“The entire life is an exam that never ends until the life itself ends.”― R.H Ork
After two years of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the University decided to switch to offline examinations. The news wasn’t new to the students. Before the judgement was approved, there were many discussions, arguments, and concessions. The students kept asking for multiple-choice examinations as they had during the pandemic. They felt it wasn’t fair that a part of the session was completed online during January and February early this year for a short period when there was yet another lockdown due to the brief third wave of the Covid 19 pandemic.
The faculty feared that the Pandemic and the digital world would arrest the students’ brains. The students had forgotten to think critically and write. They could type text messages quickly with emoticons and alphabets in the shortest possible form. Many of them didn’t know how to spell basic words as they were used to the cellphone autocorrect.
None of the protests worked, the University was adamant and the exams were scheduled offline. Everything changed to cater to the offline exams, including the term work, in-sem exams, and nearly everything else.
On the scheduled days the students appeared with their files for the term work submissions. The certificate of submission had to be submitted with the day’s date but most of them had forgotten to complete these minute details.
‘Write today’s date,’ I said
“What’s today’s date?” they asked
I looked at them surprised and found most of them pulling out their mobile phones to search for the date.
What day of the week is today?
The first response to this question was also a quick search on their mobiles. The pandemic had brought a standstill to analytical skills, and general thinking skills.
On the day of the written exam, the students were guided from the lobby with strict instructions to avoid cheating, carrying notes and using their cellphones. Thirty students were seated in a room and their seat numbers were not in the usual order. The students found their seats and looked forward to their exams. There was lots of time on hand as the University had added 15 minutes more per hour of examination. The two and half hour exam had nearly 40 minutes more making the examination well beyond three hours.
The students whiled away their time till the University paper arrived. As soon as the paper was given, there was haste, noises of pen and pencils being readied. A few students read the paper quietly before beginning to write. As part of our duties, we gave the students their barcodes and holocraft stickers and entered their signatures in the supervision sheets.
In the second row, a student near the window flinched and kept looking out for answers. He was ready to turn back, but the boy from whom he expected assistance seemed to be in the same boat. There was a tall serious-looking boy who had carried a two-litre water bottle. He drank water every few minutes and kept writing.
The boy on the third bench in the middle row sported long hair, he kept running his fingers through his hair as if he was coaxing the brain cells to guide him. He smiled at me but I did not smile back as I felt he would begin relaxing and he could bring out a chit for copying.
Every now and then the vigilance squad members strode through the examination room and picked a few who seemed suspicious. The boy ran his fingers through his hair at a greater speed.
Suddenly a voice said, ‘ supplement please’
The whole classroom turned to see him as the first booklet for writing had plenty of sheets
The squad shouted, ‘ Raise your hand, no noise’
The boy was busy writing.
One of the girls said, ‘ Ma’am, the third question has insufficient data, Can you call Professor Pitake to clarify the doubt?
At the far end, there was an urgent call from the last boy. As I approached him, he looked at me eagerly and whispered, “ Which question has a problem?
I whispered back, ‘The third one in Section B’.
The boy sighed heavily and replied, ‘ I have finished answering it.
I walked away as I did not understand one bit of the question but turned back to say, ‘Answer the others too’.
The boy on the second bench used the moment to get an answer and began writing. Having considered the course of action to take if some data was missing from the third question, I walked towards the door when a voice asked, “Can I use the restroom?”? In defiance, I nodded my head and moved away when I heard the familiar voice say, “supplement please.”. Once again, the whole class turned to look at the enthusiastic boy. As I handed over the supplement, the boy on the second bench got another answer. His face was triumphant. I did not know how to react to his foolishness as the person from whom he was borrowing answers knew nothing.
I updated the data on the supplements. The tall serious-looking boy got up stretched himself and began to walk towards the doorway. I gestured asking him to go back to his seat. He looked at me in disbelief and said, I want to go to the washroom’. I said, ‘ Finish your examination and leave the classroom’. He went back to his place and took out the water bottled and chugged in some more water.
The squad members entered the classroom once again and the girl stood up and said, ‘The question isn’t clear, please send a teacher to clarify my doubt’. The rest of the students made no appeal. They turned their answer sheets perhaps to check out their own answers.
After a while, Prof Pitake entered the classroom and walked toward the students, he read the question and said, ‘The question does not have sufficient data to answer. You can assume the data’. I wondered how would they assume data that are not given. The boy who had already answered sighed and worried, and wiped his forehead. The other students looked at each other with mixed expressions when we suddenly heard the familiar voice from the far end call out once again, ‘ Supplement please’
The class turned around to look at the boy once again. The boy stretched his fingers and cracked his knuckles to show how weary he was while the others flipped their pages to see how much they had written.
When there were twelve minutes left to wind up the examination, I shouted, ‘No more supplements. I heard a scuttle and a familiar voice hastily saying, ‘ A supplement please’. I handed over the last one and asked everyone to tie their papers.
The boy who sported long hair ran his hand into his hair hastily and pretended that the time was insufficient. I looked back wondering whether he would require a whole day. There were a few who knew nothing but sat till the end. I asked the students to hand over their answer sheets when the bell rang at the end of the examination. They handed their papers in order but the boy who ran his fingers through his hair had accidentally tied the supplement on the main sheet.
I got annoyed and asked him why he had not followed the instructions. He smiled and told me, ‘I am sorry ma’am, I will tie the papers in order. He then set it right, handed the answer sheet and ran his fingers through his hair, shook his head and gave another smile before leaving the classroom.
I smiled back as I arranged the answer sheets in order and walked towards the examination centre wondering whether these written exams made a difference in the life of the students or were these mere short-term memory tests.
“School exams are memory tests, in the real world, no one is going to stop you from referring to a book to solve a problem” ― Amit Kalantri
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