A night of panic for students, just an ‘error’ for DU

Isha Sharma, a first year student of English Honours was horrified to see her score of 67% come down to a second division on the Delhi University website on Wednesday. Mallica Joshi and Shaswati Das report.

Isha Sharma, a first year student of English Honours was horrified to see her score of 67% come down to a second division on the Delhi University website on Wednesday.

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The university’s examination branch revised the first semester results for students on Wednesday evening. The revised marks were much less than what the students originally got. Though the university later said the new link had been put up by mistake, it cause widespread panic among students.

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“I was shocked, as according to the new result I had failed in one subject. It seems like the university was playing cruel jokes on us,” Sharma said. The mood in her house was sombre throughout the night.

Meghna Pahwa, too, had a similar experience as she failed in one subject after her marks were slashed by 50.

The reduction of marks varied across different courses. While students of Economics (H) saw a slash of about 15%, students of Statistics (H) saw only a nominal dip of 4%.

For some students, percentages dipped from 58% to 48%, drastically altering the grade that students had secured.

“What was earlier 117 out of a total score of 200, came down to 97 when the new scores were published online. This was very disconcerting because it instantly brought down the division as well,” said Nirjhar Bhattacharya, a History (H) student of DCAC college.

Social networking sites too, were inundated with complaints as students complained of a steep drop in their marks across the board.

“The news that our marks had been slashed went viral on Wednesday night,” said Sharanya Dutta, an English (H) student of Lady Sri Ram College.

Many teachers, however, wondered how the ‘technical error’ occurred. “Where did this file come from? How did those marks get to a point where they were uploaded and available for view? I think this file exists because it is university’s record of the actual marks obtained by students which were later inflated,” said Sanam Khanna, who teaches English at DU.