Offline Exams

It's exam time folks! And thankfully we need not deal with the online objective test. It's a real shock to many of us that online tests have been done away with, after people managed to master the nuances of the tests. Online test at our college is much like a late-semester ritual, with every student and staff participating unwillingly. It's actually surprising that it took 2 yrs to find that students find it difficult to score from the tests. I am happy that the test is gone, but not for the right reasons.

In the last two years, I remember taking a few subjective tests (read written tests) which had quality questions which were both intersting and demanding yet definitely solvable. But I've been unfortunate, not to have attended one good online test. Bad questions make bad tests, in general. Come online tests, the poor options also add to your woe. But is anything worse than a question with two options being the same(Now you that's an offer you can decline)? Yes. The same question repeated twice (yes, back to back) with every word and every option intact, except for the question number. But the worst part about this is that, invariably you don't know the answer to the couple. (You can very well add this to our breathtaking Math discovery of the year- The Wretched Double Whammy Probability Distribution. It's discrete, but the agony continues !!).

There is a group which milks online test to the maximum - the daredevil hackers. But there's nothing great about this 'hacking'. You don't even have to guess a password or type a query. Any rookie can break into the database (read 'be lead into') by XAMPP's interface if the administrator is so callous that he does not even set the password to 'password'.And he fails to do it every time when the revamp the entire lab, which seems to be done at every semester break.But I wonder why girls do not open the databases, given their notorious ability to collaborate or carry paper scraps even during written tests (No Big Deal,huh). I just assume that the ladies do not do it, because our own man was spotted texting answers last sem to you know who. Plagiarism rules! And it does not end here.

Some questions are so exotic, that you doubt if you've wrongly entered the subject code in the startup screen. I panicked in the 5th sem, when my screen was replete with Software Eng. questions when I was supposed to do to some other 'entity' what we did to algos. It was more like a SE test and I still wonder which foreign prof was so dim-witted to post SE questions as some thing else in his course website.

They can't and they won't make corrections to wrong questions or answers- I again wonder why. It just means changing your db and restarting the db server if needed. We never get to see the Where You Went Wrong page. In a once in a blue moon opportunity, I got to see that elusive page and found that two questions were marked with wrong answers. When I picked up the courage to report this discrepancy, I was laughed off and was told that Where You Went Wrong was a myth- it simply did not exist! UNO - Unidentified Native Objec, this one!

Goa- A booze party?

Who should the liquor industry thank for all the profits despite a large number of campaigns against alcohol? Film directors of course. While happy moments in yesteryear screens where spent as a stroll along the beach or a park, today's directors are reluctant to move beyond the bar. Alcohol is projected as the companion of the hero and his friends at both the good times and not so good times.
The promotion of alcohol as the 'cool' thing continues unabated, despite a mandatory warning that pops up now and then in films. What was meant to serve as a means of restraint is being neglected as a mere routine.
And see who is leading the race in this big time promotion - Venkat Prabhu wins hands down. His two films had every important character consuming alcohol as if it were exilir of life. What point does the director who wants to make 'films that have common men as heroes' want to make? Booze and be my hero?
To top it all his highly anticipated third film, 'Goa' is already promising to be a 'boozy' entertainer, with a wine bottle featuring predominantly in the title graphics. Do these things influence youth into drinking? Probably yes.
Mr. Prabhu and his brother Premji will agree that many hilarious dialogues like, 'Enna Koduma Sir' and 'Evalovo Pannitom' are a big hit with the masses. They are even being repeated in every day life of common men. Even I'm eagerly expecting what will be the punch dialogue for their third film. There also a great importance given to friendship and companionship, how people celebrate. But the point is - all your characters seem to be dipsomaniac. Your team drinks- 1) After they win a match 2) After they lose a match 3) After a friend's birthday 4) On the way to a cricket match and what ve I missed?
Does it not occur to you that a group of friends will be tempted to consume alcohol. Youngsters live in the moment and tend to think that the momentary success or failure is what their life is all about. There are many things that continuously brand them as successful, mediocre or failures like college exams, relationships and results. They become soft targets of such 'Jai Alcoholho' movies because they tend to engulf their sorrows and joys with alcohol.
While there is no denying the fact that Prabhu's films provide whole sum entertainment, they are continuously pushing young Tamil Nadu to bars.