Mumbai University's psychology students get results, after 6 months

MUMBAI: The university seems to have done a shoddy cover-up after a major glitch in the TYBA (psychology) semester V exams, say students and teachers. The results were announced on Saturday, after a wait of six months. Many say they failed in wrong papers set with out-of-syllabus questions; some say they scored 100 (unusual in psychology) some zero (not likely in a subject known for high scores).
The problem was wrong subject codes printed on hall-tickets for all psychology semester V papers, said a principal: "While the syllabus did not change much for two papers, it was during the 'abnormal psychology' paper that wrong codes were flagged off.When the university was told, a revised code was sent unofficially. Some centres re-distributed the paper, but at others, the old syllabus paper was released. Students ended up giving the same exam in two different sets of papers."
After the mistake was highlighted, Mumbai colleges became alert, but many outside Mumbai continued to distribute wrong papers, resulting in chaos, said another principal. He said wrong papers for 'cognitive psychology' and 'counselling psychology' had out-of-syllabus questions carrying 50 marks out of 100 and 60/80. "Usually, when students attempt the paper in two different sets, the university holds a re-exam. But in this case, for almost two months, they failed to take a decision. Eventually, it was decided that the paper would be assessed offline, so that teachers can apply discretion."
He said it was decided that students who had taken the paper in old syllabus, will be assessed only in questions from the revised syllabus. As a result, only questions carrying 20 marks out of 80 in one subject, were assessed. Teachers believed the problem was somehow resolved, but Saturday's results baffled them.
A teacher said 18 students have scored 100 marks in 'abnormal psychology' and some got zero. "At least two students who did not even appear for the 'practicals' passed. And students who have scored 'A' and 'O' grades have failed in 'abnormal psychology'. We have no idea what went wrong," said the teacher, adding there could be error in data-feeding. In some consecutive seat numbers of students failing subjects, marks are in descending order (like 27, 26, 25, 24).
A student said the results of TYBA psychology were delayed. "Now we will have to re-appear for the papers we failed in, as there is no guarantee of revaluation. Some of us have already left for hometown," she said. While the university administration did not comment, it postponed the ATKT exam, scheduled to start on May 3, giving some relief to students. The exam section did not comment on the errors in the results that were announced on Saturday. An official said, "Grace marks were given for the benefit of students, wherever required."