Internal assessment marks will now gain more importance for engineering students of the Visvesvaraya Technological University from the 2018-19 academic year.
In a circular issued to colleges earlier this week, the university stated that students will need to secure at least 40% internal assessment to be eligible to write the semester examination. It also mentions that the minimum CIE (continuous internal evaluation) marks for practical/mini project, internship, and technical seminar should be 50% to be eligible to write the semester examination. Those who do not score the minimum CIE marks will not be eligible to write the respective theory and practical subject examinations. “The principals of colleges must ensure that such students are not allowed to write exams in that subject, where CIE marks are less than the minimum marks,” the circular stated.
Students who fail to meet the criteria have to improve their CIE marks during the subsequent semester when the course is offered.
Satish Annigeri, Registrar (Evaluation) of the university said the new rule will be applicable to students writing their first semester exam from February. “The new system aims to give more emphasis to internal assessment and many of the autonomous colleges are already following this practice. We do not want students to neglect the CIEs and focus only on the semester examination,” he said.
The university has asked colleges to submit details of the marks scored by all students in internal assessment. While 60% weightage is given to the semester examination, the remaining 40% weightage is given for CIE. Prior to this, a student had to score a total of 40% in both semester-end exam and CIE to pass.
The move has received a mixed response from students.
Rahul M. Bogase, a student, said, “It’s a good move as it will help us focus more on our internal assessment. We often tend to give less importance to it.”
However, Sujaya S., another student, said, “Earlier, we had the option to make up in the semester-end exam if we had not done well through the year. With this, many students will not be allowed to write the exam.”