TOPIC

• Existing practices: Unit test, Half-yearly and

Annual examinations, Semester System.

•Marking Vs. Grading, Credit System, Online

Examination, Open Book Examination, Menace of
Coaching.
 TEST
Teaching and testing are the integral part of educational system. Testing is
implicit in teaching, which may be properly marked for testing procedures.
1. during teaching.
2. at the end of teaching a daily lesson.
3. at the end of teaching a unit.
4. at the end of the term.
5. at the end of the year/curriculum.

A test at the end of a teaching unit is known as the UNIT TEST.

• A unit test is not a random assessment of questions; it is preplanned,
systematic and scientific test.
 Characteristics of Unit test
1. Unit test is an evaluation tool for measurement of pupils and knowledge
achievement and to improve by giving feed back.
2. It is based on a single unit.
3. It is administered at the completions of the unit.
4. Unit testing is an integral part of teaching process. Unit testing makes
instruction a dynamic process through continuous evaluation and regular
feedback.
 Steps for setting up a unit test
A) Planning (Design) of the test
B) Editing the test
C) Reviewing the question paper
D) Administering . the test
E) Interpret the test results
F) Statistical treatment
 Use of a Unit Test
1. help in knowing the learner’s achievement.
2. useful to know the weaknesses and strengths of students.
3. helpful in classifying the students.
4. help in deciding the effectiveness of teaching.
5. help in knowing the objectives are achieved (or) not.
6. become the part of continuous evaluation.
7. help teacher to improve his teaching effectively.
8. help in development of self-confidence in facing the examinations.
 WHAT IS EXAMINATION ?
 The term “EXAMINATION” is used to find out or to know the growth and development
of students in terms of their scholastic achievement.

 The examination is conducted in various ways through out the academic sessional year.
 Some of the modes are like-

i. Unit test
ii. Semester system
iii. Half yearly examination
iv. Annual examination
v. Oral test/viva voce
vi. Practical etc.
 Half yearly examination
• Half yearly examination is conducted after completion of half of the session
and syllabus.
• Assess scholastic aspect of child.
• It is a formative type of assessment.
• It can diagnose the children and helps in remedial teaching.
• Purpose of the half yearly examination is of two fold.
i. Assessing the performance
ii. Improving upon the weakness of the pupils
• It does not mean end of the syllabus and not to be tested again.
 Annual Examination
• annual system is defined as a full term of studies without any break.
• it is the traditional system which covers total syllabus of the session.
• exam is conducted at the end of the year
• in this system, once the students enter the college, they feel free and
think about studies during the year.
• teaching institution gets enough time to prepare question papers.
Objectives of Annual System :
i. To reduce the expenditure of exam.
ii. To get more time to revise the syllabus for students.
iii. To provide quality base education.
 Advantages of Annual System

• Students get chance to refer various subject related books.

• They can prepare their notes by using library resources.
• Students can participate in all the co-curricular and extracurricular
activities.
• Teachers will have a chance to give as much as knowledge to the
students related to the subject.
 Contd……
 Teachers can take the students to various field trips and give them much
exposure.

 Teacher and student interaction increases and teachers have more information
about their students.

 Contents of courses are decided by teachers and they can decide them by
reviewing students’ interests.

 Students can develop skills and subject related knowledge in a better way.
 Disadvantages of Annual System

• In the annual system, most of the students show negligence towards

studies as the examinations is conducted once in a year.
• Students have to study the entire syllabus for annual exams which is a
burden.
• Most of the students do not attend the college regularly as there is no
strict regulation on attendance.
• Exam is conducted at the end of the year. If student is fail in the exam,
he spoils his current academic year.
• Students are active before some days of annual exam.
SEMESTER SYSTEM
 INTRODUCTION
• Semester system came into existence as an improvement over
the annual examination system. When a particular course of
study is divided into different equal parts not on the basis of the
session but on the basis of months and examination is conducted
after the completion of every part, it is called as semester system.
• The main objective of the semester system is to broaden the
outlook of the students and instil in them a sense of confidence
and responsibility.
• The semester system is a very proactive system as it engages both
the faculty and the students throughout the year in academic
activity.
TRIMESTER AND QUARTER SYSTEM
• trimester system divides the academic year into three sessions. Each
trimester is approximately 12-13 weeks long. Each trimester we can
take three to four classes depending on how many credits each class
has.
• Quarter system divides the academic year into four sessions. With a
quarter system, each session lasts approximately ten weeks. Each
quarter, we can take three or four classes, depending on how many
credits each class is.
 ADVANTAGES
• It keeps the students engaged in studies throughout the year.
• The progress of the students is constantly assessed and continuously their
knowledge gets improved.
• It allows greater interaction with teachers and students.
• It reduces workload among students as few courses are studied in a semester
and the workload gets equally distributed in all semesters.
• Continuous internal assessment and periodical test is one of the greatest
merits of this system.
• It reduces stress and strain and makes learning purposeful, pleasant and
Joyful.
 DISADVANTAGES
• Because of continuous examination in the semester system, students
are constantly under the hammer of examinations.
• It is a difficult task to frame proper syllabus of each semester.
• The workload on teachers and students increases.
• Sometimes, it is felt that examination is more than study.
• Students get involved in the curriculum and other aspects of students
development gets hampered.
 CONCLUSION
• Considering the meticulous details of both semester and annual
system, it may seem difficult to choose a single system over the other.
But, if we review student’s choice, most of them prefer semester
system over annual system because in that system, the students get
more advantage; since examinations are held within a very short time
span and their memory of what has been taught remains afresh to a
great extent.
 Online Examination
• It’s a type of examination that is conducted online by breaking all barricades of
distance, time and location with the help of internet services or LAN of the
computers.
Challenges to Manage Online Examination Process

Internet Connectivity

Question Bank Preparation

Communication with Candidates

Online Exam Security

 Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Examination
Advantages
• Online Examination System is a
computerized system which gives instant
results and also saves time.
• Saves Paper
• Saves Money
• Saves Time
• More secure than Offline Examination
• Reduce the workload of teachers by using
automated question making and marking
schemes.
Disadvantages
• Can’t keep a check on Students
• Lack of interaction between the teacher and
student.
• Network problems may arise in Online
Examination System, test may be postponed
or cancel.
• Hackers can easily cheat in the online
examination.
 Open Book Examination
• An “open book examination” is one in which examinees are allowed to consult
their class notes, textbooks, reference and other approved material while
answering questions.
• Open-book examinations often comprise of tasks based on a problem or
argument to which the student is required to respond employing their
knowledge of the subject and making use of the reference material as
appropriate.
• The rationale behind adopting open book examination-
 A cure for the menace of cheating and mass
copying.
 Helpful in transforming learning process from
information receiving to information
processing.
 Types of Open Book Examinations
Restricted Type of Open Book
Examinations
• In the restricted type of open book examination,
students have no free access to texts, class notes
and other printed materials.
• Here they may be permitted to consult printed
documents such as the log tables, dictionaries.
• Such restricted type of open book examinations
neither represent the true concept of open book
examination nor have the required capability of
fulfilling the missions and objectives of open book
examinations.
Unrestricted Type of Open Book
Examinations
• In the unrestricted type of open book
examination, students are free to bring books,
documents whatever they like.
• These are the type of open book examinations
that truly depict the purpose of open book
examinations.
 Merits of Open Book Examinations
• Open Book Examination tests students’ ability to
use resource material effectively.
• It reduces memorization and focuses more on
understanding and applying of the available
information.
• By providing students with reference material
prior to the assessment, it may give them greater
confidence when taking examination and
therefore produce a more accurate account of
their achievements.
 Demerits of Open Book Examinations
• Not sure of Equality
• Time Consuming
• Need more desk space
• The students would stop studying and simply
copy from the open book provided at the
examination hall.
Marking vs Grading

Marking Grading
 Marking
• Traditional system of Assessment
• Achievement denoted by numbers
(e.g. 86, 94, etc )
• Marks are awarded for individual
assessment items.
• Only academic / scholastics aspects
are covered.
• Students compete for scoring high
and do hard work.
Grading
• New concept
• Achievement denoted by letters (e.g.
A, B, C etc.)
• Grades are awarded for courses.
• Academic and non-academic both
aspects are covered.
• Does not establish a sense of
competition.
 Marking
• Marking is possible without grades.
• No scope for overall development.
• Summative in nature.
• Less time taking process as compare
to grading.
• Marking system covers only one
domain of learning (i.e. cognitive
domain)
Grading
• Grades necessarily requires a base of
mark.
• Grading system motivates for overall
development.
• Formative in nature.
• It takes more time (almost whole
session)
• It covers all the three domains of
learning. (cognitive , affective and
psychomotor )
 Credit System/CBCS
• Credit: A unit by which the course work is measured. It determines the number of
hours of instructions required per week. One credit is equivalent to one hour of
teaching (lecture or tutorial) or two hours of practical work/field work per week.
• Choice based credit system provides a learning platform where in the students or
knowledge seeker has the flexibility to choose their course from a list of elective,
core and foundation courses.
• This is a student centric approach or learner centric approach to learning or
acquiring higher education. University grants commission(UGC) aims to bring
equity, efficiency and excellence in the higher education system of India.
• The basic motive is to expand academic quality in all aspects, right from the
curriculum to the teaching learning process to examination and evaluation system.
• In CBCS, an academic year is divided into two semester. The assessment and
evaluation of students is done in semester wise. One semester in from July to
December and second semester is from January to June.
• Each semester will have 15 to 18 weeks of academic training and assessment
which is equal to 90 teaching days.
• It also has non-credit courses to be chosen which will be assessed as satisfactory
or unsatisfactory. But credit courses are included in the computation of
SGPA(semester grading point average)/CGPA(cumulative grading point average).
 Computation of SGPA: grade grade
credit
point(credit ×
Course credit letter point grade)
UGC has introduced a 10 course 1 3 A 8 24
point grading system in SGPA = total credit point/
course 2 4 B+ 7 28
CBCS to allot grading as course 3 3 B+ 6 18
course 4 3 O 10 30
shown in below table; total credit course 5 3 C 5 15
= 131/20 course 6 4 P 4 16
letter grade grade point         Total = 131
O (outstanding) 10 = 6.55
A+ (excellent) 9
A (very good) 8 Computation of CGPA:
B+ (good) 7

B (above average) 6 CGPA = total credit in n semester × SGPA

C (average) 5
P (pass) 4 = [{Credit × SGPA} of semester 1 + {credit × SGPA }
F (fail) 0 of semester 2 + ………. {Credit × SGPA } of semester n] /
Ab (absent) 0
Total Credit
 Advantages
• CBCS is a student centric approach.
• Focus on continuous and comprehensive assessment.
• The CBCS provides choice for students to select the elective courses in any
other institution as well.
• In CBCS, a student can earn a few credits from one college and transfer the
credits to some other college. There is a provision to change the college after
examine a few credits if desired.
• Students are allowed to choose courses of inter-disciplinary nature as well and
based on their choice ensure depth and of study.
• Higher education grading are acceptable internationally, so that students can
compete international opportunities.
 Disadvantages
• Students may face confusion or doubt in choosing the subjects due to their
inexperience in predicting future demand.
• Opportunities to take credits outside the core subject area may dilute the
depth in core area of studies.
• The college is compelled to provide good infrastructure, best faculties, large
number of elective at low fees to attract more students for a given course.
• It is time consuming and expensive, if a student takes different subject in
different colleges during a same period of time.
• Sometimes administrative issues occur.
 Menace of Coaching
Private coaching classes- a ‘necessary evil’
• Private coaching are growing up all around the
world.
• The phenomenon is more pronounced in the
developing countries where standard of
education in school is poor.
• Consequently, parents are forced by such
circumstances and send their children for private
tuition for score better in exams.
• In most of the coaching centres, tutors are
government college teachers. They teach well at
coaching centres but do not teach in colleges
though they draw a huge amount from the
government.
• Private tuition are more professionals and cover
syllabus in specified time.
 Advantages
• Gain extra knowledge that may not learn in the school.
• Can exchange ideas and exam questions with new friends there.
• Private coaching is a window to exchange and channelize the energy of the
students towards greater productivity.
• It also makes a student maintain a daily routine.
• It provides correct guidance to the children that empowers them to utilize
their extra time in covering various subjects.
 Disadvantages
• High cost. In turn coaching classes can also create an extra burden of expenditure.
• it creates a sense of stress.
• Less time is available to students for extra curricular activities.
• It discriminate the rich and poor students.
• Individual attention becomes impossible for students to receive during coaching.

“To curb coaching menace, HRD to bring IIT preparation app”

 REFERENCES
• Brown, S. & Knight, P. (1994). Assesing learning in higher education, London, Kogan page Ltd.
• Grounlund, N.E. (1996). Measurement and evaluation in Teaching, The macmillan company, New York.
• Ingram, F. (1993). Fundamentals of educational assesement, New York, D. Van Nostard company.
• Kotwal, D.V. et al., Online Examination System, International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology,
Vol. 3, Issue I, January 2016.
• Lehmann, I.J. and W.A. Mehrens, Measurement and Evaluation in Education and Psychology,
New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1991.
• Segers, M., F. Dochy, and E. Cacallar (Eds.), Optimising New Modes of Assessment: In Search of Qualities and
Standards, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Solanki, D.(2019). Difference between semester system and annual system, International journal of research in all
subjects in multilanguage. 7(12), 36-38
Retrieved from:
• https://www.toppr.com/bytes/online-examination/
• https://blog.epravesh.com/top-4-challenges-manage-online-exam-process/