An Archived Comment
In response to this post on CBSE's (one of the Indian boards of education, who set syllabi and give school leaving tests) English Exam.
If not I, my mother would be glad to hear that CBSE is enabling scores of 100 on the English paper. Back in the dark ages, i.e., a decade ago CBSE had an artificial limit on how much one can score on the screwed up language papers anyway. If I remember well, in the school exams, language teachers delibrately used 85 as the max limit to us get used to the idea that unlike sciences, languages are holier, i.e., can't be perfected.
Also the quibble over the marks is beside the point, when the content of these exams is horrid. Who wants to, in a 3 hour exam, write an essay on the meaning of life (I think this was what I got on my 10th board exam, and invariably it all went downhill after that) or what will you do if you become the prime minister (is cribbing from BBC's "Yes Minister" allowed?), or vomit the approved exegesis of Blake's "Echoing Green"? My shamelessly low marks prove that I didn't give a damn! :)
My Daily Notes
... comment
Khush
watchingthesun.blogspot.com
Y'all got a meaning of life essay?! Maybe it's just because I only went to school in India till sixth grade but we never ever got a meaning of life essay. In fact, I don't really remember doing anything worthwhile in English exams. We had to write out lists of verbs I think and the teachers would give us a preassigned essay to memorize and regurgitate. Did I go to a crappy school? Does my life lack meaning now?! See this is what happens when I'm up at six, scribbling my insecurities on other people's blogs :) Please forgive. K
... link
Inane English Tests
Yes, K, that is what I got, and I ended up doddling away on the stupid question paper. I got a low low score, lost my "first rank", and broke my mother's heart. She believed in getting "first rank", never mind being first is no way tied to getting educated.
Also in a way, the prosaic topics of these essays reflect near absence of imaginativeness in folks who are supposed to teach Queen's English to the native masses. Most Indian English teachers, I suspect, themselves didn't (don't) care about English too much. It was something a student had to take as he focused his energies on more economically beneficial subjects such as math and science. However, I did go on a sytlistic rampage in Class 8 when I got an essay on Early Mornings in one of the exams. I wish I had kept that essay.
... link
... comment