CBSE Results 2017: Topper Raksha Gopal may be in for a reality check in her degree college

The CBSE topper this year, Raksha Gopal, a girl from Noida scored 99.6% in her class 12 examinations. A student interested in social sciences, she scored 100 in English, Political Science, and Economics.

While we hail Raksha's performance and wish her the very best, we also attempt to understand how the board manages to give students 100% in papers such as English and Political Science, that are subjective in nature.

In 2016, two students - Urna Chakrabarty and Anusheela Ghosh - scored 100% in their history exams. In a Quora answer, Chakrabarty was quoted as saying, "History is a very interesting subject. I memorised everything in detail for the exam." 

But in that same Quora answer, a degree college teacher said that it was baffling for a student to score a 100% in History, given the subjective nature of the paper.

This author’s mother – a retired lecturer of political science at the University of Mumbai – would grade students in a ruthless manner. She would take 30 minutes to grade each paper, and the highest this author ever saw in an answer sheet was 71%. The average student usually failed.

So then how does the CBSE system work? Speaking to DNA, Avnita Bir, Principal of Mumbai’s RN Podar School said, "When it comes to humanities, the board looks at key words and marks the student accordingly. This marking is done in a scientific manner." She, however, added that since humanities are subjective, there is a place where examiners need to reassess when it comes to grading the 'perfect' paper. "If a student is about to get 100 marks, I would go back and see whether the paper actually merits the grading," she added.

In addition, Bir says that the board wants to put science, commerce and humanities students on par and not show any disparity when it comes to grading. A BA teacher on condition of anonymity added that students with high marks who come into degree college realise after the first semester that there is more to a humanities than rote learning. “For the brighter ones, it can come as a shock when a student who comes into college with a 98% drops to a 70%. By degree college standards, the results are excellent, but it’s a hard pill to digest for the student because it’s not a 90%,” he says.

Some students, the teacher adds, end up doing so poorly that they are given student counselling to help them overcome their depression. “The bright ones are able to then pick themselves up, which is good and they understand the importance of reading and researching as a degree college student,” he says. “Raksha Gopal has already studied hard to get 99.6%. The transition will be easy for her, and she’ll be the first to realise that researching will be an important part of doing well in degree college,” says Sonali Gupta, a Mumbai-based counsellor.

Gupta adds that Gopal will also have like-minded batchmates, who have done equally well in their CBSE examinations. “This will add to healthy competition, which will be good for the students,” she says.