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Seek grace marks; say ‘toughest question paper of the last decade’

The helpline of examination board of PU board bhave been buzzing in the last few days. More than 1142 students have called the helpline in the past few days requesting the board to either conduct re-examination of Mathematics or to provide grace marks in the subject.

The students who attended Mathematics examination on March 18, were in for a shock, as most of the questions that had appeared in the question paper, had appeared for the first time.

Failed technique

One of the techniques employed by the students to score good marks in the examination is to solve question papers of previous board examinations. Mastering five to six question papers of previous examinations would normally ensure the students, who had taken the trouble of solving the papers, around 60-70 marks. But, unfortunately for students, the technique has backfired this time around.

A mathematics lecturer in the city, under the condition of anonymity described the maths question paper as the ‘toughest question paper of the decade’.

“Looking at the question paper, it appears that lecturers have given prominence to displaying their knowledge by setting a tough paper. But, the question paper is not student friendly,” he said.

Radha, a student said that despite spending considerable time to learn the subject, she had not expected the questions that appeared in the question paper.

“Importance was not given to the questions asked in the paper in our classes. Some questions were not solved by lecturers in the classroom. I have performed really well in physics and biology papers, but am worried about by Maths results,” she said.

Unexpected

C V Girish, a lecturer in the city said that the exams were difficult for students who did not practice problems from the text book.

This has caused some inconvinience to students from rural areas and the ones who study only their notebooks. “About 30 to 35 per cent of the questions in the paper were not expected. Therefore, there might be a slight dip in the results this time around,” he said.

Possibility?

Lecturer N R Rajesh said that a few questions were incorrect, while some were out of syllabus.”There is a possibility that students might get eight grace marks,” he said.

However, deputy director of the department of PU education has ruled out the possibiliy of grace marks. “It is true that the question paper was difficult.

But the questions were framed according to the blue-print of the syllabus by experienced lecturers,” he said and ruled out the possibility of re-exams or grace marks.