What went inside the examination hall !!!!!!!!!!

I am a student of BASE who wrote the jee 2010 in bangalore. Let me tell you my thoughts as the exam progressed..................



1) JUST BEFORE THE START OF THE EXAM - Even though they say that we could know the pattern of the paper by reading the instructions, the instructions only mention the no of questions in that section and the marks alloted. So, if the instructions say that the question carries 3 marks in a section with negative marking, it could mean two things - it could be a normal MCQ with one correct ans, or it could be a numerical. In fact there are more possibilities as IIT is very fond of changing patterns every year and nothing can be ruled out by a candidate just before the start of the exam. But we must note that the ORS is a giveaway - by knowing the question no, and seeing the corresponding marking system in the ORS, one can determine what type of question that is. This giveaway is seen only by intelligent candidates. In other words, IIT expects you to use your brain and find out what type of question it is , by seeing the ORS. (Note that the ORS is given before the start of the exam as well). The above were exactly what I thought the moment i read the instructions. The IIT exam had already begun for me even before 9.00 AM. I mentally prepared myself for the upcoming pattern that i deduced.

2) The bell rang at 9.00 AM. I immediately broke the seal and made sure all the pages were printed. I started off with physics then. I solved the first question and got the answer. As soon as i went to mark it on the ORS, i noticed that the physics and maths columns were interchanged. I did not know what to do. The thoughts that went through my mind were numerous and extremely fast - "It is clear that it is a blunder commited by the JAB, but is this blunder present in all versions of the paper, or only in mine??" "If the blunder were present only in my ORS, would that mean I have a extremely undue disadvantage??""No one else in my class has complained about this till now i.e 9.05, does that support the fact that the problem is only with my paper??""Is it possible that even though my ORS and q paper says Code0, one of them is a misprint, meaning that it might be some other code, and the order of questions in that version were proper corresponding to the subject headed columns of the ORS?""its 9.06 and i have answered only one question in 6 minutes"" Dont panic, dont panic.........".........This was exactly what went through my mind. I had no other choice than to waste precious time and ask the invigilator. I did so, and it was 9.08 just before the invigilator realized what i meant. He immediately took action and alerted the other invigilators and the head at that centre. More students began complaining about this. Now my only option was to solve all the questions then, and later mark them on the ORS once proper instructions were given. It was 9.09 and the i had solved only one question!! I then summoned all the strength i had and started with extreme concentration to solve the paper. i continued , and after some time, the invigilator told us to mark according to q. no , in other words ,scratch off the column headings on the ORS. I dont remember the time when this happened as i did not look in to my watch that time, but it was sometime before 10.00.

3) Now came another problem - multiple choice with more than one correct answer. My thoughts - "What the heck does partial marking mean?""He also says no negative for wrong answers, so it obviously implies that even if i mark the wrong answers, along with the correct answers, i would be awarded the marks , as there is no negative marking for wrong answers!""But wait, that means that if i mark ABCD for all, i would get full marks in the section easily""The instructions say 'partially correct answers will be awarded partial marks' ""Does that mean partially wrong answers get a zero??" "Wait wait....this is not what IIT is telling me....no...i cant mark ABCD for all, that would be stupid, anyone without preparation can score here then, what does it mean, what does it mean?" " Suppose the answer were ABC, if i marked A or B or C , i would get 1/3rd of the marks, AB,BC,CA, then 2/3rd, ABC, then full, but what about ABCD, or ABD or CBD? They are partially correct too, but they are partially wrong as well. So what this indicates is that they will give me marks as long i dont mark wrong options. In other words, if i was not sure if an option was correct, i should avoid marking it, and mark only the ones i was 100% sure of. That way, the partial marks i obtain would keep me on the safer side rather than attempting a wrong one and scoring what was most likely ,zero" ..........So i proceeded with these assumptions and in the end, wasted around 10 minutes of precious time in total, which will always haunt me...."Damn it, i could have atleast solved 2 more questions in that time, getting atleast 6 more marks, and thus a rank that is better by around 50-100
atleast."

4) I came out of the exam hall at 12 after handing over the ORS. I kept myself completely relaxed, and spoke to no one. Seeing some students discussing the answers disgusted me. i went straight to lunch with my father. I spoke nothing of my performance, and if anyone asked me how the paper was, i just replied 'ok'. I then returned to the second session at 2 PM, with the hopes that i can retain my calm in all possible situations and think clearly.

5) THE SECOND PAPER : I used the same logic i used last time with the ORS to determine the type of questions, and mentally prepared myself before the start of the exam. The ORS had the same misprint as in the first session, but it was no longer a problem as instructions were to scratch the headings off from the ORS. Instructions were fairly clearer this time., and for the column matching with partial marks, i stuck on to marking like in the previous IIT papers, instead of trying to play with the instructions which were slightly unclear. That way, i would be on the safer side.

6) I took up the english version of the paper, and for the problems in the hindi version, my opinion is that their percentage must be evaluated for their paper, i.e according to the given instructions there. If column matching was mentioned to be 3 marks, it must be evaluated for 3 itself. Evaluating them for 8 is NOT a remedy. As they dont mind scaling according to the q.paper(involving missing questions or illegible font) , why dont they scale it for the column matching too? People say that students didnt attempt column matching too much, as they felt it was a waste to spend so much time for so little marks, and hence spent time on other problems. Hence , they must be given respect, and if the scaling is done with the column matchings as 3 marks itself, the percentage increase in answering the other questions will be more as compared to the percentage increase the english student gets for answering the same question.(as CM was 8 marks there). In other words , THERE IS NO SOLUTION TO THIS, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO SOLUTION TO THIS , NOT EVEN A RE-EXAM!

7) IS RE-EXAM A SOLUTION ? - I, am a very serious IIT aspirant and have struggled for a whole year , taking my abilities beyond their limit, with only one goal in mind "I MUST GET A SEAT IN COMPUTER SCIENCE IN IIT CHENNAI" . I cannot imagine myself in any other institute, as I knew I deserved to be an IITian. Would I be willing to write a re-exam? The answer that I would give would be NO. Even though I want to get into IIT so badly, i would refuse to write a re-exam. Only I know the kind of mental torture I have been through while studying for this extremely tough exam. The few days leading up to the exam, the beginning of april were terrible days for me, and i worked so hard (excuse me but i am not bragging) that at a stage,...i just wanted to get it over with !! Even though i knew that there were major blunders in the paper this year, and that i could have done better if the instructions were clearer, i still CANNOT TAKE THE STRESS OF GOING THROUGH THAT AGAIN. If a re-exam is conducted, I cannot write it, i dont want to write it, i dont care. In that case, i would prefer joining NIT, or some local college, as I simply cannot study for iit again, it is too troublesome, and i have better things to do in life than get tensed and stressed out.

Having said all these, I am not happy with the way the JEE has been conducted this year, they have been far too careless. But at the same time, I am against a re-exam. What must happen , must happen. I will gladly accept the rank that they give me, or , if they conduct a re-exam, i will refuse to appear for it. I know that I have done my best, and GOD will take care of the rest.