Top New Year Resolutions of Students I Spoke To...

So the New Year Eve partying is now over. Today is 1 January 2010. Some of you would have started your day with a newfound enthusiasm, a joy of living, and an irresistable urge to transform the world. Some of you would have woken up with the fruits of last evening's partying - headache, bleary-eyed...

Whatever, many of you would be either making those inevitable resolutions for the year or would be reconsidering some of them that you made last evening in a brief surge of enthusiasm. Here are a few of the top three New Year Resolutions of Students I spoke to...

1. Not bunking classes
2. Go to bed early, and wake up early
3. Stay on the Internet a little longer doing something other than mindless surfing

I did listen to a couple of whacky ones too. One resolved to do cross-dressing at least once in 2010 to get over certain inhibitions. Another resolved to text one joke every day to all his friends

Well, I am not much a New Year Resolution making person. It would be interesting to see how the resolutions of my students at IIITB take shape in the next 364 days! For all those who have made resolutions with utmost serious intent, I offer my best wishes!

On the Last Day of 2009...

On the last day of 2009, I am wondering what would a typical student who is about graduate in May-June 2010 be thinking about.

Partying and welcoming the New Year
Making resolutions that are unlikely to last the first week of Jan 2010
Hoping to land a nice job as soon as possible
...
...

One student told me that he is not going to think about placement, jobs, career, etc. on New Year's eve. The logic is that he has been thinking and agonizing about this during the entire 2009, and now wants to forget the trauma for just one evening.

I just reflect on the supply-demand situation for entry level programmers, and I wonder whether the students have thought about this at all. In May-June 2010, we would have 500,000 engineering graduates (out of about 725,000 candidates) and about 10,000 graduates with MCA degrees (not sure about this number). From all industry reports, I gather that there are about 100,000 entry level positions available. Even if we just assume that 40% of these graduates are interested in these positions, there is a serious gap between supply and demand.

The companies are likely to raise the bar and try to recruit only those with significant competencies.

If I were looking for an entry level job in 2010, I would be thinking seriously about how to develop, hone and sharpen my competencies in problem solving, programming and communication skills.

Well, dear students, part hard this evening. Forget the trauma of 2009. Look forward to a great 2010 not just through wishful-thinking, but with the intention of transforming yourself to be among the top folks in your batch so that the supply-demand gap does not leave you behind!

Happy New Year!

Should the CAT 2009 Hiccups Slow Down Adoption of Computer-Based Assessments in India?

Several months ago, the adoption of computer-based assessments for the highly popular CAT examinations in India was welcomed enthusiastically by many. There were also many who were skeptical, apprehensive and even virulently opposed to the move. The CAT 2009 hiccups during the last two weeks only enabled the strengthening the views of the skeptics and the naysayers. I empathize with the candidates who went through a traumatic experience. I also empathize with the IIMs that attracted a huge amount of negative publicity. I am sure that the IIMs will work out a plan deal with the affected candidates.

But would the CAT 2009 hiccups slow down the adoption of computer-based assessments in India? Of course, there will be a number of institutions that would succumb to a knee jerk reaction and place their initiatives for adopting computer-based assessments in the back burner. In my view, this would not seriously slow down the process of adoption in the medium and long run. The more important question is “Should the CAT 2009 hiccups slow down the adoption of computer-based assessments in India?”

There are reports in the newspapers that the IIMs are being urged to implement a paper-based test for CAT 2009. I sincerely hope that the wise persons at IIM would not choose this retrograde step. To do this would be to acknowledge that the CAT 2009 was a major failure. Worse, there would be sufficient numbers who would interpret this incorrectly as an acknowledgement that there are fundamental weaknesses in the computer-based assessments.

Computer-based assessments are not something new. They have been around for a few decades. While the going has been relatively smooth, there have been sufficient hiccups even though none perhaps received this level of coverage in the media as the CAT 2009. There are no fundamental weaknesses in computer-based assessments that warrant slowing down of adoption or even abandoning them. There might be some technical glitches or some process glitches. But I see no fundamental reason to oppose computer-based assessments.

The voice of logic and reason must prevail over the shrill campaign that has already shown up on the newspapers, the electronic media and the Internet. I am not particularly bothered that the proposed adoption of computer-based assessment by the Karnataka CET would not be this year. There may be several other initiatives that would slow down in the short run. But it would be tragic if the adoption were abandoned entirely.

Instead of dwelling on potential technical or process related difficulties, I look forward to the community at large raise the level of the debate to a higher plane – not necessarily restricted to the CAT examinations.

Computer-based assessments are dominated by the use of multiple-choice questions and their variants. Are assessments predominantly based on multiple-choice questions and their variants sufficient to assess specific competencies that the candidates ought to possess and demonstrate? It is time we stopped secretly gloating over the hiccups of the CAT 2009 and discuss what can be done to raise the quality and appropriateness of computer-based assessments.