Online Exams

Online activities are rapidly increasing in India. Be it booking tickets, money related transactions from bank, or simply chatting, all these activities can conveniently be carried out online. Looking at its features and convenience, several exams in the country are now conducted online. Exams like GRE and TOEFL for entry in foreign courses have been conducted online for some time now. In addition, entrance in the under graduate courses of BITS-Pilani is being done by its online test BIT-SAT only.

Utility

For Online Tests, Institutes have to neither arrange printed question papers nor answer sheets. Whereas for a written examination, seating arrangements have to be made for students on the same day at various centers across the country, there is no obligation for them to appear for exams on the day and time in an online test. This is so because of the presence of a number of sets of question papers. Following are some of the important institutions and examinations where online tests have been started:

• CAT: Number of students appearing for CAT examinations is increasing every year because these exams are the gateway to the premier management institutions of India. In view of this, CAT examination for admission to the Indian Institutes of Management (Ahmadabad, Bengluru, Lucknow, Indore, Kozhikode, Kolkata and Shillong) is now conducted online. The pattern of examination for admission to the IIMs is based on the pattern of computer-based test or CBT. This test is usually held in the month of November every year. Number of students applying for CAT is showing a marked increase of 40 thousand every year.
• CBSE answer booklets online: Decision has been taken to provide opportunity to students appearing in class X and XII board examinations to read online the answer-sheets of students securing cent percent marks in the CBSE exams. CBSE has decided to provide this facility so that students can understand more about the art of writing and secure maximum marks for themselves.
• DU also online: Delhi University's prestigious Law Center has started providing online question papers for entrance examinations from the year 2009. Until now, Law Center did not allowed Entrance Examination question papers to be taken outside the exam hall. Prospective candidates had to face a lot of difficulties in preparing for the exams as they could not get themselves familiarized with the pattern of examination. Nearly 1.5-2 lack students apply for DU law center from all over India. After entrance exam, only about 1700 get selected. DU's first online exam was conducted in the year 2009 in three colleges - South Delhi's Venkateswara College, North Campus's Miranda House and west Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyay College. From the year 2009, DU has decided to conduct online exams for students of first year B.Sc. environmental science. This course is conducted in 27 colleges of DU, in which the number of students is nearly 2400. In order to take maximum advantage of IT, DU has decided to train its teachers in e-teaching so that they pass on best possible knowledge to their students.

Method of Online Exam

For online exams, students have to visit a particular center in the city where question papers are loaded on computers. These questions are of objective type. Sometimes question papers have more than one section. You can chose sections according to your choice. A set time limit is allotted, in which maximum questions can be attempted. The paper closes automatically at the expiry of time limit. Every center has appointed instructors to help students during online exams. However, it is advisable that students practice on the computers beforehand.

No Need to fear about Online Exams

Students need not be scared at all about online exams. Since many of the important exams in the country have become online and in the near future several other tests are also likely to follow similar patterns, therefore it is advisable that students familiarize themselves with the online system of examinations. There is no scope of complacency for students, they should be careful and try to acclimatize themselves with this. This testing system is very simple. Even if you have never used a computer, you can become familiar with it merely by practicing for one to two hours. It would help if you could download practice sets from the internet and devote maximum time to it. More you practice better would be your result.

Difficulties

Concept of the syllabus is just like before, but students might face some problems initially because of the questions appearing on a computer screen instead of papers. There is quite a difference between giving test on computer and on paper. Difficulties might arise in viewing data on screen. Good amount of practice need to be done beforehand, otherwise your performance in actual exam may suffer upto 20 to 25 percent. Difficulties for computer illiterate students may certainly aggravate. The only way to avoid this problem is to somehow get hold of a computer and learn its basics, and devote maximum time to practicing.