Can Marks really judge a student??

Well, merely by looking at the heading, most of you must have already guessed correctly about the matter in this blog.

Let’s start with an example-

A student called Mr. A. Passed his XII in 2008, a so called IIT aspirant (nowadays anyone who wants to be an engineer is called an IIT aspirant). Has already written many competitive exams like JEE, AIEEE, BITSAT, Manipal, VITEEE etc.

He is sitting in his room, trying to crack a hardcore physics problem. His dad surfing the internet, actually public portals meant for students and going through the posts in which different students from all over the country have posted the marks obtained/calculated by them in different competitive exams.

Just then A shouts on top of his voice “Yes, Yes. I did it. I cracked one of the toughest problems of mechanics which none of my friends could crack.”(I will mention about these friends later in this post)

Dad: Why are you shouting so loudly?? Its OK if you have cracked this problem but lemme tell you one thing. You don’t stand anywhere in comparison to different students all over the country.

A: Huh??? What do you mean by that???

Dad: come here and see the marks calculated by these students. This guy is getting 323 in BITSAT, he is getting 366, he is getting 320 and look at this guy, he is getting a mammoth 412. And look at your score. A paltry 295.

A: But dad, I have already told you a hundred times that it was not my fault. The chemistry portion was too much knowledge based and a lot of questions asked the information not given in the chemistry books I have.

Dad: Whatever!!! You always have an excuse. Alright then, look at their AIEEE and IITJEE scores. Most of them in 200s and some of them even crossing 250. And look at your scores. AIEEE-165 and IITJEE-182.

A: (was just about to speak but suddenly stops himself because he knew that his explanations will be of no use. Instead of making his dad understand his situation, they would only serve as excuses given by him for his poor performance)

Now something about A. No need to mention that he is a genius in physics and loves this subject but on the other hand, he is not so good in maths and poor in chemistry.

It’s a fact that we are all human beings and not robots and you can’t expect everyone to be perfect in all the 3 subjects. A’s case is not much different. He has a genius’ mind but as he is not that good in chemistry, he could not score well in his competitive exams and might end up with very poor ranks in almost all of them.

So does it mean that he is not intelligent, he is not studious, he is not hardworking?? Do these marks give any idea of his intelligence, hard work and dedication?? If he is getting low marks in BITSAT just because the chemistry questions asked the info he did not have in his books, does it mean that he doesn’t stand anywhere??

And now about his friends, almost all of them are getting marks higher than him in all the exams but none of them is able to do hardcore physics problems which A can do quite easily. But just because his friends will get a higher rank and higher scores in exams, does it mean that they are more intelligent, more hard working, more studious??

Well, a better question is-Can an exam judge a person in just 3 hours?? Is it possible to judge someone’s intelligence, I.Q., determination, sincerity etc in 3 hours?? Is it possible to judge the amount of hard work put in by anyone for whole 2 years in just 3 hours?? Who knows what happens in those 3 hours. There are several reason due to which many deserving people can’t get a seat in one of the India’s most prestigious institution.

What are those reasons??

Lemme take one more example. This time I will call this guy Mr. B.

His strongest subject-Chemistry and he is pretty decent in Maths and physics at least to the extent of clearing the cut-offs in the exams. He was pretty confident of getting a seat in IIT. But fate had something else in store for him.

To his bad luck, his family was full of IITians and people with excellent academic achievements/records. So the pressure of performing well automatically came upon him.

To add to his bad luck, his elder cousin got a rank of 52(rank changed to hide the identity but it is very close to the original rank) in JEE-07. Now his family’s expectations from him and pressure on him increased manifolds. Right from declaration of results of JEE-07 to JEE-08, the pressure kept on increasing constantly because of his family members who kept reminding him of their expectations from him.

And lemme tell you, his miseries are not over yet. He has a competitor also. His cousin brother, who has always been ahead of him in academics, has also given JEE this year. So now B has an extra pressure to perform better than his cousin.

So now, I hope that most of you can estimate the amount of pressure on B. And this pressure told upon his JEE-08. As soon as he got the question paper, his hands were literally trembling. He broke the seal of the question paper, saw the first question and imagine what? He was not able to recall even a single formula. He had to derive most of the formulae there only and that consumed most of his time. So this way, he messed up his first paper.

In the next sitting, the pressure was even higher as he had messed up his first paper but this time he was more determined to do well. He started off pretty well doing a majority of chemistry questions and some maths questions also but then he stuck some physics questions and the pressure started building again. He somehow managed to do the second paper better than the first one but his total marks are no where near the expected cut-offs.

So, you can clearly see that a deserving student who was confident of getting a rank in top 2000 in IITJEE would now hardly get any rank + his parent’s disappointment + embarrassment in front of his academically great relatives. And he was not faulty anywhere in his preparations. He is a mentally strong person but after all he is a human being and under such circumstances and pressure, a mental breakdown is not surprising.

An example of consequences of parental pressure .

Well, it is just one of the numerous reasons. I think this much is sufficient to start with. I will keep posting more such reasons and examples.

Common story of all IIT aspirants.

And lemme make it very clear that these examples are not my mind’s creation. These are real life examples of my friends, and different students I have come across till now. And to hide their identity I am using names like Mr. A, Mr. B.

I wanted a platform to express my views and that’s why I started this blog.

I can assure you one thing that you will surely find yourself in one of the examples I have posted so far /will be posting in future.

Now I am looking forward to your views. So feel free to express your views.

Can an exam judge a student’s real potential in 3 or 6 hours??? Are marks the only criteria which differentiate intelligent/deserving students with dumb people?? Is the selection of few thousand students out of lakhs on the basis of a 3 hour test justified??

In a nutshell, I want to convey this message to all the IIT-aspirants all over the country-

Never get demoralised if you fail in an exam. Don't think that you are worthless and worse/lower than IITians in any aspect. Greatdreams rightly said in his comment-

academic excellence is never ever = professional excellence.

If you are deserving, if you have talent, you will ultimately succeed in life despite numerous failures.

Success doesn't mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle. ~Edwin C. Bliss