Scoop: Though much longer than a standard exam, the exams are also open book.
NLSIU Bangalore LLB, LLM and Masters of Public Policy (MPP) students will be sitting their end-of-semester exams entirely online, with the undergraduate lawyers having started from today, 5 June, to 13 June.
The move to hold the exams entirely online has not been easy and has required a fair amount of planning.
In a session hosted last month by JGLS Sonepat, vice chancellor (VC) Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy had claimed: “Luckily for us, we’ve delivered the entire programme and timetable to the dot [online] so we have no disruptions [due to Covid-19], barring four working days.”
We have checked with several students who said this sounds about right and have reached out to Krishnaswamy for further comment.
Due to the breakneck online learning conversion, the exams are starting bang-on schedule, originally having been slated to be held from 5 to 9 June, over four working days.
For online this has now been extended by four additional days for online exams to ensure that most students don’t have any exams on consecutive days. The reason? Exams are now six to eight hours long, rather than three hours for the standard offline exams at NLS.
Several steps have been taken to accommodate students with slow internet connections, most notably that on the day of the exam, from 8:50am, the students can download a PDF file with the question paper.
Students are then expected to write their answers in a new word document - with an aggregate word-count cap of 3,000 words.
It is a fully ‘open-book exam’, and candidates are allowed to consult all and any materials available to them (though they are not expected to consult sources beyond their class notes and course readings, nor are they allowed to ask any other person for help).
The idea is, according to an internal document circulated to students, that the exams will test:
- their knowledge and understanding of the course materials;
- the ability to apply these materials to the problems at hand; and
- the ability to express a distinctive point of view
Once done, after a long six to eight hour day, the students will have to upload their answer sheet document and tick a couple of boxes to confirm that they have neither “used the services of any agency or person(s) in the preparation of this paper” nor “given assistance to any other candidates writing exams at the University”
Cheating?
The idea of online exams (especially non-proctored exams, in contrast to what LSAT-India is proposing), will of course make some suspect that cheating will be rife.
Several measures, other than honour, aim to prevent this happening at NLSIU.
First, all papers will be scanned by anti-plagiarism software.
Then, in case there is any doubt that the exam was not the student’s own, faculty will have the option of grilling students in a viva to explain their essays, answers and more.
Comments
Yes, YOU are the real victims here.
When it comes to the end semester examinations, we've been able to develop a very efficient mechanism for evaluation, such that the students are able to sit in front of their computers and devices for 6-8 hours. They are merely expected to attempt a fairly easy question paper which would only take round about 6 hrs to complete, oops "3 hrs",in the normal circumstances.
But as we live in a precarious situation, they are given enough time of 8 hrs, as some people have to see to the daily chores like surviving themselves, or like power cuts and what not (what are power cuts tho).
Anyway, number 1 laaa college in india, we put the interests of the students first, always!
He has consistently avoided direct dialogue with the student body despite several such demands. Furthermore, he has removed the access of the student body to mail the faculty under the guise of "abuse of mail privileges in the past". The timing of this change of policy is conspicuous, especially at a time when there is a NEED for greater communication, not less in a regime of online classes and exams.
During his last meeting with the elected class representatives of each UG programme batch (which was almost a month ago), the students put forth the concern that due to issues of access to internet & private spaces, a 24hr slot would accommodate these concerns. He responded that a 12hr duration was reasonable. The students conceded that 12hrs might suffice, although some concerns remained unaddressed. But when the exam policy was released to the students, it came as a shock that the duration of exams were 6hr/8hrs as per the discretion of the professor. The students were given ONLY ONE day to respond to this policy. It must be noted that the policy was released to the students at a time when they were swamped with paper submissions for their courses.
Despite this short timeframe, the students responded with the comments and concerns regarding the exam policy. The final exam policy was supposed to be released within a day of receiving student comments, but the final policy was forwarded to the students after 2 days. It was released the day before the paper submission deadlines. The policy did not address a single concern raised by the students. The final policy mirrored the draft policy word-to-word except for 1 provision.
The VC further assured the students that the paper would not take more than 3hrs to complete (as is the case in regular examinations). But, from the examinations conducted for different courses today (which is the first day of examinations), the questions remained demanding and time-consuming inspite of it being an "open-book" exam. Students were frantically typing for the entire 6hrs to complete the paper. If today is anything to go by, it seems apparent that the faculty has been asked to set tough (effectively lengthy and time-consuming) papers in the light of the exam duration being 6/8hrs. This fails to capture any of the issues of access that were raised by the students.
It is frustrating to see an alumnus of the college running the college in a manner that is adding to physical and mental pressures to the faculty and students, at a time when educational institutions should help in alleviating such stress.
They use similarity testing software and declare the results as the results of a plagiarism checker.
(GENIUS MUCH?)
Legally India should also reach out to students on this issue and refrain from whitewashing the NLSIU administration.
Supreme court judges have refused to attend nlsiu's convocation. Decision is already taken to have an online convocation this year.
who has received a big [...] and had gone [...].
How did select such an elite, urban group of students via a national entrance exam?
There is nothing similar about what foreign universities are doing and what NLS is doing to its students.
Dont use that as an excuse.
Mental health is a person to person problem and unless you have had the opportunity to interact and have the knowledge to make an informed judgement, you should refrain from making any comments about it, about anybody.
While there are a few genuine cases of internet issue, and Sudhir is dealing with them on a case to case basis (or so I'm told). But others love to whine about things (often on behalf of others) for far too long. This has to end.
6 Hours examination? Are you serious?
Sad to see Mr. Sudhir Krishnaswamy focussing more on CV Building than his full-time job as VC of NLSIU.
Only the anti- Sudhir elements are crowing and grumbling here.
The NALSAR students are also happy for their innovative pattern of examination.
There are several unanswered mails of concern which the administration should have received priority over this. The information which is being concealed by this article, if brought out in the open will address sufficient problems with respect to inequality of access and rising intolerance of the student body against the unsympathetic actions of administration.
The article has also formidably concealed feelings of apathy exercised by some section of faculty members in their ability to contemplate that the current situation does not give rise to any source of unnatural stress for the students.
Lastly, the article also teaches a great thing about how exclusive and elitist the admin has to be in order to push for application of fragile values of academic rigour and uniformity. It fails to depict a contemporary image that the college is more representative and boasts a greater diversity than it did during the Vice Chancellor's days as a student in this college.
Rant over.
People don't fail because they want to, incase you didn't realise. (Although I will admit there are some people who do not make an effort) They fail if they can't cope with the system and it's the job of an institution to try and help people who are lagging (not by just handing it over to them but also not by making things inordinately difficult like they have)- AND YES YOU DO REEK OF PRIVILEGE.
PS: They were not a "farce of a protest on mental health"- we got tangible results from it, now we have actual mental health professionals- that have materially helped me and many others.
You cannot play God without being acquainted with the Devil.
The COVID-19 situation will not ease out until the development of a vaccine and its widespread distribution. So until then, Universities need to adapt and run their academic activities online. This transition is not a smooth one for any institution and there will invariably be concerns about the discriminatory impact on students from marginalised communities. The institution must provide safety nets by paying for internet connections and providing laptops to students who do not have the means to do so.
In the present circumstances, holding online exams is a much better solution than not holding exams at all. Unfortunately, college administrators at many other NLUs have succumbed to student pressure. For instance, students from NALSAR have told me that their administration has decided to pass students based on marks in mid-semester exams (held in end-February) and project assignments. Despite such a student-friendly measure, some NALSAR are still complaining about the required assignment deadlines even though they were given time till May 31 with online classes having finished in end-April. That is one extra month to complete two assignments.
In this context, it is quite disappointing to see some of the comments made by current students at both institutions, where are otherwise considered to be the best law colleges in India. College life should teach you to handle the pressure of planning for multiple tasks and working hard. Just do your best with the exams and things will be alright. Your future employers will respect the fact that you performed your duties as students during such an exceptional period.
Frankly, Gen Z [...] me. [...] who spend more time doing TikTok rather than reading, whose intelligence has been retarded listening to autotuned music and garbage Bollywood movies, and who are sensitive snowflakes who cannot take any criticism.
More power to Sudhir I say!! Whip these lazy brats into shape!!
1. NOT '[i]want(ing) rigorous academic standards[/i]'
2. NOT '[i][seeking professor] with good qualifications, experience and commitment[/i]'
as
3. generally NOT '[i]big cities and leading schools with high standards[/i]'
4. IS one whose '[i]intelligence has been retarded[/i]'
5. but still somehow a '[i]sensitive snowflake[/i]'
Shame on you, and shame on Kian for allowing such classist drivel to be posted. You got to be better LI. You got to be better. I hope you find a way to issue an apology for allowing this post to get through.
Thus, Sudhir is Generation X while Venkata Rao and other TLC VCs are Boomers. The idiot students posting have no idea what OK Boomer means and are blindly copying American memes. The OK Boomer meme is a fight between Boomers and Gen X/Gen Y. Gen Z has nothing to do with it and should stay the f**k out.
This is the best training you'll have if you want to enter law firms. You'll see your partner tell the client that they'll give it in 2 days, so you'll think you have time to breathe but your partner will ask you to give it by 8pm the same day. So you'll have to finish a memo in 6 hours for it to sit in your partner's inbox for a whole 24 hours and then face a viva on it 8pm next day when your partner opens the file for the first time and spend all night on day 2 researching on supplemental questions that your partner thinks of then. Tada!
You stay out - if this is your level of attention to details.
I'd recommend you go out - if this is your level of grasping nuance.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/state-govt-cuts-grants-for-nlsiu-by-75/article31769182.ece
[img]https://epaper.telegraphindia.com//epaperimages/07062020/07062020-md-hr-7/441613.jpg[/img]
You guys just keep calling yourself that. I mean - sure, NLS is a good school. One of the best - maybe the best - in India. But Harvard of the East? I am sure NUS, SMU and a fair few universities in China will have something to say on that.
National University of Singapore, Singapore (12)
Hong Kong University, Hong Kong (19)
Tokyo University, Japan (20)
Peking University, China (23)
Tsinghua University, China (27)
Seoul National University, South Korea (38)
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (43)
National Taiwan University, Taiwan (49)
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (51-100)
Fudan University, China (51-100)
Korea University, South Korea (51-100)
Kyoto University, Japan (51-100)
Renmin University, China (51-100)
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China (51-100)
University of Malaya, Malaysia (51-100)
Waseda University, Japan (51-100)
Wuhan University, China (51-100)
Yonsei University, South Korea (51-100)
Zheijang University, China (51-100)
China University of Political Science and Law, China (101-150)
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan(101-150)
Osaka University, Japan (101-150)
Singapore Management University, Singapore (101-150)
Sungkyunkwan University,South Korea (101-150)
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2020/law-legal-studies
If you want to blame someone blame Venkata Rao, who made this statement to LI in 2009: "Bangalore law school is the Harvard of the East - we will work continuously to make people say that Harvard is the Bangalore of the West."
https://www.legallyindia.com/lawschools/bangalore-law-school-takes-on-world-with-good-advice-20090522-022
Also blame LI, for constantly hyping NLSIU at the expense of other law schools and not challenging Rao.Till date LI has never done a comparison of faculty quality at NLSIU versus elsewhere and also stopped the placement rankings once NLSIU weakened.
- Shamirpet law school signing out.
We raised some concerns more than a week ago on a Friday. He replied back telling us that he will reply to them over the weekend. We kept waiting the entire day.
We didn't recieve any reply. Few people thought that he may have meant next weekend and we waited till the next weekend. But the reply never came.
[img]https://www.legallyindia.com/images/uploads/20200609-223852.jpg[/img]
[Ed: Names redacted from image]
The nation wants to know!