High failure rate in AP Intermediate Exam - Physics Paper II

Lord Nemesis

Lord Nemesis

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There is much hue and cry over the fact that a lot of students were unable to pass the Physics II paper of the Intermediate Exams of AP state.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article2995458.ece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gKXKTZ1Wyn8

The paper is being considered tough because it contained questions that were not in the previous years papers and were also not found in the Question Banks/Guides that many of these private educational institutions make their students study. The paper is completely ordinary and did not even had any subject matter that was not present in the standard text books, in fact the questions were picked up straight from the text books. The parents say that students should be awarded 10~15 grace marks so they can attend EAMCET or IIT JEE exams. The educational institutions say that paper should be set in such a way that every student can handle them easily. Leave alone asking any question on the subject covered, they don't even want questions form the text books. They want questions to be from small subset of the subject and easily present in the guides/question banks that they provide. The students want liberal evaluation of the papers and marks to be awarded freely so that no student fails.

Is this what education is reducing to in our country? What are exams for? are they not to gauge how far the student has understood the subject and its practical applicability? What is the use of a exam whose aim is to allow all students to pass just by getting stuff by heart form a guide or question bank without any real understanding of it?

Just for the record there are many students who scored a cent in this paper and there are many who failed despite which they have a total of 900+ out of 1000... yes that's a 90%. Is there any meaning to that 90% or to the means they obtained that?

Whose fault is it. Is it the Boards that they gave a paper that did not meet the expectations of the students despite there not being a single question that was not present in the standard text books. Is it the fault of the educational institutions and their methods? Is it the fault of the parents that they force their children into the rat race for high marks regards of the method rather than getting them an education. Is it the fault of the students that they go along with all this? What ever it is, its the students and the country that stand to lose in the end.

Guy's your thoughts and opinions....
 
I am not surprised. Most examinations have papers rehashed and recycled from past ones and thus this has become the norm. Education in our country has been all about marks and nothing more (except a few institutions where true learning-teaching process is still present).
 
The paper is being considered tough because it contained questions that were not in the previous years papers and were also not found in the Question Banks/Guides that many of these private educational institutions make their students study.
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People are SERIOUSLY complaining about that?

I would be happy if questions were not from past years papers/question banks

many who failed despite which they have a total of 900+ out of 1000... yes that's a 90%. Is there any meaning to that 90% or to the means they obtained that
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How is that possible? How many subjects do they have? (and what are fail/pass cutoffs) Any idea?

Whose fault is it
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Its nobodys fault

You can use the memorization based approach to exams where you memorise every question you can find, or use the the understanding based approach where you understand the concept and use the understanding to solve

Usually those who use the memorization approach win, this time those who used the understanding approach won
 
This is hilarious. I remember there being a similar furore the year I gave my EAMCET that the physics section was too tough and there wasn't enough time. They didn't seem to care that because everyone would get the same difficult paper, ranking should not have been affected.
 
mehrotra.akash said:
How is that possible? How many subjects do they have? (and what are fail/pass cutoffs) Any idea?
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The paper is for 60 marks and 35% is considered pass. So definitely possible to fail a paper and still have a 90% average.

btw, The overall pass percentage in the exam this year is 58% which is 4% down from last year and people are still crying over this issue. There are people who are blaming the BIE and govt for a bad exam paper because according to them a good paper would increase the pass percentage every year. There was also a so called intructor from a private education system who is claiming that in GRE, the questions are scaled down or up depending on the student because they want every student to get good scores. lol.. I guess he doesn't have a clue about how that system works.

When I gave my Intermediate 1 year paper, the physics paper was considered very tough since most of the questions tested the practical applicability of the concepts that comes from an understanding of the subject. Students grunted that most of the questions were "out of syllabus" (which I consider to be a term that is to be banned from usage). The pass percentage that year was 26% and despite that it was never blown out of proportion like this.
 
Lord Nemesis said:
The paper is for 60 marks and 35% is considered pass. So definitely possible to fail a paper and still have a 90% average.
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So, 1000 marks total, and Physics is just 60 marks!!

How many subjects are there in total?

BTW, had witnessed the same in CBSE (Delhi) 12th Physics : 2008, similar drama had happened but didnt appear in newspapers

Students were crying and apparently fainting during/after the exam

Observed the crying, fainting may have been rumors or the effect of the heat
 
^^ Actually the 1000 marks is over the two years of intermediate. The break down for MPC group is like this

First year

Language I - 100

Language II - 100

Maths 1A - 75

Maths 1B - 75

Physics 1 - 60

Chemistry 1 - 60

Total - 470

Second Year

Language I - 100

Language II - 100

Maths 2A - 75

Maths 2B - 75

Physics 2 - 60

Chemistry 2 - 60

Physics Practicals - 30

Chemistry Practicals - 30

Total - 530

Grand Total - 1000

So Physics carries a total weight of 150 (and so does chemistry). Maths carries a weight of 300.
 
This is Completely stupid protest. There are many corporate institutions who make these materials based on previous years. thats Totally bad. The questions were definitely from Syllabus, There is a bad habit of treating question bank as the regular textbook among students. They'd have to realize that its for prev question paper reference & not for studying.
 
Lord Nemesis said:
Physics Practicals - 30

Chemistry Practicals - 30

Grand Total - 1000

So Physics carries a total weight of 150 (and so does chemistry). Maths carries a weight of 300.
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The funny thing is, I think a 1000+ students get 600/600 on the non language papers every year.

Also, most of the private colleges have "arrangements" with external invigilators and everyone in the college gets 30/30. I remember during my exam, we had a new invigilator who wouldn't do that. He proposed a "compromise" where the college would send him two students who were decent at physics and if they answered his questions, everyone got 30/30.
 
AP Board of Intermediate Education =
happy49.gif


There used to be standard questions in every subject that used to come year after year. Even in Sanskrit

What will a guy aspiring for IIT or NIT or whatever do after he gets into the institute if he fails to answer a general physics paper ?

And BTW please stop watching TV9 news.

I still remember ads in TV9 by Sri Chaitanya and Narayana 981,980,979,978.....what are they showing now with these many failures ?
 
The toughness and the overall percentage of faiure was a given thing about Engineering Mechanics in the first semester in Mumbai Univ. No one grumbled about that. Most people were just relieved to pass it. Why make such a huge fuss about a 12th std paper?
 
I never knew there was a question bank. No wonder I scored 60/60 in Physics. No kidding. The paper was easier than my board exam. Half my class got 90% and no one cared. It BS the way they throw marks. Intermediate is a way to tell people that CBSE / ICSE sucks. Because the marks card for a student with 90% in Intermediate will only manage 80% in CBSE / ICSE or even lower.
 
#[member='Sarath_'] how come you never knew about question banks ?

It easy compared to ICSE/CBSE. I changed from ICSE to State board after X.

I felt the exams are BS with some standard questions.

Even state Class X exam papers are set that way. That is what students carry with them when they go to Intermediate.

Here also teh paper is ought to be in expected manner. But they changed it somehow and most of the students failed to answer it.
 
I studied CBSE till 8th. I didn't learn much more than what i had after shifting to State board. No wonder they need QBs to pass.

I don't understand the purpose of QBs for AP especially when EAMCET requires you to read and memorise every line of the Text book.
 
Now that I think of it, I don't understand what the hue is about. Every college in AP completes the entire portion of two years in the first year itself, in fact in 6 months. By the time you are writing your first intermediate exam, you'd have already gone through the entire syllabi atleast 4 times and the by the end of second year atleast 10 times. It is no exaggeration, any friends here from Sri Chaitanya / Narayana will be able to vouch for that.

When I sat for my exams I had more trouble differentiating what was in first and what was in second year syllabi.

This news only confirms the sad affairs and current state of education in the state and also the country.

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