April 27, 2017

The Art of Binge Watching (and how to hold it off)

By Vineeta Rana April 27, 2017

As the exam season engulfs us and we find a myriad of ways to escape from studying, we often gravitate towards the ever-inviting TV screen or website. This allows us to deviate from our study schedules and escape reality for a more comforting cocoon of pillows and blankets in which we can sip our hot tea and watch our favourite shows.

The only problem with this fantasy is that it is leads us into a spiral of watching entire seasons in a week, when we should be focusing on our semester exams. It is therefore imperative to hold off watching the latest TV series whilst caught up in the eye of the tornado, or as we know it, DU exams. This is, of course, easier said than done. We give you these handy tips to refer back to whenever you have a moment of weakness this exam season:

Work on an incentive-reward basis

Schedule your episodes in a way that you only watch them after having completed a significant portion of your work. Set yourself a goal – finishing a chapter, or making notes for a reading, etc. Study for a couple of hours, then take a lunch break and watch a couple of YouTube videos or a 20-minute sitcom episode to reward yourself. If you feel you’ve been extraordinarily productive, go ahead and watch a 40-minute drama series, or two back-to-back episodes. This not only positively reinforces your work ethic, but also incentivises you to work towards completing your goal.

Don’t download or make a list of pending TV shows

If you’re planning your summer binge list and note down all the TV shows you’re desperate to watch, it’ll be a constant reminder of everything you can easily access. You’ll fall down a rabbit hole which is almost impossible to get out of. So refrain from downloading all the shows you’re planning to watch and don’t have torrent links ready for these. Instead, work on a moderation basis (see Tip 1) and then go berserk on the final day of exams.

Scare yourself

If all else fails, keep reminding yourself how terrifying it is to fail. Put up post-its around your room, block certain entertainment websites, and hold on to the comforting fact that your TV shows will always be there for you (unlike these exams). This works even better if you tell your friends to remind you constantly of this reality. Make it an exercise to positively reinforce (and scare) each other on a regular basis.

Good luck following these tips. Happy studying!

Feature Image Credits: BuzzFeed

Vineeta Rana
[email protected]

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Saying Goodbye to Family – Arushi Pathak (Associate Editor Web 2016-17)

By Arushi Pathak April 27, 2017

The most difficult goodbye you ever say is to your family: the family that moulds you into a person that is ready to face any obstacle head on. No matter how hard you try to prepare yourself, you just cannot come around to say it to them. And when the moment is finally there, all you can do is stand and admire how beautiful your family is, reminiscing all the beautiful memories you’ve gathered with them.

My three years in DU Beat have been the most awarding and inspiring years in life. The slightly scared enthu-cutlet, as called by her seniors, who begged the HRs to let her be a part of her dream team at DU Beat within the first month of joining college; is now graduating as a proud Associate Editor of the same. My college life has been all about DUB- the source of all of my happy memories. From coping with deadlines to drinking games at DUB parties, DU Beat has been every happy memory I have of college life. I’ve seen my mentors becoming my friends, my friends becoming my guides and my juniors becoming family. If given a chance, I’d redo all of it with as much affection and effort, if not more.

I have always boasted about being the oldest member of the DU Beat Editorial team. And very proudly so. But being the oldest member comes with its own responsibilities- people look up to you for everything, everyone expects you to be the know-it-all. I have, not once, felt these expectations to be a burden and responsibilities to be unrealistic. DU Beat has pushed me to challenge my limits and strive for the best performance I can bring out of me.

I walked into this organisation as a fresher looking for a purpose. I couldn’t be happier that I chose DU Beat, more importantly, DU Beat chose me; to design my college life into the enigma that it is today. I have made friends I know will last a lifetime, I’ve learned from people and experiences. The perks, you bet, have been nothing less than a plate full of Vanilla Oreos. Standing inside the barricades with a press card hanging around my neck has to certainly be the best incentive DU Beat gave me. From getting all close up to star performers to being pushed and shoved and stomped upon in stampedes, it’s been a pleasure.

There are a lot of emotions I am experiencing right now. Knowing that I won’t have a 100 messages in my phone from DU Beat groups, leaving 60+ WhatsApp DUB Groups, not getting to make the Web Layout every week, not having to reprimand correspondents and copy-editors to adhere to the deadline and most importantly, not having DU Beat next to my name.

Will I get through this? I’m not sure. But DU Beat has made me into a person who sure can deal with these emotions amidst all possible challenges life decides to throw at me. And to cope, I certainly have some informal DUB WhatsApp groups to hold on to and I am willing to be the creepy stalker of DU Beat on Facebook. Whatever keeps me close to this family.

Words will fall short in explaining the gravity of DUB in my life. And so, is it a goodbye yet? Well, it will never be. DU Beat shall always occupy the most comforting spot in my heart.

Signing off,

For the last time,

Arushi Pathak,

Associate Editor Web (2016-17)

DU Beat

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CBSE to scrap off marks moderation, Board scores anticipated to drop

By Saumya Kalia April 27, 2017

In a meeting organised by the Central Board of Secondary Education on April 25th, 2017, thirty two school boards reached a consensus to scrap off the “marks moderation” policy from this year onwards. The pivotal reason behind this decision was to put a cap on the soaring Class XII results witnessed over the past few years.

The marks moderation method, first undertaken in 1992, leads to a spike in the marks scored in the Board examinations and was followed to bring about uniformity for an equitable distribution of marks. The policy constituted a marginal tweaking in scores to allow it to compensate the evaluation parameters of different examiners, the parity of pass percentage, and the difficulty of the question paper. Under this, the examinee can be awarded upto 15% extra marks if the question paper is deemed difficult. However, taking into account the high-scoring performance by students in the last few years, the CBSE has agreed to undertake measures to avoid an inflation of scores this year onwards.

It has adopted a policy of full disclosure with regards to awarding of grace marks. These marks will be disclosed on the mark sheet of student, and this policy shall be immediately implemented in the academic circle.

In addition to this, the CBSE will discontinue the practice of setting varied question papers for different boards, and set up a common question paper for all CBSE-affiliated schools. Previously, there was a discrepancy seen with regards to the level of the paper in the Delhi region and ?hat of the rest of the country and abroad. A safeguard measure complementing this change is also proposed by the Centre wherein the school boards grade a students’ performance in extra-curricular activities, in addition to the conventional academic module. Such an evaluation is sought to bring about a holistic result of the student.

The School Education Secretary, Anil Swarup, on speaking to a popular national daily commented that CBSE will lead by example by not artificially “spiking” marks scored by Class XII students in Board results expected next month. He also tweeted, “In the meeting held with State and Central Education Boards, consensus arrived at doing away with “spiking” of marks through moderation.” The implementation of such a strategy will have a direct effect on the Board results of this year, with an anticipated decrease in academic performance. This is expected to also lead to a reduction in the soaring cut-offs of the college admissions, a trend which has been the reason of anxiety and stress on students appearing for undergraduate admissions.

The meeting saw the attendance of the representatives of the ICSE Boards, NIOS, states of Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Madhya Pradesh. The Boards also agreed to adopt the NCERT curriculum for core subjects. To execute these policies and resolve issues concerning their implementation, a working group headed by the CBSE chairman and with other members from the ICSE Board and other states was set up by the Centre. The decision to implement these changes in evaluation is set to affect the curriculum from this year onwards.

With inputs from The Indian Express

Image Credits: Zee News

Saumya Kalia

[email protected]

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