The Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education has recommended to the Higher Education Department that university semester question papers be designed so that questions from previous years are not repeated.
Tamil Nadu has 22 state universities, of which 13 operate under the Higher Education Department, including the University of Madras, Madurai Kamaraj University, Annamalai University, Bharathiar University and Bharathidasan University. These universities conduct semester examinations for undergraduate and postgraduate students in their affiliated colleges.
Question papers in state university semester exams commonly include questions from earlier semesters, and at times most questions are drawn from previous papers. This makes it easier for students to pass, but complaints have been raised that the practice weakens students’ thinking skills.
Higher Education Department officials said the quality of state university question papers is lower than that of private universities in Tamil Nadu. A comparison of the last five years’ papers shows that most questions were repeated in successive semesters. This, they said, fosters a mindset that students can pass simply by studying earlier question papers instead of thinking through their answers.
The Council has therefore recommended that questions be framed in an application-oriented format that discourages rote learning and requires students to think before answering. Officials said action is being taken on these recommendations.
