DU Exam 2020: Students Call For OBE Cancellation After Error-Riddled Mock Test

Delhi University students are lambasting the varsity on Twitter after an attempted mock trial of its open book exam appeared to fail miserably on Saturday.

Hundred of students posted screenshots and videos of their test attempts online, saying they faced multiple errors and glitches as they tried to register for the mock exam, access question papers and upload answer sheets.

Just a day earlier, the university’s portal was called out for privacy breach after the issue of online admit card made students’s personal details public. 

On Saturday, students posted complaints about the mock exam with the hashtags #DUAgainstOnlineExams and #ScrapOBE .

Students and teachers have been petitioning the university and its vice chancellors to cancel the open-book format of exams, citing problems with access to internet and study material.

The Delhi University had on June 27 announced the postponement of the exams for final year students , days before they were scheduled to begin on July 1, by ten days.

Following this, the university released a fresh exam date sheet on July 2 and 3, with mock exams scheduled for July 4-8. The final exams are due to begin on July 10, the first time the university will hold exams online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s what students said about the first day of the mock exam:

Multiple students pointed out that they were getting the incorrect question paper, with some getting ones for entirely different courses.

A common complaint among students appearing for the 3.30 pm slot of the mock exam was a  ’502 Bad Gateway server error’ response on the portal.

Students said the process was making a mockery of their efforts to appear for their final exams.

DU’s dean of examinations Vinay Gupta, however, denied that the website had crashed or even that there had been any problem with the day’s trial run. “More than 30,000 students have registered in the first slot. There may be some glitches but the point of holding these mocks was to smoothen them out,” he told the Indian Express .

He also dismissed allegations of questions papers being mixed up, saying “There may be an issue in one or two cases but otherwise everything is in place.”

While many lashed out at the dean’s comments several responded with caustic memes.