In the contemporary world e-learning is becoming a predominant mode of education. Owing to its numerous advantages more and more students are taking the online mode of test preparation. The segment has witnessed a swell in the number of users over the years. Students from the tier II and tier III cities are also showing immense interest in e-learning and online modules and it is not just restricted to large metro cities now. The cause of this swell can be attributed to the high level of internet and mobile penetration in the country.
Online Examination: From novelty to norm
It has been observed that in order to keep pace with the universal online education and learning drifts, India is also trying to bring in substantial changes in the arrangement of many competitive exams like CAT, JEE, BITSAT, CA-CPT, and CS Foundation. Majority of the entrance exams are now being conducted either completely or partly online. On account of its high level of administrative efficiency, security and transparency more and more examination authorities are being attracted to the online medium. Procedures like form filing, admit cards, and question papers, involves less paper work. They also reduce overhead costs of logistics, paper checking and generation of the result in physical formats besides the most important advantage of eliminating the chances of human errors.
Online exams are also beneficial for students in multiple ways. Registration forms for online exams are much cheaper than offline exam forms and the process is much easier and less time consuming eliminating the need of photocopy & postage and allowing students the convenience of easier payment methods than the cumbersome demand draft. Secondly, in the OMR based entrance exams, 15 to 20 minutes of time is wasted in filling the bubbles in the OMR, online exams are saving students those 15-20 valuable minutes that they can spend on attempting more questions or reviewing their answers.
Online examinations also let students mark questions for later review or leave questions unanswered; changing an answer is also easy in online mode, as compared to the time consuming and difficult way in OMR. The biggest advantage for students in online exams is that they can take exams as per their convenience. Online exams are usually conducted over a stretch of time and students are allowed to select their preferred date and time slot along with their choice of exam center. Another benefit is that online exams eliminate the risk of getting surprises or changes in questions and patterns as the organizers usually stay away from any kind of surprise element.
E-learning for test preparation
While taking online tests may be preferred by one and all, actually succeeding in these tough competitive exams is another ball game all together. Preparation runs into months and burning the midnight oil just seems like an understatement when it comes to the hard work that students need to put in. Competitive exams such as JEE, AIPMT, and CA-CPT, require extreme practice and training.
In this sphere too, students are increasingly opting for online preparatory courses in addition to attending coaching classes. The online training offers wide scope for students to develop their answering and reasoning skills. It allows them to study at their own pace and within the comfort of their homes. Precious time is saved on travelling and other logistical requirements.
Online prep modules offer access to all the comprehensive study material required even at the locations where good physical resources like coaching institutes are not available. This makes it a level playing fields for the small town students who otherwise are deprived of admissions to the prestigious higher learning institutes due to lack of availability of preparatory resources.
National Perspective within your home
Even for the urban students, online preparation helps increase their scores by reviewing their preparation, benchmarking it with peers on a national level and take corrective actions within time. Due to the use of technology, the kind of analysis and tracking that is possible in online learning modes is well neigh impossible in offline modes. Students can connect, compare and collaborate with geographically separated peers using online mediums. Even the most unproductive time like daily travel can be converted into productive learning time by accessing preparation modules on mobile devices.
Although it is debatable if online learning can replace classroom system, many experts are of the view that online modes are bringing precision and convenience to learning which is in-turn bringing out the best performance of each student and the cutoffs are increasing considerably. This implies that the online learning is increasing the level of competition and the latent talent of small towns that was otherwise shielded from the quality training available in bigger towns is now gearing up to compete with the bigger city students.
From the above discussion it can culminated that Online Exams and Online preparations are here to stay. Total replacement of classroom learning with it is uncertain at present; however it is surely inducing quality and convenience to education and pushing its geographic limitations. Therefore going online is definitely a good idea for students, trainers and exam authorities.
Ashutosh Modi, Executive Director, EntrancePrime.com
By attending key meetings with his father who successfully established multiple K-12 schools, Ashuthosh started learning the tricks of trade at a very early age. Later, he felt the need to utilize technology to specialize and bring precision to entrance exam preparation and hence, developed a multi-faceted test preparation portal www.entranceprime.com. It helps students practice each and every chapter in real test environment and get detailed and meaningful analysis and suggestions to improve their score, accuracy and time management.
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