Interesting, but harmful

The examination season at University of Delhi (DU) recently got over, and results for most of the courses are already out. While some students are exhilarated and celebrating their results, many others are wondering why they did not fare well. But, there’s another section of students in the campus which is rather confused. Reason? Despite filling enough pages for that 10-mark question, they did not score as per their expectations. This may sound like a pie in the sky, but is the truth. A lot of students in the varsity have a mindset that longer the answer, more the marks.

“There is a pattern students follow, and I usually do too. Since the beginning lines are the game changers, the opening sentences of an answer are written in the best way. Then after four to five well-written lines, students tend to beat around the bush and write whatever little they know about the topic. And finally, after this deviation, realisation dawns upon them and they come back to the point and end their answer repeating things they have already stated,” says Mansi Malhotra, a final year student.

Some students further muddy the waters by telling others that extra marks are given to those who opt for an extra answer sheet. Shubham Tyagi, a student says, “A friend told me that you get two marks extra on taking a B copy (second answer sheet). So I somehow fill the first answer booklet and ask for an extra one all the time.”

The whole concept of filling answer sheets in hope of extra marks has made their evaluation a daunting task for the teachers. “Students write utter nonsense in their answer sheets. It’s totally irrelevant stuff which has no connection to the question asked in any way,” says Sanjeev Kumar, an English literature professor.

English literature students opt for an easy way to fill their answer sheets, which has become pretty popular among the student fraternity all over the university.

“It is not easy to remember everything that the teacher says about the book. So, I usually read the summaries of the books taught and write them in the answer sheet. It, at least, looks a little relevant; and works all the time,” says Om, a final year English Literature student.