Students miffed at errors in engineering papers

Mumbai: Students of first-year engineering of Mumbai University (MU) are fuming in the wake of the mechanical engineering question paper having too many errors which the invigilator rectified after most students attempted it. According to the students, this has cost them 15 to 35 marks and they are now demanding compensation marks.

“This is not the first time something like this is happening. Every year, MU makes sure that there are mistakes in the question papers, especially in the engineering courses. Our papers are full of practical-based questions and thus, even a small error in a figure, diagram or problem, can literally change the entire final answer, and we end up wasting our precious time behind the wrong question,” said Sakshi Chaturvedi, a student. The exam was conducted a couple of days ago.

As per the students The Asian Age spoke to, they were informed quite late about the wrong element in the question paper by the supervisor in the examination room. “After around 20 to 25 minutes, a different invigilator came into the classroom and told us about the rectification in the question papers but by that time, we had solved those problems. Moreover, they did not even give us extra time for solving the new problem which had us losing 25 marks in the paper,” said another student.

Vinod Malale, deputy registrar, exam department, told this newspaper that the students should have demanded extra time there and then.

“Every college has standing instructions to give extra time to students during exams if there is any error from the college’s side. Students should have told the teachers at that very moment because once they are out of the exam centre, nothing can be done. About compensation of marks, it is not possible in any case,” said Mr Malale.