Monday was THE day for most of us; The HSC Exam, March 2013, Physics. Almost everyone was confident about Physics, putting it down mentally as the subject that would boost our overall percentage. Physics ka kya hai? Tough hai, leking ho jaaega! was what we all believed.We were wrong.
The main reason most of us picked HSC in the first place was because it was TONS easier when compared to the likes of CBSE and ISC. When the State Board decided to raise the level of the 12th standard to that of CBSE, albeit, pissing off as it was, nobody objected. What had to be done, had to be done. There was no two ways about it. All we could do was work a tad bit harder.
So everyone spent a full year slogging, making sure nothing important was left out. Teachers, all with years of experience in dealing with the Boards referred books and notes and cheatsheets to us, so as to make us more and more prepared for everything. By the last few months, it felt like there was nothing left to do, we solved tons of papers, braced ourselves, went to battle , and came back, bruised and broken.
The one question I have is, in a system where it isn't about learning, but about memory, is it even minutely logical to "study" something that that has a very low probability of being asked in the exam? If you ask me, I'd say no! And I bet so would most of my fellow batchmates . Why would anybody in their right senses NOT ask concepts which are actually relevant and important for future study in that subject? Why would they not follow the pattern of important questions, which they have been doing since forever? WHY are they trying to be SOMETHING THEY CAN NEVER BE! Making it more complicated doesn't make it better!
Fact is, the board screwed up. Despite their justification (read news paper clipping below), I have no one to blame but them. As far as their point about us relying about coaching classes is concerned, Yes, we do rely on their notes more than we do on the sad-excuse-for-a-Text-Book the State has provided us. Why? Because the text book is pure bullshit. We find the coaching class notes more student-friendly, we use it! It covers everything that we need to know in a chapter, is to the point, and is always better to refer to, because it is in our very own handwriting! Is the board trying to say that it purposely gave questions it knew wouldn't be there in the notes, just to show us our place? Is this some sort of a cheap form of vengeance? Toying with the future of an ENTIRE BATCH of students is the way the board has of showing us that they are superior?
At the end of all of this, the only people losing out in this mess are the students; especially those who don't happen to have the ability to mugg-up entire books and write it like it is in the "text-books". It's a shame that something people worked so hard for more than a year had to go down this way. The Board doesn't seem to have the common sense to know that just raising the difficulty of an already messed-up syllabus isn't going to "raise it's standards"! If you really want to talk about standards, learn something from the systems in the world that are churning out hundreds and thousands of sound-minded individuals who have been educated in the true sense. Why even the WORLD! In our very own country, we have efficient systems in place. Learn from them!
But then again, I'm probably wasting my time expecting them to "learn". Like that's even possible in a country where everyone just wants to be like everyone else.
The main reason most of us picked HSC in the first place was because it was TONS easier when compared to the likes of CBSE and ISC. When the State Board decided to raise the level of the 12th standard to that of CBSE, albeit, pissing off as it was, nobody objected. What had to be done, had to be done. There was no two ways about it. All we could do was work a tad bit harder.
So everyone spent a full year slogging, making sure nothing important was left out. Teachers, all with years of experience in dealing with the Boards referred books and notes and cheatsheets to us, so as to make us more and more prepared for everything. By the last few months, it felt like there was nothing left to do, we solved tons of papers, braced ourselves, went to battle , and came back, bruised and broken.
The one question I have is, in a system where it isn't about learning, but about memory, is it even minutely logical to "study" something that that has a very low probability of being asked in the exam? If you ask me, I'd say no! And I bet so would most of my fellow batchmates . Why would anybody in their right senses NOT ask concepts which are actually relevant and important for future study in that subject? Why would they not follow the pattern of important questions, which they have been doing since forever? WHY are they trying to be SOMETHING THEY CAN NEVER BE! Making it more complicated doesn't make it better!
Fact is, the board screwed up. Despite their justification (read news paper clipping below), I have no one to blame but them. As far as their point about us relying about coaching classes is concerned, Yes, we do rely on their notes more than we do on the sad-excuse-for-a-Text-Book the State has provided us. Why? Because the text book is pure bullshit. We find the coaching class notes more student-friendly, we use it! It covers everything that we need to know in a chapter, is to the point, and is always better to refer to, because it is in our very own handwriting! Is the board trying to say that it purposely gave questions it knew wouldn't be there in the notes, just to show us our place? Is this some sort of a cheap form of vengeance? Toying with the future of an ENTIRE BATCH of students is the way the board has of showing us that they are superior?
At the end of all of this, the only people losing out in this mess are the students; especially those who don't happen to have the ability to mugg-up entire books and write it like it is in the "text-books". It's a shame that something people worked so hard for more than a year had to go down this way. The Board doesn't seem to have the common sense to know that just raising the difficulty of an already messed-up syllabus isn't going to "raise it's standards"! If you really want to talk about standards, learn something from the systems in the world that are churning out hundreds and thousands of sound-minded individuals who have been educated in the true sense. Why even the WORLD! In our very own country, we have efficient systems in place. Learn from them!
But then again, I'm probably wasting my time expecting them to "learn". Like that's even possible in a country where everyone just wants to be like everyone else.
