posted by Shaila Kagal

As a student, woes of evaluations never end, whether in favourable or unfavourable circumstances. At UW, in the 1960’s, while I was still getting through the slang of my American friends and assignments of my professors, our quarter-end Final Exam was announced. It was indeed a revelation.
My professor said his exam would be “Open Book”. I was at my wits end trying to manage ordinary assignments and here was something unheard of. Never in my life before did I imagine that books would be allowed in the examination hall which could be referred by students to write answers. My fellow classmates worried that it meant a tough test. I was still not clear why it should be; particularly when we could check out any answer. But real meaning dawned on me when the professor also announced only the starting time and no closing time.
The Indian examinations truly create a huge awe, with notices after notices on what we should not do; or how we might be punished if anything went wrong; and of course students suspiciously resourceful on ways and means of going around the rules; or those harsh sounding exam bells. And here everyone like any Indian student was busy brushing up and ready with “Blue Books” to write answers in, waiting for the professor to walk in. Surprise of all surprises was “Blue Books” –answer books were procured by students and not supplied by the university. The Professor himself came to the class; wrote the question on the blackboard and said he would return after 3 hours but we could take time as long as we needed. He left the class with doors open. Not a single student moved. Total silence. Everyone buried their heads in to their bluebooks. The first to leave kept his bluebook on the table. Still no one stirred. I was totally at bay on how to refer to books and answer. I took time. Finally I left my bluebook on the table, hoping that even if the professor returned to an empty class, all blue books would be intact. I was aghast. No one to see that students did not copy; neither did student make any attempts to look over the shoulders or blatantly copy. Utter silence. Books to ourselves while writing answers; no time limit and on the top of it, no watchdog. Even today that feeling of unspeakable amazement still weighs me down. After all, I had been giving exams throughout my school and college life in India.
I tried the same thing on my students here in India and failed miserably. To make it work, I had to install an invigilator and a set of intimidating rules.

posted by Shaila Kagal

Ages ago when I landed on the shores of Seattle Washington with American dreams of a graduate degree, deciphering the welcoming words of my loving American family was a huge task. Having had no exposure to TV or American movies or western music or cartoon strips or their education system, I soon realised that I was probably in the adventure land. Starting school when I had just graduated from college—rather university topping the charts—was an anathema.  But ruder shock was the all pervasive credit system.
All my student life, I had lived with getting high scoring marks and receiving glowing words from my teachers and parents.  And here I was sitting in a graduate class of students, more seasoned than me, trying to catch all kinds of sounds made by my Professors and take notes.  Because that is what I had learnt all my life…. what questions would be in final exam…. what is an important topic…..etc..etc..  while my classmates were all eyes and ears to what the professor was explaining.  Next came the news from my People-to-People sister, another term for a buddy assigned by the University to a foreign student, that although graduate load was 8 credits, that meant 8 lectures per week, students spent working on those lectures for the rest of the week in the library. My honest question was what did they do in the library. Because we used to go to the library whenever a Professor said we should look up a certain book. Again I was lost.  First of all no text books were prescribed. No professor had mentioned any books in the class that they would follow nor had they told us what we should check in Library.  Once in while there were references about what a researcher had postulated or how other scholars had interpreted and so on. Even then I just decided to visit. I was lost again.  Even the excellent library of Fergusson College had made a great impression on my small town persona but this was enormous.
I was just getting settled, hardly a week had passed, and there were assignments that were to be submitted in the cubbyholes assigned to teaching assistants, written on manila paper and folded lengthwise so they fitted in the cubbyholes. My impression used to be that in colleges or universities we were kind of free and did not have any day-to-day academic controls other than final exams.  But I got wisened by my P-to-P sister. She said we were going to be continually assessed and finally the Professor would grade us like A, B etc.  Of course I did not want to listen to any other grade.  But getting there was a road never taken.  In fact I had not quite understood when I registered for courses why I needed to make a decision on which courses and again for that quarter.  Because my Indian University once enrolled for a programme had just given me a list of courses I had to do. So the first quarter I was just in an unknown stupor not knowing what was happening in my academic life.
Now when I look around I find Indian students have great comfort in American English. Google has changed their lives and taken them on a tour of information destinations. TV has exposed them to a world outside. Several Universities are on credit point systems. Symbiosis is one of them.  I am sure there is far greater confidence than this small town girl faced with credit point system ages ago.
PS– I scraped through it all successfully and hold MS degree.