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In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

wired.co.uk

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Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#71

Post by parthdesai »

110011 wrote: post #40

This is a pretty inane article for placing too much emphasis on a stupid gimmick like anti-suicide ceiling fans, when the underlying issue is a serious mental health issue of extraordinarily stressed students. I'm Indian and I remember the summer of my 12th grade exams back in 2007 just like yesterday because of some latent awareness that something very important is happening here. I sat in so many exams that summer.…

I did my grade 10 in 2009 and grade 12 in 2011, giving CBSE board exams as well. Holy hell, i remember those two years as pure torture. My day looked something like this,

Go to school at 6:30 ( didn't give much attention in classes), come home at 2:30, go to tuition from 4 to 9, come home, have dinner and then be forced to "study". Looking back, i still don't know how i survived that.

Contrast that to my undergrad in Canada where it was fun to study and do assignments.

Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#72

Post by blocked_again »

amalfra wrote: post #54
blocked_again wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point to any job description that says so? I have never seen any job description that mentions only IIT students can apply for the job. I have seen some mediocre companies mentioning open to only IITs, NITs, and IIITs though.

Almost all jobs of good software engineering companies these days have a top college degree as a requirement in their job ads. If you have been in the job market you would know the fact that it's the degree that matters most. Companies prefer to even give an interview only if you have a degree from top-tier college. Whether we like it or not it's the fact that here we need a degree from top college to get good opport…

I have no idea what top-tier company are you talking about. Google, for example, doesn't care about from which college you graduated and hire through APAC test. If you are good enough to be in the top n percentile you would be called for an interview in Google. Take a look at https://www.hackerrank.com/jobs/search. No companies give a shit about which college you are from as long as you pass the coding test.

Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#73

Post by ausjke »

from what i read and what i saw in test cheating,is it common in india culture? our local high school is investigating test cheating,turns out all of them(12) are from indian,which puzzled me, other culture treats test cheating something extremely bad,but the india students probably think it is not a big deal?

Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#74

Post by modi15 »

Simulacra wrote: post #67

Wow, this sounds so much like China. In college I had a professor who obsessed over a conundrum: India, the world's largest democracy, is also its poorest. Why? He believed it was due to caste, religion, and education. I wonder if India is continually looking east and trying to duplicate some of the Chinese rise to power.

If America would have been poor, he would have blamed racism, guns and ignorance for the same.

Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#75

Post by modi15 »

vinni2 wrote: post #27
modi15 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having said that, Indians solicit social approval as a report card that evaluates their life. Ask any psychologist and they will confirm that 'soliciting social approval as a report card to evaluate their life' is basically a human condition affection close to 100% of the species. The only thing 'Indian' about it is that maybe only Indians think that its an 'Indian' thing.

> The only thing 'Indian' about it is that maybe only Indians think that its an 'Indian' thing. I am an Indian and I disagree with this. A large fraction (yes it is changing) of Indian society cares a lot about what relatives and neighbors would think about our lifestyle. There are so many taboos and restrictions inflicted upon family members simply because pressure from relatives and neighbors. My own family keeps q…

Thats because you are not a part of that society. Once you do become, you will realise that it comes with its own baggage.

Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#76

Post by jitix »

>To prepare, students from across India travel to the historic northern city of Kota, spending months or even years away from their family and home. Whether the children of manual labourers or business tycoons, all have traveled to Kota for one reason: academic glory

Highly misleading. Only a small percentage of people actually go to Kota for preparation, and the number of students in Kota coming from poorer sections of society is exetremely low. The coaching institutes are not cheap, sometimes costing almost as much as college tuition.

This paragraph paints it as some kind of pilgrimage that every student goes through.

Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#77

Post by sumedh »

ausjke wrote: post #73

from what i read and what i saw in test cheating,is it common in india culture? our local high school is investigating test cheating,turns out all of them(12) are from indian,which puzzled me, other culture treats test cheating something extremely bad,but the india students probably think it is not a big deal?

Indian here, unfortunately cheating/not following rules is part of our culture. Most of the times you dont get caught, if you do get caught then you just have to pay a small bribe and you are free.

So if you dont cheat you will fall behind everbody else is doing it so you do it as well

Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#78

Post by throwaway_45 »

India is a country with a huge split. There is a lot of rich people and and a lot of poor people. This is the only chance a lot of these kids have to get out of their situation. We complain about america's social safety net well India's is a lot worse. It doesn't really even exist. If some of these kids can't get out they lose hope. I think the dream is get into IIT, get into MNC or US college and get out.

Yeah it puts a huge amount of pressure on kids because it might not be just them, but their families too. They are making huge sacrifices too for their kid to succeed.

Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#79

Post by ranie93 »

ausjke wrote: post #73

from what i read and what i saw in test cheating,is it common in india culture? our local high school is investigating test cheating,turns out all of them(12) are from indian,which puzzled me, other culture treats test cheating something extremely bad,but the india students probably think it is not a big deal?

This video showing widespread cheating at one school seems relevant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fjk6LmHtxA

Re: In India, high-pressure exams are creating a student suicide crisis

#80

Post by manojlds »

rc_hadoken wrote: post #50
manojlds wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So to admit my daughter to pre kindergarten, the school expects her to know the alphabet already. Talk about pressure.

Is that hard to teach..I mean..its the alphabet..Excuse my possibly ignorant questioning.

Talking about pre kindergarten which happens at age 3 ish in India.
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