Students of class 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th in Tamil Nadu spend the month of November looking for 2nd midterm question papers and answer keys. First they look for previous year papers with solutions, before their exams. After their exams, they start looking for answer key of that year, for their district and class.
Every year students change, but the story remains the same. However with the easy access of internet now, students have better access to both these things, that is the second midterm question paper as well as answer key.
Typing in a quick search query yields several results online. The first place where students look out for these resources is their own student groups.
Students of all classes are nowadays part of small groups of their own classmates, to large groups that spread across the state. Here, they not only share light hearted moments as kids do, but also help each other out by sharing the question papers, study resources with each other; sometimes they also pass on a few wise words of wisdom to their peers.
While prior to exam, students have been sharing previous year question papers and answer keys with each other in these groups, now that exams are over in most districts, students have shared their questions and have discussed answers and solutions. Where few have access to tuition teachers, they have provided each other with answer keys too.
The second place that students are seeking out 2nd midterm question paper and answer key 2019 are social media platforms. Each one has his or her own go to place; some check out on facebook, others on twitter or youtube. While at the community focused platforms one usually looks for peer uploaded question paper and teachers uploaded answer key, on content focused platforms like youtube, one even gets detailed video solutions where teachers explain step by step how a question was solved.
Then the third place to go to is google search. It is also equally easy to look for midterm question papers and answer keys of the exams that have concluded online through this channel. It takes a little time to sift through and come to the useful results, yet the search is usually fruitful than futile.
The wait between an exam and its result is strenuous and induces tension in young and old alike. However using technology to know answers of the paper immediately after attempting it does help ease out one’s worries a bit. Students can also get some time to mentally prepare oneself if, for some unfortunate reason they realize with the answer keys that they did not do well.
All said and done, there are also such students who prefer to forget the exam as soon as they are done with it. They want nothing to do with either question paper or answer key, and they directly want to see their results.
End of trimester system?
In Tamil Nadu, students take the monthly exams, 1st mid term, 2nd mid term, term 1 and quarterly exams, term 2 and half yearly exams, term 3 and public exams. The trimester system was introduced in the year 2011, in a bid to lighten the burden of students, literally, as they had to earlier carry heavy textbooks with syllabus of complete year. The trimester system is in classes 1st to 8th.
However as per recent reports, the state is considering scrapping the trimester system for class 8 or 9 or both. Under the trimester system, topics taught in one trimester are not carried forward to the next. However teachers complain that this is causing difficulties for students to consolidate topics and prepare for class 10 board exams. The final decision on this matter will be clear before the start of next term.
