In race to excel, students go for improvement tests

In the race to get a head start in competitive examinations, students are opting to write “improvement” exams in the state. As many as 2,56,186 candidates have applied for the advanced supplementary exam conducted by the TS Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE).

Among the 1,65,971 candidates who passed the supplementary, only 39,854 were non-improvement candidates. The other 1,26,117 were improvement candidates from Intermediate I. First year students who have passed in all subjects can appear for one or more papers for 'improvement'.

There is no provision to appear for a single paper for improvement in the second year. B. Jayaprada, District Intermediate Education Officer (DIEO) said, "Students have a weightage of 15 per cent of Intermediate marks in Eamcet so they don't want to miss scoring even a single additional mark." Besides, there was a Central scholarship on offer for those score more than 95 in Sanskrit.

Mr Madhusudhan Reddy, president, Government Junior Lecturers' Association, said, “Students will be eligible for top colleges only if they score the highest marks. They don't want to miss any chance."

Prof. Srini Bhupalam says the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) has done away with giving weightage to 10+2 marks. "I hope Eamcet also does the same. Once this happens, the number of students appearing for improvement exams will come down drastically."