Frame Question, Answer It, Get Marks: IIT Goa's Unique Question Paper

There's the conventional method of evaluation in schools and colleges where the teacher frames questions and the students answer them. Then came the open book exam that allowed students to refer to their notes, summaries as well as textbooks. And now that we are faced with unprecedented circumstances due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, educational institutions have devised new methods to make sure classes continue and exams are conducted. But the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Goa, has taken this up a notch and the internet can't get tired of lauding their unique method to evaluate students.

A viral screenshot of their analogue circuit question paper shows that students were asked to prepare questions as well as answer them. The paper just mentioned that students were expected to prepare questions worth 60 marks from the lecture material and then answer the same.

"It should reflect your understanding of the course and must be answered in two hours," read the first part of the instructions. Interestingly, this exercise carried 40 marks. In the second part, the students were asked to answer the questions they had prepared and that was worth 30 marks.

It also stated that the students should not to discuss this among themselves as the similarities would lead to a reduction in their marks.

This unique method to evaluate students then made it to Twitter where many appreciated the faculty member for designing the question paper this way and others dropped amused reactions. 

A Twitter user, @RajanKarna, said: "Woah! What an examination! You prepare questions for yourself and answer the same. Gotta say IIT Goa has find out this unique way to evaluate students by themselves. It's not gonna be easy when you are set free to choose questions to answer. Gonna be the test of integrity too."

Woah! What an examination! You prepare questions for yourself and answer the same.
Gotta say IIT Goa has find out this unique way to evaluate student by themselves.
It's not gonna be easy when you are set free to choose questions to answer.
Gonna be the test of integrity too. pic.twitter.com/dwZxbKjPRQ

— Rajan Karna (@RajanKarna) May 20, 2021

Another Twitter user, @sagarcasm, hilariously wrote that in Goa, even the IITs are chill-out. His tweet has racked up over 9,300 'likes' on the microblogging platform.

Goa mein toh IITs bhi chill maarte hain pic.twitter.com/BeyHxzW4Fg

— Sagar (@sagarcasm) May 21, 2021

"Beautiful question it seems. If asked to prepare open book questions, then it really tests the ability better," wrote another user.

Beautiful question it seems. If asked to prepare a open book questions, then it really tests the ability better

— Master of None (@Bishnoirajesh29) May 21, 2021

Here are some more reactions:

This is actually difficult if you don't know the concepts throughly, and the teachers checks the paper throughly to catch copying.

— Vedanta Mohapatra (@vedanta28) May 21, 2021

Excellent! College will never earned anything by demoting students, they must find ways to elevate them, marks won't help them in future but such ideas will do. @aditii157 @iitbombay

— Milind Deore (@tomdeore) May 21, 2021

Well, that's one way to get around the problem of question papers getting leaked.

— Nitin Singh (@nitins011) May 21, 2021

So, what do you think about this approach of IIT Goa? Is it a novel concept to evaluate students? Tell us in the comments section below.