All it takes is a little bit of planning to help you sail through the Class XII Psychology Board exam

Read the instructions in the paper carefully. Part A consists of 7 questions of 2 marks each. Answers should be of 30 words each. Part B consists of six questions of 3 marks each. Answers should not exceed 100 words each. Part C consists of two questions with an internal choice and the questions carry 7 marks each. The answers should not go beyond 200 words each.

The long answer type questions (7 marks each) can be expected from chapters like ‘Intelligence’, ‘Self and Personality’, ‘Social Influence and Group Processes’ and Psychological Disorders and Statistics in Psychology’.

Draw diagrams and give examples with almost all your answers. Also mention the names of psychologists wherever possible. Answer the questions in order i.e. from Section A-D or vice-versa and write the answers according to the marks allotted.

if, for a 3-mark question, there are six points, then briefly state all the points and explain three of them in detail. Similarly, for 4-mark questions if there are eight points, mention all the points briefly and explain four of them in detail.

Expand the answers according to the marks allotted and try to cover all the important aspects even in the 4-mark questions. For instance, if the questions states, ‘explain the concept of work motivation,’ then you have to explain this with the help of motivational theories.

For the 7-mark question, divide your answer into three parts including the introduction, an explanation and a conclusion. Sometimes a question can be divided into two parts, so give equal weightage to both parts.

While answering questions from chapters on Statistics (computing, mean, median etc.), always write the formula and solve the question stepwise. Whenever there is a question asking for differences, it is always better to answer in points.

Each chapter has been given a weightage of marks. But to score well, give equal importance to all the chapters while doing your preparation.

Attempt the questions in a neat handwriting and leave space after each answer. Keep at least 10 minutes for revision.

Date: 22nd Feb 2006

Source: Hindustan Times.

News

Theorem questions, calculus should be focus areas

With less than a month left for the board examinations, does your maths textbook look like Greek to you? All may not be lost, assure teachers. Carefully utilised, this final leg of preparation can make a very crucial difference to the result. Here are a few last-minute tips. The first and foremost, says P P Vermani, who teaches at Modern School, Barakhamba Road, is to go through the syllabus. Very often, students only rely on textbooks which tend to cover topics beyond the syllabus and end up wasting time on those, he says. Sample papers are also a must. Even more important is to get them corrected. Very often, students keep solving sample papers but still end up doing badly this happens because they havent got these papers corrected and keep repeating their mistakes, adds Vermani. Sushma Suneja of DPS RK Puram, says: Ideally, 2-3 hours every day should be devoted to Maths, instead of studying it for a long time in one day. Remember, maths is all about practice. Simple areas are where most students lose marks, so they should not be ignored, adds Suneja. The students must read the questions carefully they will be getting 15 minutes extra to go through the question paper carefully. They should also attempt the questions they are confident of, first. And always give corresponding formulae. Professor Dinesh Singh of Delhi University says: Students should identify their strengths and make them even more stronger. They should run their mind through what all they have done. There is no point doing something absolutely new at this point because the law of diminishing returns will apply. The most important thing students should remember is to be calm. As far as specific areas are concerned, teachers say that Class X students should capitalise on the theorem questions. These are usually six-mark questions where four marks is for the theorem and two for the application, says Mohd Sabir Hussain of Gyan Bharti School. Statistics, algebra, construe-. tion and the pie diagram are also areas where they can score well, he adds. For Class XII, says Hussain, calculus, which forms a major chunk of the paper, should be handled carefully. Some of the scoring areas here are differentiation from first principle, application of maxima-minima and area under the curve using integration. Matrix is a simple topic and there is always a six-mark question on it. And last but certainly not the least, get enough sleep. In order to make optimum use of all the hardwork youve put in, make sure to get 6-7 hours of sleep before the paper and be confident of yourself, says Suneja.

Date: 6th Feb 2006.

Source: The Times of India

News

CBSES Telecounselling Service From Feb 1 To Cover 13 Cities

Help is at hand for students panicking over the approaching board exams. Starting February 1, the CBSE is going to start its exam helpline for students in 13 cities across the country for the first time the facility will also be available in Mumbai, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Vishakhapatnam and Hosur, apart from the eight cities where the facility is already available.

Students studying in CBSE schools in countries like Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait would also be able to avail the counselling facility being offered by the board with the help of 40 principals, trained CBSE and private school counsellors, and psychologists.

The service will be available on local dial facility for callers in Delhi and Mumbai for subscribers of MTNL. Cities like Bangalore, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Indore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Gurgaon have been identified as communication hubs that will facilitate even students from far-flung areas to access the facility MTNL callers will have to use a 10-digit number 1250-111-102 preceded by 95, and then the STD code of one of the above-mentioned cities, a CBSE official said.

According to CBSE officials, the need to spread the helpline network was felt after students from far-flung corners of the country also tried to access the services being offered from cities like Delhi and Chandigarh. Students can also access the CBSE website www.cbse.nic.in for information related to exams and online counselling by clicking on the icon Helpline.

Students can also approach the CBSE director academic and the controller of examination, respectively Every year before the Board exams, we receive a surge of calls and queries from across the country, not only about exam rules and dates, but also from panic stricken students besieged by examination phobia, said an official.

Apart from receiving academic queries about various subjects, students often call up these help lines complaining of problems induced by exam stress like insomnia and inability to recollect lessons.

Date: 31st Jan 2006

Source: Hindustan Times.

News of CBSE

Course Material Should Be Meet Industry Needs

B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman, Satyam Computer Services Limited, on Sunday called for initiatives to make the hundreds of thousands of youth graduating from colleges industry-ready.

This is necessary because only one-fourth of those passing out, including 500,000 engineering graduates, are in a position to take up the responsibility of meeting the requirements of global customers in the services sector, he said, addressing the Madras Management Association (MMA) in Chennai. In an interactive session, after

a lecture organised by the MMA on Indias time has come, Mr. Raju said the academia and the course material should be better aligned with the need of the industry.

As for the Centres proposal to introduce reservation in the private sector, he said success in the services sector was all about being innovative. Experience showed that innovation had to do less with intellect and more with discipline.

Stressing the need to demystify knowledge, he said that in the scenario in which job opportunities were less than the demand, certain standards should be laid down. Those meeting the criteria should be given the chance.

Mr. Raju described human resources as the largest asset of the country.

The quality of our minds is as good as the quality of minds in developed countries. One example is the quality of services rendered by a village cooperative to which Satyam Computer Services Limited outsource some of its internal work. The service level agreements (in the outsourcing contract) were significantly higher. The companys decision to outsource from the cooperative was part of its corporate social responsibility and to cut cost.

News

Date: 27th Jan 2007

Source: The Hindu

Established in 1973, basically to train managers of the Bangalore-based public sector companies, the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) has come a long way, and is now a global brand, what with top global companies calling at the campus every year for its students or foreign countries seeking to associate with it as in the Singapore case. The institute’s director, Prof Prakash Apte, spoke to Thanuja B M on its plans and the management education scenario in India.

What are your plans for expansion and increasing intake at IIMB to meet domestic demand?

We are looking to increase intake for all courses. Our regular MBA intake will go up to300 by 2007 while the Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management (PGPPM) seats will be hiked to between 50-60 next year from the current 40 seats. We started offering the Post Graduate Programme in Software Enterprise Management (PGSEM) in Chennai in 2005. For next academic year, we plan to expand the programme to Hyderabad and the subsequent year to Gurgoan and other places.

What about new courses?
We are planning to introduce an executive certificate programme of 12-15 months duration in a year or so. It will be a part-time course of 12-15 modules and could just be face-to- face or could include online elements. Also on the cards is a part-rime programme targeted at owner managers of SME and entrepreneurs. There is tremendous entrepreneurial talent in India who need inputs, given the complex economic and globalised environment. They can’t do their regular courses and we have to help them in this manner. This apart, we will be expanding the recently-launched financial risk management and other executive training programmes.

The new initiatives could put pressure on the current faculty. How will you overcome that?

On one hand we are on the lookout for faculty. While we have a sanctioned figure of 90, we currently employ 70 plus regular faculty. On the other hand, we want to reduce the number of management development programmes (MDPs) we do. The objective is to get out of the low-level training and focus on senior-level management and directors while also cutting the pressure on faculty. IIMB does at least 100 MDPs on an average per annum and we see this number slowly coming down to around 70 a year.

The six ELM directors are meeting on January 31 in New Delhi. What will be on the agenda?

We meet every quarter. Things like admissions, its criteria like mandatory experience and cut off points, fees, new courses will be discussed.

Date: 25th Jan 2006

Source: The Economics Times

Notification

In Hyderabad giving a fillip to human resources development, the State-run Institute for Electronic Governance and software giant Oracle have joined hands to train engineering undergraduates in 60 colleges and make them employable. IEG president G. Subba Rao and Oracle India managing director Krishan Dhawan signed a memorandum of understanding for the purpose on 18th Jan 06. Oracle, under its academic initiative, will provide software and curriculum to 60 Jawahar Knowledge Centres set up in different engineering colleges by the government. The in-kind value of Oracles software grants will exceed $114 million. The basic objective is to bridge the gap between the skills the student pick up in colleges and the demands of the industry, Mr. Dhawan said. A skill base would be created that would help the industry and the economy as a whole, he added. He said Oracle would grant software licences for Oracle 10g, Database, Oracle 10g application server and Oracle 10g developer suite besides faculty training to the network of Jawahar Knowledge Centres. The academic initiative was reaching over 17,300 students in about 150 higher education institutions in the country, he added. Principal secretary, information technology, K. Ratna Prabha said though thousands of engineering graduates come out of the 280-odd engineering colleges in the State every year, very few were employable. Not even five per cent students appearing for interviews are able to get jobs because of lack of industry-oriented training; Mrs Prabha said adding that the academic initiative would address this problem.

Date: 24th Jan 2006

Source: Deccan Cronicle

News

Offers a two-year postgraduate diploma course

In a major attempt at bridging the gap caused by shortage of community cardiologists in the country, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has proposed to train doctors in community cardiology, Vice-Chancellor H.P.Dikshit said.

Prof. Dikshit, who was at Chennai for a teleconference with the university coordinators of the southern zone, along with C.K. Ghosh, Director, Regional Services Division, said while cardiac problems were on the rise, the number of specialists was insufficient. The university would offer a two-year postgraduate diploma course for doctors in community cardiology. It would send course material to students. Two reputed medical institutions in Delhi and Bangalore would be the training centres. The course fee would be “reasonable.” The initial intake would be about 300 students. This would be increased next year. The need-based programme was launched in Delhi last month. The Vice-Chancellor said IGNOU had the largest network under Edusat in the country. At present, there were 131 interactive terminals throughout the country. The university had just created a central hub in Jabalpur for another network to reach the grassroots in primary schools.

Under the joint programme of IGNOU, ISRO and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, aimed at value addition and training of teachers, the backward districts of Sidhi in Madhya Pradesh, Daltanganj in Uttar Pradesh, Ara in Bihar and Koria in Chhattisgarh have been selected. The uniqueness of the programme was that these locations had no power supply and hence solar cells would be used.

The university’s Tamil and Bangla language channels were ready for launch. Plans are afoot to have a national repository on Edusat and the content in distance education would be on the server. As regards increasing the content material in the website, Prof. Dikshit said the content in the form of audio, video and print for MCA, MBA and some other courses would be available on Edusat network by February. During the teleconference, the coordinators expressed difficulties faced by candidates including delay in getting course material, hall tickets and declaration of results.

The other problems related to candidates not getting the assignment question papers in time. A coordinator said the honorarium for counsellors should be increased.

The Vice-Chancellor said the university would look into the issues raised.

Date: 24th Jan 2006

Source: The Hindu

News of IGNOU