Bharathidasan University is all set to commence the odd semester exams of this academic year on December 14, altering an earlier schedule of internal and external exams that was arrived upon due to the lockdown.
The earlier plan discussed at the meetings of college principals was to conduct three internal exams for 25 marks each followed by the semester exam for 25 marks.
But, so far, the colleges have been able to conduct only two internal exams. And, the second internal exam is still in progress.
Due to shortage of time, the semester exam will be conducted during the schedule that was earlier fixed for conduct of the third internal exam. The university intends to complete the semester exam before Christmas.
The pattern of distribution of marks for the internal and external exam has also been tweaked by the university.
“Now, the external exam will be conducted for 75 marks and the colleges will have the flexibility to factor in any one of the internal exams in which the student has a better score for the internal marks,” Controller of Examinations In-charge Srinivasa Raghavan said.
Through teaching in the online mode, four of the five units could be covered in the two internal exams. The final unit will be completed before commencement of the external exam for first, third and fifth semesters of undergraduation and first and third semesters of post-graduation programmes, Mr. Srinivasa Raghavan said.
Submission of scripts
Another major change in the online examination system this time is that the students can submit the answer scripts at their colleges within a few hours after downloading questions and completing the exam at their homes.
Principals are understood to have been instructed by the university to accept the answer scripts through post or email also. The university had to drop the idea of uploading of answer scripts online due to the difficulties that the students in rural parts had to undergo.“There were difficulties for students to upload their answer scripts in the PDF format. The students also could not send the answers in the ideal file size. Hence, the decision was taken to do away with the practice. Under the new system, the respective principals will function as exam superintendents and collect the answer scripts from the students,” Mr. Srinivasa Raghavan said.
