Have you ever studied really hard and written really well in an NIOS exam and ended up failing?
Well, you are probably preparing to rewrite the exam right now because you think it was your fault. If you know you have studied well and written well, why doubt yourself?
You're not the only victim of NIOS.
I'm an old student of NIOS. Well, not that old. I just got my secondary school leaving certificate. So, that makes me an ex-student, I guess.
I was registered under the Old Syllabus category, so I don't know if there are students who are under New Syllabus and are actually going through the same problem too. And this might not be the case for the Higher Secondary. Perhaps.
So to the students registered under the institution National Institute of Open Schooling aka 'NIOS', I just want you to know that just because you failed an NIOS exam, it doesn't mean that you are a bad student. Nor is rewriting under the same institution a solution.
Let's just talk about me and my problem for a while.
I'm a 21 year old girl from Bangalore. I first wrote my 10th exams in April 2013. Yes, I know I'm too old to be in 10th. I missed school for many years because I was ill for some while. I used to be a smart kid, but after leaving school for all these years and staying away from the studying environment, I turned out to be person who is not interested in studies. BUT... a big but.... I AM good at languages. I just love studying Kannada and English. I speak 4 languages fluently; understand 2 languages; and can read about 7 languages.
Now, you have got it, my strong point: LANGUAGES.
I have a brother who is currently 19 and he too wrote his first exam in April 2013. He too is too old to be in 10th. Well, he stayed at home tending to me and doing small jobs simultaneously. So his education was also, you can say, screwed. Is he smart? Or tired of studying, like me? NO! NO! NO! He might be one of the smartest young man of his age that you might come across. Well, unless you know him you might never know him, so let me stop boasting of having brainy guy for a brother.
And what is he good at? Everything. He's a hard worker and he is thorough with all NIOS books. While I lagged behind in studies (actually I hadn't covered the second book of Science and Technology), he was my encyclopedia. He is a science lover and is always researching something online. I call him my "Walking Wikipedia".
Back to the exams.
We both took up 5 subjects:
English (202)
Kannada (208)
Science and Technology (212)
Social Science (213)
Mathematics (211)
We wrote our first exams on April 2013. They gave us a question booklet containing 2 parts namely OLD SYLLABUS and NEW SYLLABUS. Well, I can understand this arrangements since they have brought out new books and they have students like me who - under the "Old Syllabus" - had been registered before they released these new books. IT IS understandable.
But, the thing is the exam venue that had been given to us was Maharani Lakshmi Ammani Women's College, Malleshwaram, Bangalore; and the school authorities/invigilators had no idea who belonged to the Old or New Syllabus category. A teacher told us to "write the paper you think matches with what you have studied". So they had no idea.
To us who just found out that there was actually a "New Syllabus" this was a blow and right there in the exam hall where you are not supposed to talk to the other kids, how are you supposed to find out if there is a new book and does it actually resemble ours or is it different or is ours the new one? Well, there was no other way than to "write the paper we thought matches with what we had studied for". And, the Old Syllabus was the one that matched.
So that was that till the Kannada paper. As for the Kannada paper, the one that "matched" was the NEW Syllabus paper. The Old Syllabus one wasn't even from this planet, in my opinion.
I remember my heartbeat rate rising and thinking that I should have written the New Syllabus papers for the previous papers as well. The invigilators didn't have an idea nor did I. So, for this one paper we wrote the New Syllabus one.
My previous Marks Card is not to be found. My parents must have thrown it away. Well, I had failed. Though I don't remember the entire detail. I had passed in 3 subjects and failed in 2. I had scored 86 in English, 43 or 45 in Kannada (?!) and had passed in Social Science(hope I got the subject here right).
If you don't see my confusion here, I'll get back to it later.
My brother's results:
English : 81
Mathematics: 13
Social Science: 33
Kannada: 25
Science and Technology: 13
If you still don't see the problem here, well, let's talk about it.
Forget the marks for English, which I know we both deserved 90+ marks. Look at my marks in Kannada! Well, I thought, this is probably due to us writing the New Syllabus paper. BUT, look at my brother's marks in Science! He's a Science whiz and this is all he gets?!
I was willing to let it go because I thought that it was our fault probably as we hadn't appeared for any exams in a long long while. I wanted appear for the exam one more time. Though my brother was willing too and he was bothered about failing, he was heartbroken over the marks he got for Science.
So, now let's jump to the October 2013 exams that I and my brother appeared.
We had appeared for the Science practicals on the previous month. Which, my brother, of course, did better than me. Out 15 points, 4 were cut because we didn't know that we had to make a report book, and I was given 10 because I got thing right and brother was given 11 because he explained everything well.
The exam venue was St.John's High School, Cleveland Town, Bangalore. Apart from the fact that this school was kinda remote, I have no complaints about this school. I was actually impressed with the involvement of the school in the exam. Not only was the representative of NIOS present(I don't know if there were any at the previous exam, although Maharani is right under the nose of NIOS Bangalore Regional Office. If there were any, they weren't introduced to us), I also saw some of the school authorities there. They took care of everything personally and each and every single thing was made clear to the students. They knew who belonged to the Old and New category by checking the year of registration on our ID cards.
Once again, the question booklets had 2 papers it i.e., Old Syllabus and New Syllabus. This time we had done our research and had found out about the new books and had finalized that Old Syllabus is our bus. The first 2 exams went fine for me, Science terrorized me once again, but it didn't matter. But on the day of the Kannada exam, before the exam, while we waiting, we interacted with a New Syllabus student there. And, surprise, she had the same Kannada textbook as ours.
And when we were given the question booklets, once again came the Kannada consternation. The New Syllabus "matched". But this time I didn't want it go by, I called up the invigilator, who was followed by the school authority who was followed by the NIOS representative. They were huddled around my desk for a while asking me if I were sure about me being in Old Syllabus or was I sure that the New Syllabus Kannada was the Kannada I studied or was I sure that I really studied well that I so sure about it. When I said that I was 100% sure, the representative asked me to wait for a few minutes. I saw her making a phone call and she returned telling me to continue with the New Syllabus as she had "talked about it".
Later on, during the Kannada exam, the representative came to ask me if I were happy and later on after the exam, when I thanked her for her efforts, she talked to me saying that she was impressed by the way I was so sure about the paper. Well, it was my favorite paper and I had written really really REALLY well. Why am I saying this? We'll come to it.
I did Mathematics really bad this time. I wont look at my Maths answer booklet now, even if you'd offer me a fortune. Na-da! As much as I hate to make an excuse for it, I was unwell that day and my hands were quivering and was perspiring a river. I remained so till the next day. I don't remember why it was so. The book had been scribbled over entirely as I couldn't get my hands or thoughts straight. So anyway, I was sure that I had flunked it and would have been surprised if I had got 5 marks. I remember praying fervently on my way back home and ever since till the results came out.
As usual, my brother did well this time too; actually double well, since it's the second time. You could ask him anything from any part of any of our textbooks and he would answer by now.
This was our last chance as the 'Old Syllabus' students couldn't appear for any exams after this one. It going to be only New Syllabus from April 2014 on.
It was a long while after I woke that I remembered my brother reporting it and lemme say I was shocked. I WAS SHOCKED!
SERIOUSLY? SERIOUSLY?!
I was so sure that my brother would pass that I didn't even think of praying for him. After all, we have all been saying that "hard work pays", right? Where did all these months of his sleepless night staying up studying(while I was snoring away), pulling out hair when frustrated, all those research done online go??
I checked my results and saw that I had passed each subject. And they gave me and my brother the same marks in English once again i.e., 86 and 81 respectively. Seriously, is this happening right here on this planet? And... AND... they gave me a 45 for Kannada once again! I can't yet believe it even now, though my results came out in December 2013.
And, you know what, they gave me a whopping 33 for mathematics. Is this fair? You may not know the reason. I'll tell ya later.
Out of the 70 students who wrote from the place(AI or City, I don't remember), only 10 passed. Is it real? Do you think all us kids/students are dumbos?
And there is no option for reevaluation for the Secondary students.
I had passed with 54% marks. I had checked the percentage of the other kids who had passed and people had barely gotten 60%. Are we all dumbos?
The truth is, NIOS has been doing this for a long time to its students. Don't ask me what reason must a government institution have to do so. I don't know. All I can do is keep guessing.
When you contact educational agencies (e.g Distance Education providers), they would know of other students' experiences. I got this information from one such agency I had contacted later on for my college admission (they work as mediators for Open Universities and schools such as NIOS):
NIOS usually fails the exams of students, usually they stop after doing it once for female students and for male students they do it over and over again.
Now, I don't what they do this for, probably it's for the money involved, but ISN'T IT BLOODY UNFAIR TO PLAY WITH A PERSON'S TIME AND EDUCATION?!
You don't just lose your years, time and hard work, you have to listen to the complaints and teasing from others around you that you are "big dumbo" for not passing at a go or maybe TWO Gos at that. Your whole life gets played at their hands.
I'm writing this as I know that I'm not the only person who's gone through this. If what the agency told was true, I'm extremely sorry for the male students who have written over and over again. It is totally unfair. Now, I think I know the reason I got 33 in Mathematics. Though its a relief that I don't have to appear for an exam once again, I feel it's unfair that they gave me the "minimum pass mark" to just get me graduated.
You might be a student who is thinking of appearing for an NIOS exam or a parent who is doing his research about NIOS. I just wanted you to share with you my experience with NIOS and want you to think twice before taking the next step.
As I've said at the beginning, this might not be so for the New Syllabus students. I'm hoping it's not so. But if it is happening to you too and you've come across this blog, I hope you find this helpful and if you want to change your mind about this institution, this might be your golden opportunity! :)
My brother has appeared for the Secondary exams for the third time. He had downloaded the New Syllabus books online as they wouldn't supply it to an Old Syllabus student who is reappearing. Let me tell you that he has done thrice well this time. The results are due in June. And I hope the results turn out positive because he is one BRIGHT boy with BIG DREAMS and FUTURE.
Have a good day, peeps.
TOODLES!
PS: There's this blog by another ex-NIOS student. He has given some guidance for the exams. Hope it helps.
How to pass NIOS exams by Vikram Malla
Well, you are probably preparing to rewrite the exam right now because you think it was your fault. If you know you have studied well and written well, why doubt yourself?
You're not the only victim of NIOS.
I'm an old student of NIOS. Well, not that old. I just got my secondary school leaving certificate. So, that makes me an ex-student, I guess.
I was registered under the Old Syllabus category, so I don't know if there are students who are under New Syllabus and are actually going through the same problem too. And this might not be the case for the Higher Secondary. Perhaps.
So to the students registered under the institution National Institute of Open Schooling aka 'NIOS', I just want you to know that just because you failed an NIOS exam, it doesn't mean that you are a bad student. Nor is rewriting under the same institution a solution.
My Issue:
Let's just talk about me and my problem for a while.
I'm a 21 year old girl from Bangalore. I first wrote my 10th exams in April 2013. Yes, I know I'm too old to be in 10th. I missed school for many years because I was ill for some while. I used to be a smart kid, but after leaving school for all these years and staying away from the studying environment, I turned out to be person who is not interested in studies. BUT... a big but.... I AM good at languages. I just love studying Kannada and English. I speak 4 languages fluently; understand 2 languages; and can read about 7 languages.
Now, you have got it, my strong point: LANGUAGES.
I have a brother who is currently 19 and he too wrote his first exam in April 2013. He too is too old to be in 10th. Well, he stayed at home tending to me and doing small jobs simultaneously. So his education was also, you can say, screwed. Is he smart? Or tired of studying, like me? NO! NO! NO! He might be one of the smartest young man of his age that you might come across. Well, unless you know him you might never know him, so let me stop boasting of having brainy guy for a brother.
And what is he good at? Everything. He's a hard worker and he is thorough with all NIOS books. While I lagged behind in studies (actually I hadn't covered the second book of Science and Technology), he was my encyclopedia. He is a science lover and is always researching something online. I call him my "Walking Wikipedia".
Back to the exams.
We both took up 5 subjects:
English (202)
Kannada (208)
Science and Technology (212)
Social Science (213)
Mathematics (211)
We wrote our first exams on April 2013. They gave us a question booklet containing 2 parts namely OLD SYLLABUS and NEW SYLLABUS. Well, I can understand this arrangements since they have brought out new books and they have students like me who - under the "Old Syllabus" - had been registered before they released these new books. IT IS understandable.
But, the thing is the exam venue that had been given to us was Maharani Lakshmi Ammani Women's College, Malleshwaram, Bangalore; and the school authorities/invigilators had no idea who belonged to the Old or New Syllabus category. A teacher told us to "write the paper you think matches with what you have studied". So they had no idea.
To us who just found out that there was actually a "New Syllabus" this was a blow and right there in the exam hall where you are not supposed to talk to the other kids, how are you supposed to find out if there is a new book and does it actually resemble ours or is it different or is ours the new one? Well, there was no other way than to "write the paper we thought matches with what we had studied for". And, the Old Syllabus was the one that matched.
So that was that till the Kannada paper. As for the Kannada paper, the one that "matched" was the NEW Syllabus paper. The Old Syllabus one wasn't even from this planet, in my opinion.
I remember my heartbeat rate rising and thinking that I should have written the New Syllabus papers for the previous papers as well. The invigilators didn't have an idea nor did I. So, for this one paper we wrote the New Syllabus one.
The results:
And now, here's our results of April 2013: (Note: 33 marks minimum to pass the topic.)My previous Marks Card is not to be found. My parents must have thrown it away. Well, I had failed. Though I don't remember the entire detail. I had passed in 3 subjects and failed in 2. I had scored 86 in English, 43 or 45 in Kannada (?!) and had passed in Social Science(hope I got the subject here right).
If you don't see my confusion here, I'll get back to it later.
My brother's results:
English : 81
Mathematics: 13
Social Science: 33
Kannada: 25
Science and Technology: 13
If you still don't see the problem here, well, let's talk about it.
Forget the marks for English, which I know we both deserved 90+ marks. Look at my marks in Kannada! Well, I thought, this is probably due to us writing the New Syllabus paper. BUT, look at my brother's marks in Science! He's a Science whiz and this is all he gets?!
I was willing to let it go because I thought that it was our fault probably as we hadn't appeared for any exams in a long long while. I wanted appear for the exam one more time. Though my brother was willing too and he was bothered about failing, he was heartbroken over the marks he got for Science.
October 2013 Secondary Exams:
So, now let's jump to the October 2013 exams that I and my brother appeared.
We had appeared for the Science practicals on the previous month. Which, my brother, of course, did better than me. Out 15 points, 4 were cut because we didn't know that we had to make a report book, and I was given 10 because I got thing right and brother was given 11 because he explained everything well.
The exam venue was St.John's High School, Cleveland Town, Bangalore. Apart from the fact that this school was kinda remote, I have no complaints about this school. I was actually impressed with the involvement of the school in the exam. Not only was the representative of NIOS present(I don't know if there were any at the previous exam, although Maharani is right under the nose of NIOS Bangalore Regional Office. If there were any, they weren't introduced to us), I also saw some of the school authorities there. They took care of everything personally and each and every single thing was made clear to the students. They knew who belonged to the Old and New category by checking the year of registration on our ID cards.
Once again, the question booklets had 2 papers it i.e., Old Syllabus and New Syllabus. This time we had done our research and had found out about the new books and had finalized that Old Syllabus is our bus. The first 2 exams went fine for me, Science terrorized me once again, but it didn't matter. But on the day of the Kannada exam, before the exam, while we waiting, we interacted with a New Syllabus student there. And, surprise, she had the same Kannada textbook as ours.
And when we were given the question booklets, once again came the Kannada consternation. The New Syllabus "matched". But this time I didn't want it go by, I called up the invigilator, who was followed by the school authority who was followed by the NIOS representative. They were huddled around my desk for a while asking me if I were sure about me being in Old Syllabus or was I sure that the New Syllabus Kannada was the Kannada I studied or was I sure that I really studied well that I so sure about it. When I said that I was 100% sure, the representative asked me to wait for a few minutes. I saw her making a phone call and she returned telling me to continue with the New Syllabus as she had "talked about it".
Later on, during the Kannada exam, the representative came to ask me if I were happy and later on after the exam, when I thanked her for her efforts, she talked to me saying that she was impressed by the way I was so sure about the paper. Well, it was my favorite paper and I had written really really REALLY well. Why am I saying this? We'll come to it.
I did Mathematics really bad this time. I wont look at my Maths answer booklet now, even if you'd offer me a fortune. Na-da! As much as I hate to make an excuse for it, I was unwell that day and my hands were quivering and was perspiring a river. I remained so till the next day. I don't remember why it was so. The book had been scribbled over entirely as I couldn't get my hands or thoughts straight. So anyway, I was sure that I had flunked it and would have been surprised if I had got 5 marks. I remember praying fervently on my way back home and ever since till the results came out.
As usual, my brother did well this time too; actually double well, since it's the second time. You could ask him anything from any part of any of our textbooks and he would answer by now.
This was our last chance as the 'Old Syllabus' students couldn't appear for any exams after this one. It going to be only New Syllabus from April 2014 on.
The results:
As the results came, I was sleeping as my family checked it up online, my brother woke me up to tell me that I has passed and he had failed and I had gone back to the sleep world.It was a long while after I woke that I remembered my brother reporting it and lemme say I was shocked. I WAS SHOCKED!
SERIOUSLY? SERIOUSLY?!
I was so sure that my brother would pass that I didn't even think of praying for him. After all, we have all been saying that "hard work pays", right? Where did all these months of his sleepless night staying up studying(while I was snoring away), pulling out hair when frustrated, all those research done online go??
I checked my results and saw that I had passed each subject. And they gave me and my brother the same marks in English once again i.e., 86 and 81 respectively. Seriously, is this happening right here on this planet? And... AND... they gave me a 45 for Kannada once again! I can't yet believe it even now, though my results came out in December 2013.
And, you know what, they gave me a whopping 33 for mathematics. Is this fair? You may not know the reason. I'll tell ya later.
Out of the 70 students who wrote from the place(AI or City, I don't remember), only 10 passed. Is it real? Do you think all us kids/students are dumbos?
And there is no option for reevaluation for the Secondary students.
The possible truth:
When you reappear for exams, you meet people who are reappearing or maybe re-reappearing. You may talk to them and find out that they themselves don't know the reason they failed too. They can't believe it themselves.I had passed with 54% marks. I had checked the percentage of the other kids who had passed and people had barely gotten 60%. Are we all dumbos?
The truth is, NIOS has been doing this for a long time to its students. Don't ask me what reason must a government institution have to do so. I don't know. All I can do is keep guessing.
When you contact educational agencies (e.g Distance Education providers), they would know of other students' experiences. I got this information from one such agency I had contacted later on for my college admission (they work as mediators for Open Universities and schools such as NIOS):
NIOS usually fails the exams of students, usually they stop after doing it once for female students and for male students they do it over and over again.
Now, I don't what they do this for, probably it's for the money involved, but ISN'T IT BLOODY UNFAIR TO PLAY WITH A PERSON'S TIME AND EDUCATION?!
You don't just lose your years, time and hard work, you have to listen to the complaints and teasing from others around you that you are "big dumbo" for not passing at a go or maybe TWO Gos at that. Your whole life gets played at their hands.
I'm writing this as I know that I'm not the only person who's gone through this. If what the agency told was true, I'm extremely sorry for the male students who have written over and over again. It is totally unfair. Now, I think I know the reason I got 33 in Mathematics. Though its a relief that I don't have to appear for an exam once again, I feel it's unfair that they gave me the "minimum pass mark" to just get me graduated.
You might be a student who is thinking of appearing for an NIOS exam or a parent who is doing his research about NIOS. I just wanted you to share with you my experience with NIOS and want you to think twice before taking the next step.
As I've said at the beginning, this might not be so for the New Syllabus students. I'm hoping it's not so. But if it is happening to you too and you've come across this blog, I hope you find this helpful and if you want to change your mind about this institution, this might be your golden opportunity! :)
My brother has appeared for the Secondary exams for the third time. He had downloaded the New Syllabus books online as they wouldn't supply it to an Old Syllabus student who is reappearing. Let me tell you that he has done thrice well this time. The results are due in June. And I hope the results turn out positive because he is one BRIGHT boy with BIG DREAMS and FUTURE.
Have a good day, peeps.
TOODLES!
PS: There's this blog by another ex-NIOS student. He has given some guidance for the exams. Hope it helps.
How to pass NIOS exams by Vikram Malla
