Exam blues: DU students resort to crash courses

Every day, the narrow bylanes of Satya Niketan — opposite Sri Venkateswara College — teem with students from several colleges in Delhi University (DU). These students make a beeline for various tutorial centres in the after hours of college to combat their semester woes.

Every day, the narrow bylanes of Satya Niketan — opposite Sri Venkateswara College — teem with students from several colleges in Delhi University (DU). These students make a beeline for various tutorial centres in the after hours of college to combat their semester woes.

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Hard-pressed with time and unending syllabi, students are increasingly turning to crash courses to avoid going asunder before the semester-end exams.

These courses —run by tutorial centres opposite South Campus — require the student to pay anything between Rs 3000 and Rs 7000. The entire curriculum for a particular subject is usually covered over a period of 30 to 45 days through intensive weekend classes that last between six and eight hours. These classes then take students through important concepts and questions
that can be expected in the exams.

Yet, despite the rigour, these classes have now become a favourite among students.

"Fast-track courses cover almost everything in the course. Due to shortage of time, crash courses are the only resort to cover the entire syllabus on time and the stress of not having covered everything is not there," said Somansh Bajaj, a BCom (hons) student of SGTB Khalsa College.

Students said the crux of every topic was provided concisely. "In the crash courses, we are usually given handouts that cover the important points from a topic. The course is also covered much in advance as compared to the classroom so it is a better alternative since we get more time for self-study," said Rahul Kumar, a student of Bhagat Singh College.
While teachers too are grappling with mounting pressure over completion of syllabi, they say these courses are inaccurate since the semester system is still too new to have given these centres an opportunity to analyse the exam
pattern thoroughly.