance between the two.
But certainly the number of tests conducted for an examination should be greater than one.We have to get rid of the current system so that we get better output through our examination system.
Please post your comments on what you feel on my thoughts.
2 comments:
The present system of 3hrs is no doubt a unscientific way of judging true talent. Considering the present infrastructure we have, one change that can be brought about is the emergence of online examination systems. In which case, more than one exams can be taken to judge a student, may be in gaps of a few weeks. And lastly, I feel, there is no alternative to personal assessments. But that would again require huge man power. So online is the way to go.
Online exams will be easier if we conduct more than one tests for an examination as there wouldnt be much effort in checking answer sheets.
But there are some obvious drawbacks of it :-
1) You cannot take a subjective test where one is required to write long answer.
2) Another serious problem in this case will be that you will require thousands of questions for a single test(as online exams arent conducted on the same day for all candidates). So if u conduct many online tests then u will require many thousands questions . So it may be a tedious job in maintaining the quality of questions.
Post a Comment