NAGPUR: Not finding your examination centre in time and not starting to write your examination in time is a recurring nightmare for every student.
This nightmare came true for more than a hundred students of MSc Chemistry of the Nagpur University on Saturday morning, when they arrived on the university campus to find that their examination centre was under renovation, and were given a runabout before actually getting to sit for their Inorganic Chemistry paper.
The examination was a supplementary one for first year in MSc Chemistry. The examination centre had been given as the department of humanities and the time for the exam to start was 9.30 am. However, when hundreds of students arrived at the venue at 9 am, they were surprised to find that the entire humanities department under renovation, and there was no notice to inform them of the change of venue!
At about 9.15 am, an invigilator arrived to inform them that the venue had been changed to the departments of physics and botany. But he failed to ascertain who would go where.
By 9.20 am, it was somehow decided that half the students would be seated in one department, while the others would go to the second department. The students arrived at their respective venues to find, to their utter horror that there was no specific seating arrangement there!
Another 5 minutes passed by before the situation was remedied and by 9.30 am, when the examination was scheduled to start with the distribution of the question papers, students were asked to sit in any order they wished and that the examination would start and end five minutes late.
However, that was not the end of the students' ordeal! Even if one forgoes the time they needed to calm down and regain the frame of mind to sit for the examination, the extra five minutes they were promised were not given. Thus, the three-hour examination started at 9.35 am, and ended at 12.30 pm, because the invigilators refused to give the students any more time.
Speaking to TOI later, examination in-charge S H Indurwade said, "There had been a programme involving the vice chancellor in the department of physics on Friday evening, and so we could not get the venue ready on time." He could not provide any reason behind the uninformed change of venue.
Students like Shabori Das, Neha Meshram and Amit Kulkarni (all names changed on request) related to TOI the harrowing time they had.
While Shabori said that the search for her seat had made her forget all that she had studied, Neha claimed she took nearly an hour and half to calm down. If she passes this single paper, she will have her post graduation degree, but now expresses little hope of it. Amit, meanwhile, was initially told that he was to sit in the physics department, but was later redirected to the botany department, and lost precious minutes in the process.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nagpur/Oops_Your_exam_centres_been_changed/articleshow/3450764.cms
