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This is a post which I posted in my blog but I couldn’t strike up a discussion. So I am posting it here. Let us see what our friends and teachers have to say on this.
Well! This is one question that has been haunting me over the past week. I was busy pouring over my record work and notes preparing myself for the practical exams of my 4th sem.
What led me to think about this is the type of questions which we got.
First up for me was the Logic System Design Lab. 6 of us were standing in queue to take our question paper. It so happened that my friend who was standing before me moved out of the line to take his IC Pin-out diagram or something and thus I moved to his place and he moved behind me. I got an easy question to design an Astable Multivibrator (which was supposed to be picked by my friend) and my friend got a difficult question. I got the output on first try whereas he got only a partial output.
Same happened with Data Structures Programming Lab. Though everyone in a batch gets the same question, the degree of difficulty of the question for each batch was different. We got to implement Priority Queue (in a little twisted question) whereas some batches got direct questions like implementing ‘Merge Sort’ and ‘Quick Sort’.
Though I got full outputs on these labs, why am I complaining?
Last sem, in C Programming Lab, we got a difficult question to read and manipulate data from files. The question was indirect that it even confused the external examiner who in turn confused me. One batch got a question to input a number, find if it is even or odd, prime or composite and its factorial (+1 stuff). I passed but with low marks which affected my GPA badly.
So this leads to my question. Does the question one receives depend on his luck and there by does his performance also depends on his luck? If so, how can one judge a person’s programming ability with questions of varying difficulty?
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13 Comments Received
October 25th, 2008 @4:36 pm
Its not purely luck, but in some experiments there is an element of luck involved.
October 25th, 2008 @6:26 pm
there s a saying in malayalam…
” thaan paathi daivam paathi…”
“ താന് പാതി ദൈവം പാതി…”
nd what we call luck is that “paathi” part of god
…
nd luck is a main part.
October 25th, 2008 @9:04 pm
its really a gr8 question i too felt the same
practical examz r really a tough one
it depends on the external examiner and ur attitude
if u have full confidence tat u can do well u will surely do it
October 26th, 2008 @2:20 pm
hi varun ,
your post is different with a different thought. this is true in my case too. i have also received many simple questions in lab by virtue of which i could get output. so it can be claimed that a person’s result may depend on his performance and his performance on his luck
October 26th, 2008 @7:54 pm
nice thinking dude…. me too a victim of luck in lab xam…….. i had a bad day in my 4th sem LSD lab xam…
i was supposed to pick from a bundle…. i took somethin like a mod5 counter with a blahablah lot of conditionssss… my friend who took jus before me got the simplest of em all a half addder….. he completed his xam in 15 mins…….. while i was standin there starin at my messy lookin circut board for 3 hrs…….. my opinion…. luck is a great factor in labxams…………..
October 26th, 2008 @8:04 pm
@ anish
aarayirunnu aa bhaagyavaan friend who completed lab xam in 15 minutes????
October 26th, 2008 @8:06 pm
i also had luck this time around. i got astable multivibrator using not gates which i finished in 15-20 minutes, but i had to wait 4 an hr to get my viva finished and o/p verified
October 26th, 2008 @8:14 pm
@ sujith aa bhagyavan…….. nammude swantham anub…..
October 27th, 2008 @12:40 am
Hi Varun….it’s really a good point for discussion. It’s hard to find an engg. student who hadn’t asked this question(at least to himself).
The following are my thoughts regarding the topic:
First of all don’t restrict this question to lab exams only.
Think about:
a soldier who gets posting in Kashmir and his friend is posted in Trivandrum!
a cricketer gets his debut match againt Australia and his fellow player playing his 1st match against Bermuda!!
a teacher handles Solid State Devices and his collegue handels Management Info Sys.
One might say, in all the cases, the latter is luckier than the former.
But what it really matter is, the way in which you perform in the task that is assigned to you.
Sometimes you may be :
killed(tribute to Sujith Palamel recently killed in Kashmir),
sacked(Ganguly after the New Zelanad tour in 1991-92) or
asked to write an explanation(for low pass %).
People can be classiffied as,
1) those who want to travel through paths that offer less or no challenge.
2) those who accept challenges and travel through paths that no one have ever travelled.
If you get a less challenged task (simple/direct question) you are automatically drawn into the 1st category. A challenged job(difficult/indirect question opens door for more thinking,planning & testing….that will inturn make you stand high in the competetive world.
If luck influences performance then who really is lucky???
October 27th, 2008 @12:10 pm
Hi Varun,
There is No part of Luck in that. Its All about hard work.
This comment is Acording to my experience I have attended around 15 labs in my b-tech course.
The main thing i observed that is If we have put our effort to study ar practice it in lab we will surely get simple question or if the question is indirect we will be able to identify the problem and we can fight all the 3hrs and finally we will be able to come out with answers.
But if we dont prepare well we will expect some easy questions so that we can get through it.. when we get some what indirect question we will feel that evry thing is gone but you may think very near to the solution but you are not sure about the solution and finally you will end up in disapointment and you will give up..
This is my opinion.
For my Final lab. I have studied all the experiments from my record except one. Unfortunately i got the very same question for my lab and also one option question is given. That opton also i dont know how to do..
Most funny thing is that before getting the question i had my viva completed in that the external examinar had mentioned about the very same problem and asked me to explain the problem. I told her the fact that i didnot study the problem and then she asked me how i’m going to do if you get the question.. Mean while the question came in fax and it was handed over to the examinar and she gave me laugh and told me that my viva is over.
When i got the question i understood the reason behind the smile.. yes i got the very same problem.
I didnot give up..I have parted the second question into two parts and i have done one part.. and the output was partial..
I have expressed this to the examinar and informed her that i’m carrying forward to the next part..
I know some comments to be used in that part i have added that in the program but it was of no use… i didnot give up i have tried till 2hr and 45 min. then i’m sure taht i’m not able to do that and i have asked her to validate the thing..
She validated it and gave me 72 marks..
I hope the marks goes to my courage and my confidance..
She asked me so many other questions which i was able to answer in confidence..
Its the attitude and hard work that matters..
Each of my university lab exams are great experince..
All the other labs i have got the toughest question and i was able to break that..
October 27th, 2008 @1:41 pm
Thanks Arun for your valued opinion. Friends, what he said is absolutely right; I witnessed most of his performances in lab. In labs your approach to the problem is given more importance. Remember one thing 40% of the total mark is given for performance and only 20%(sometimes 25%) is for results.
I accept the fact the examiner’s attitude matters a lot!
October 27th, 2008 @4:43 pm
thanks to all for ur valuable replies.
what i really meant to say was the student has no control over the question he/she chooses. I don’t mind getting a difficult question provided it has been taught in college. we don ‘t choose a question seeing whether it is easy or not. We don’t get a chance to see the question until we pick it.
@ riji sir and arun chettan
thanks 4 those wise words. point noted
October 27th, 2008 @8:03 pm
Hai evrybody… me too there in the list of “LAB BHAGYAVANS”…. I was very luck from my 1st year, in Lab exams… And in the s4 SimLab.. i finishd both the experiment n viva with in just 35 mins…:-)
Luck is REALLY REALLY REALLY a major factor… Its not just from my experience, but also from the comments passed by many of my friends…
Let me start from 1st year itself…
In the 1st year workshop, for the model exam, i have to do Smithy… Since it only needed some muscle power…i was able to manage… Then came the university exam.. I was bit tensed..Because i forgot most of the experiments.. I was asked to choose a questin from a small stack of 6-7 questions.. i took the first question itself… When i opened the qestion paper.. i was really wonderstruk…The same question i got for the models… LUCK.. allathe pinne entha…. Also i have done that well, even the viva… got a very high mark..84….. Havnt got 80 above for any subjects till now for b.tech..
LUCK LUCK LUCK… played its part.
Then for s3 electronics circuits lab… got the same question that was asked for models… AGAIN LUCK LUCK LUCK…..
Then for s4 electronics ckts lab… got a very simple question… The fact is that, it was a previous year question vch was discused in the class a couple of days before the exam… What to say?
The for the Simlab.. Got another simple question… I was the lst one in the list n there was only one question remaining..Obviously i had to take that… That was the simplest question in that stack, later I came to know…
So guys, let me say, once more, luck really play its part…
THAN PATHI DAIVAM PATHI….
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