Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Memories of School Boards

I completed my school in 2001 when I cleared my 12th CBSE boards. I still can remember those couple of months of heavy duty studying for the CBSE boards, not only in 12th but also in 10th. I can still remember my Dad's words "This exam will decide on the future you want". I guess it does in a way, apart from getting in college. It makes us know how much we like a particular subject. In my 11th, I had taken Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry and Maths as my subjects. I did miss History & Geography when I left my 10th as I liked the history of different places and times. Geography was another topic which is interesting as you know which country is capable in what way. But letting Biology go from my hands was not a tough thing as I never like the mugging or cramming of things. The only thing in biology that was interesting was the Human Anatomy.

During the months for preparation of the boards, all the guys used to forget what was happening around us and really hated if a World cup match was coming on TV, either it be Cricket or Football/Soccer. The pre-board exams of my school were pretty tough as they wanted us to score better marks in the boards. It did really help as we used to get -5 or +5 marks in the boards to that of the pre-boards. Also due to these exams we never felt the tension of the Boards and its major importance. We used to be well prepared. The only thing I still can remember is the last exam of the boards when everyone after the exam would crash for partying straight out of the exam hall. Now that is something people have waited for months.

The other day that is of importance after the board is the day when the results are declared. People prayering, stressed out, eagar for their marks but the more effects of these can be seen on the parents who are in worser situation that the kids. The results are out on the internet and also on the notice boards around the country and in every school. Some really happy,other sad, some amazed at their own performance in some subjects and others shocked at the result coming low. Every year when a board result comes out, there has to be some paper in which the corrections are done pretty strictly as that can be seen by the list of marks of students in that subject taking a dive. I have seen great students taking huge falls while in some cases have seen some others having huge leaps through the marks. Even after getting the papers rechecked, there is no changes except for the education industry eating up the recheck money.

Imagine those few exams that we write decide the future for so many people. It is one sad thing as fate can play astonishing games. The worst is current senario where due to the importance of this exam, I have heard of people Suiciding only because of slight bad performance in this exam. The level of importance given for this paper by society, parents, teachers and friends can make a person stress out at that age of 15-18. The amount of stuff to be learned keeps on increasing for each year. The worst is still the weight of books that kids nowadays have to take from Kindergarden onwards till 12th. With so much technology we still have to carry heavy bags filled with books. These antomatically are tickets to health problems. Everything should be to a limit and should be taken care off. I am not criticising any particular system. Just that the system needs to be improved.

Another thing is the pattern of exam we write. In the Indian system of exams, we are habituated of writing answers to each question in an essay style or to the point. We should also be given some points in school itself on how to tackle other patterns of question papers like GRE, TOEFL, SAT etc. I mean the objective kind of questions and other things. We should be slightly given preparation to tackle other kind of techniques. That can be a major help. Also the system should be improved to help students and make them attract studies by different ways like using audio-video presentations. Hope the future has better things instore for the coming generations.

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