Mumbai: Final year students panic over new MCQ examination format

Students prepare for an exam at Matunga. The final year exams across the state are scheduled to start in October. File pics

With the final year examinations fast approaching, students have now started to panic over the new Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) format as no reference material or question banks are available for them to understand the pattern. Even though the state education department had promised to provide them with question banks, they haven't received anything yet.

Speaking to mid-day, Janhavi Gala, a third year Bachelor of Arts student said, "I've got back to studying but I'm not sure if I'm completely prepared for the exams. The usual practice is to study the curriculum and then revise with the help of old question papers, as they give us an idea of important topics. This time it's all the more confusing for us because we have never appeared for the exam in the MCQ format. So we don't know what's important and what's not."

Read: Mumbai colleges rely on technology to prevent copying during final-year online exams

Similar is the case for Law students. Requesting anonymity, a Law college professor said, "We are also unsure of what the questions will be like as the format is new for us as well. We too have no clear answers for the students. The pattern of the exam changes the entire approach of preparing for it. All these years they have studied as per the subjective pattern and now in a month's time they have to prepare for a new format."

Siddharth Ingle, president of the Maharashtra Students' Union, which has already met higher education minister Uday Samant in this regard, said, "We have been constantly demanding a question bank since the time the exam pattern was finalised. But even after several assurances there is nothing to look forward to. This clearly shows complete apathy towards the students and their concerns."

While universities are mum on the issue, few colleges have helped their students in understanding the pattern through mock tests.

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