By Manvi Bisla
The traditional way of giving exams had always been fun, but this time we were supposed to give exams virtually. Our journey through the online classes had already not been liked by us, and here we were supposed to prepare and give exams virtually! Many of us were not comfortable with this type of school and studies, and so, in some subjects we did not understand the lessons as we did in the physical school. Having to give exams in this situation was like going out of our houses without a face shield or mask. Some of us had internet connectivity issues, which was also a hindrance in understanding everything properly. We had to self-study. We felt that marks would not be distributed fairly, because most of the students cheated. So, this was a challenge for the students who were the toppers of the class, because they would not like any other student scoring the same marks or near their own marks. Just imagine, a child who has never scored more than 20 out of 30 marks, suddenly scored 28 on 30, claiming that he/she studied very hard this time. Despite knowing that they had cheated, we did not feel like we had distinguished from the rest of the class as we usually do. To be honest, we felt that marks were just distributed this time. Then, we had the problem of the question paper. We had to do what the others were doing – the same page and the same question. Some might not have been able to keep pace with the other students. If we wanted to go back to a certain question and recheck what we had written, then we were not able to do so, because we all had a common question paper in front of our face, i.e., on the screen. This was beneficiary in two ways, we all learnt to increase our speeds, and we learnt a moral lesson that everything cannot go according to our volitions. I hope and pray that the next exams we give will be in the traditional way, because in my opinion they are better than the virtual exams.
