B.Com students allowed to retake exam


Sehrish Wasif June 18, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The Vice Chancellor of Punjab University has agreed to let B.Com students retake the Advanced Accounting paper that was held on June 11, according to Khwaja Tahir, the university’s spokesman.

The students of Punjab College of Commerce (PCC) in Rawalpindi, which comes under Punjab University, demanded, during a protest on June 14, that the paper be conducted again as most of them failed to solve the questions, which they claim were out of syllabus.

The exam will be held on June 30, Tahir added. “The Vice Chancellor has said that students who are not willing to attempt the exam again will get an extra 25 percent marks,” he said.

However, Syed Rizwan, a final-year Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) student, said no official from the University had informed them about rescheduling of the exam.

“Through text messages, students informed and asked others about the paper being rescheduled, but none of our examination controllers informed us,” he said.

Tahir hoped that the majority of students will choose not to take the paper again and settle for the extra marks.

But some students said that if it is, in fact, true that the Advanced Accounting paper is being offered again, then 98 percent of the students are willing to retake the exam.

On June 14, the students staged a protest on Murree Road against the Punjab University, claiming that the Advanced Accounting paper-II was out of course.

“I was shocked when I saw the paper. It did not contain any of the questions I had prepared,” said Muzamil Arshad, a B.Com student at PCC.

He said the paper has been consistently following the same pattern, with specific questions coming from three main chapters, Debenture, Bonus Right Share and Hire Purchase.

But this time, Arshad said, the paper contained no question from these chapters.

Raja Kashif reiterated that the question paper did not contain any questions from the past papers, which was customary in Punjab College exams.

Ijaz Ahmed, Associate Professor, University of Punjab, and one of the professors who sets the B.Com paper, rejected the notion that the paper was out of course and termed the students’ protest ‘illegal’.

“All the questions in the paper were from the syllabus. Those students who prepared only from the past papers or relied on guessing what questions would be set in the paper were the ones who failed to complete the exam,” Ahmed said.

Tahir explained that two professors are responsible for setting the question paper.

“For the past few years, one professor has been making the paper from his book.

However, this time, the second professor set the exam and he used his own book to do so,” he added.

(This may explain why the questions this year were different from those in the past papers.)

“One question from the paper was misprinted and therefore was unsolvable,” Kashif added.

He said it was only after about an hour had passed that the invigilator pointed out the mistake in the paper. In some halls, the invigilators did not notice the misprint at all, he added.

However, Tahir denied that the paper was out of syllabus and also said that none of the questions in it were misprinted.

He said the Punjab Univer-sity management asked the students to come before the Examination Board and point out the questions that they claimed were out of course, “But none of them appeared.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2010.

COMMENTS (3)

Rehan | 13 years ago | Reply Give me exact information about 25percent on obtain or out of hundred
Arshad | 13 years ago | Reply I do not agree with Ms Fayyaz. B.Com is still consider a reputable degree. Anyways good article Ms Wasif for unfloding all the aspects of the incident.
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