<p> Students who took the Common Entrance Test -2013 have pointed out an unusually high number of ‘errors’ in the Physics provisional answer keys released by the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA). Their claim is being supported by faculty from City-based coaching institutes.<br /><br /></p>.<p>While one or two errors are usually found every year, the number of errors this time is something that is too glaring to ignore and it would definitely affect the prospects of students if not addressed, said Prof Anil Mascarenhas who teaches Physics at Boscoss Tutorials. “The number of errors this time is reminiscent of the Math's paper of 2001 when a large number of errors were found”, he said.<br /><br />One only needs to look at the frantic posts on the KEA Facebook page to gauge the anxiety of the students who took CET.<br /><br />One post points out as many as 11 ‘errors’ in the answer keys of the Physics paper (B-3 set). According to the post, for question numbers 6,13,16 and 60 of the particular set of Physics paper, “options for the computed answers do not exist.”<br /><br />Dr Sridhar G, Managing Director, Ace Creative Learning, was of the opinion that, “there were four such questions in the Physics paper with incorrect options and where students spent significant time understanding and solving these questions, which resulted in a time crunch.” <br /><br />Incorrect answers<br /><br />Questions with incorrect options were, however, only one of the three types of errors that were seen in this year’s Physics paper, according to Dr Sridhar. The others being two questions with insufficient data or unsolvable questions and another two with multiple correct options.<br /><br />The Facebook post further states that the correct answer to question number 52, 37 and 19 are more than one in number whereas two questions, number 7 and 42 are incomplete and have insufficient data to arrive at a correct answer. <br /><br />“I have found a number of errors in the Physics answer keys which has got me really worrying. This is a humongous amount of marks that we are talking about here. Just one mark can cause a slide by nearly 200 to 300 ranks and with such large errors there will be a slide of at least 800 to 1000 ranks,” said Kishore Kumar (name changed), who wrote the test. <br /><br />According to Mascarenhas, eight to nine answer keys are wrong and this would roughly account to about 10 per cent of the total marks which in turn will result in students losing nine to 10 marks. “There are a number of conceptual errors in the questions as well as questions with no clear diagrams or formation of sentences,” he said.<br /><br />Students are also talking about errors in Biology and Chemistry papers. “Many teachers have pointed out some errors in Biology and Chemistry papers,” said Mascarenhas. <br />Ace Creative Learning has pointed out one error in the Mathematics question paper. <br />The KEA had asked students to mail their objections with justifications, if any by May 9. “An expert committee will look at all these concerns and alleged errors and decide the next course of action,” said S P Kulkarni, administrative officer, KEA. </p>
<p> Students who took the Common Entrance Test -2013 have pointed out an unusually high number of ‘errors’ in the Physics provisional answer keys released by the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA). Their claim is being supported by faculty from City-based coaching institutes.<br /><br /></p>.<p>While one or two errors are usually found every year, the number of errors this time is something that is too glaring to ignore and it would definitely affect the prospects of students if not addressed, said Prof Anil Mascarenhas who teaches Physics at Boscoss Tutorials. “The number of errors this time is reminiscent of the Math's paper of 2001 when a large number of errors were found”, he said.<br /><br />One only needs to look at the frantic posts on the KEA Facebook page to gauge the anxiety of the students who took CET.<br /><br />One post points out as many as 11 ‘errors’ in the answer keys of the Physics paper (B-3 set). According to the post, for question numbers 6,13,16 and 60 of the particular set of Physics paper, “options for the computed answers do not exist.”<br /><br />Dr Sridhar G, Managing Director, Ace Creative Learning, was of the opinion that, “there were four such questions in the Physics paper with incorrect options and where students spent significant time understanding and solving these questions, which resulted in a time crunch.” <br /><br />Incorrect answers<br /><br />Questions with incorrect options were, however, only one of the three types of errors that were seen in this year’s Physics paper, according to Dr Sridhar. The others being two questions with insufficient data or unsolvable questions and another two with multiple correct options.<br /><br />The Facebook post further states that the correct answer to question number 52, 37 and 19 are more than one in number whereas two questions, number 7 and 42 are incomplete and have insufficient data to arrive at a correct answer. <br /><br />“I have found a number of errors in the Physics answer keys which has got me really worrying. This is a humongous amount of marks that we are talking about here. Just one mark can cause a slide by nearly 200 to 300 ranks and with such large errors there will be a slide of at least 800 to 1000 ranks,” said Kishore Kumar (name changed), who wrote the test. <br /><br />According to Mascarenhas, eight to nine answer keys are wrong and this would roughly account to about 10 per cent of the total marks which in turn will result in students losing nine to 10 marks. “There are a number of conceptual errors in the questions as well as questions with no clear diagrams or formation of sentences,” he said.<br /><br />Students are also talking about errors in Biology and Chemistry papers. “Many teachers have pointed out some errors in Biology and Chemistry papers,” said Mascarenhas. <br />Ace Creative Learning has pointed out one error in the Mathematics question paper. <br />The KEA had asked students to mail their objections with justifications, if any by May 9. “An expert committee will look at all these concerns and alleged errors and decide the next course of action,” said S P Kulkarni, administrative officer, KEA. </p>
