1. There were the following widely reported errors in JEE 2010 question papers, mainly in the instructions of the question papers about evaluation and marking scheme:
Error I : The subject headings Physics and Mathematics in the ORS are interchanged.
Main Issues due to this Error 1:
* It created confusion; a plenty of time was lost. Instructions reached quite late to the candidates. The time-gap varied quite widely from center to centre.
* After receiving the instructions, many students have to erase their answers and re-mark them on other portion of the ORS.
* This resulted in waste of enough precious time. Also the impression of the darkening of the wrong-bubble was yet left, which may confuse the OMR as having more than one bubble marked in place of a single right bubble.
IIT’s Correction : Each ORS (both for Paper 1 & Paper 2) will be evaluated in two ways (sequential question number-wise and subject headings-wise). In each case the higher score of the two evaluations will be taken as the candidate's score. Should one of the ways of evaluating lead to a mark below the minimum qualifying mark in one of the subjects, the other way will be deemed to be the ‘higher’ of the two scores.
My Comments :
§ The above correction will not address any of the Real Issues. The main issue is of wastage of variable amount of time due to issuing of the Instructions quite late. Late the instructions were passed, more was the wastage of time.
§ In IIT’s correction strategy, the evaluation would be done in two ways – it would have helped if the INSTRUCTIONS WERE NOT PASSED AT ALL, and the students have marked in their own ways – either by the question paper or by the ORS.
§ Since the instructions were passed, every student marked the answer in one unique way as per the instructions. Therefore, there is no possibility of any student not following the instructions. The evaluation of ORS in two ways will not help at all.
§ The Major problem by evaluating in two ways and taking the higher score, will depend on the RANDOM - MATCHING of Physics answers with those of Mathematics, and vice-versa. THIS WILL YIELD RANDOM SELECTION in which wrong choices of one subject has the possibility of matching with the correct choices of the other subject.
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Error 2: Question 44 in the Mathematics section of Paper 1 in code 4 of the Hindi version was not printed.
IIT’s Correction : The ORS of the candidates who were given Code 4 of the Hindi version of the Question Paper 1 will be evaluated omitting Question 44 and the overall score for the Mathematics section of Paper 1 of those candidates will be appropriately scaled.
My Comments :
§ A candidate, who got such misprinted question, will suffer the most by scaling the marks of a candidate because “scaling of marks†is proportionate to the average of the marks, in general.
§ This approach is OK from Statistical Point of view, though, in this case, it is an individual who is affected. The Statistics CANNOT neutralize an individual.
§ The average marks of JEE 2009, were only 11/160 = 7% in Mathematics. Thus, a student, on an average, will get only 7% of the marks, which is equal to 0.21 marks instead of 3 marks, if he had attempted. A score, on an average, of 0.21, is added to the score, which is NOT OF WORTH MENTIONING.
§ It may be noted that the average of Maths in JEE 2010 may be less than that of JEE 2009. This will make the matter worse; effectively a score of less than 0.21, on an average, would be added on scaling.
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Error 3: The Instructions on “Question Paper Format and Marking Scheme†for section IV in the Hindi version of Paper 2 was wrongly printed. Each question in this section was shown to carry 3 marks instead of 8.
Main Issues :
§ Each question carries 4 parts. Thus, as per English instructions, a student who does one part out of 4, gets 2 marks for each part (partial marking). THIS WAS NOT INDICATED ANY WHERE IN HINDI VERSION.
§ This was not the case in Hindi. A student can score 3 marks if and only if all the FOUR PARTS WERE CORRECT. Second, the question, which was for 8 marks, needed much more time to solve. In JEE, time is always at premium, a student sees that one can get 3 marks, only after making all the parts correctly, (s)he did not try to attempt.
§ There were 6 questions in all, thus a student, with HINDI version, looses all the 48 marks for no mistake of his own.
IIT’s Corrective Measure: Each question of section IV of Paper 2 will be evaluated for 8 marks.
My Comments :
§ This is one of the MAJOR MISTAKE for which IIT did not COME with ANY SOLUTION
§ This is very natural to say that each question will be evaluated out of 8 marks.
§ The main issue is that in the absence of any partial marking instruction and seeing the low score for such complex question, students did not attempt this question. How this could be addressed, is not taken care of.
§ THE proposed correction is no RESPITE to students with HINDI papers. They will continue to suffer.
Error 4: In a few cases the question paper contained two unreadable pages and two partially readable pages in the Physics section of Paper 1.
IITs Corrective Measure: Since the registration numbers of these candidates have been taken note of at the time of the examination, their ORS will be evaluated omitting the unreadable questions and their scores for the Physics section of Paper 1 will then be appropriately scaled.
My comments : Students will be severely affected due to the same reason as given in Error- 2. Average score of Physics in JEE 2009 was 8/160 = 5%. Thus, a students will get, on an average, as score of extra 5% on sliding.
IIT Completely overlooked the following:
Error V: IIT has completely ignored the BIGGEST AMBIGUITY Instructions for Section II of Paper I and Section IV of Paper II, by which a candidate can score 93 marks by blindly darkening all the corresponding bubbles and without attracting any penalty due to No-Negative Marking for wrong answers.
In Section II: 5 questions x 3 marks x 3 subjects = 45 marks; One or more correct answers (partial marking); NO NEGATIVE MARKING for incorrect answer. Instructions are the following:
Instructions say there are no negative marks, and there is partial credit for answers. If some candidate darkens all bubbles then (s)he could deserve full credits. Since there is no negative mark for any wrong answers, one can not deduct marks for darkening the wrong bubbles. All right bubbles are any way marked, so one has all correct answers marked along with wrong bubbles for which there are no negative marks. Therefore, as per instructions, marks cannot be deducted.
Indeed there were such questions in the past JEEs when all the four were correct. The following is the example from JEE 2008 given below: (solutions and model answers are available on JEE site.)
From the above model solution, it can be seen that all the four choices can be correct. Then, how an answer by having all the 4 choices can be treated as null and void, as told by Professor Nataraajn in the press earlier, that anyone who would darken all the bubbles, will make his answer null and void. THE ABOVE EXAMPLE IS A COUNTER EXAMPLE.
Similarly, in Section IV of Paper II
-- Section IV (Matrix Type) : 2 questions of 8 marks each in each subject = 48 marks. Any given statement in Column I can have correct matching with one or more stalemates of Column II. NO NEGATIVE MARKING for incorrect answer. There is a possibility of more than one correct matching. A student who does all the 5 matching can get FULL 2 mark in each statement of Column I, because, all the right bubbles are marked any way. THIS AMOUNTS TO 2 x 4 x 2 = 16 MARKS in each of Maths, Physics and Chemistry = 48 marks.
Below, we include a sample question from JEE 2008, Paper-II, in which all the 5 matching were correct.
It can be seen that there existed problems-model answers from the past JEEs, in which full marks are scored by darkening all the bubbles. THIS HAS BEEN IN PRACTICE. Students had scored in the past full marks by darkening all the bubbles. The OMR software will work as per the instructions, as printed. THIS MAY A POSSIBLE JEE SCAM, by which many students have been scoring full marks by exploiting ambiguity in the instructions. These are the matters on which coaching Institutes have the expertise. This may be the reason that in the past there have been news of having more than 20 selections from a single room of a JEE centre. IIT HAS BEEN COMPLETEY SILENT ON HOW TO ADDRESS SUCH AMBIGUITY?
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Error VI is also completely overlooked :Out of syllabi questions amounting to 6 marks in Physics and 3 marks in Mathematics; there may be others which can be revealed by carefully scrutiny of the paper. Additionally, there were unnecessary complicated and lengthy questions in Mathematics which can neither be solved within the stipulated time nor within the space for rough work as provided in the question paper.