Parents, pay attention.
If your child has fumbled at 40 in a particular subject, while your neighbour’s ward has notched up a 90, it does not mean the former is a weak student. In fact, your child may just be smarter than the rest if you know the right way to evaluate latent talent.
A group of young change-makers, who allayed mathophobia with rustic games like gilli danda in the recent past, have now drawn up a new method to gauge hidden potential in students. Whizmantra Educational Solutions, founded by Dhanbad boy Abhishek Chakraborty and his like-minded friends three years ago, is conducting a free special module aptitude test for students of Classes V to X in various cities across the country.
More than 1,000 children have already taken the walk-in test in Delhi (June 24) and Jamshedpur (July 8). Coming Sunday (July 22) will be the testing time for Dhanbad, where two centres will be set up at Koylanagar and Tata Colony in Jamadoba, while capital Ranchi will face questions on July 29 at its CMPDIL Colony. The test starts at 10am.
Chakraborty said the 30-minute super test would comprise 10 questions on mathematics, five on science and five on English. “Unlike conventional examinations, which are based on predetermined syllabus, our questions will gauge common sense of students,” explained the 30-year-old chartered financial analyst who left a plum MNC job to educate underprivileged children across India.
Prashant Pathak, an alumnus of IIT-Roorkee and vice-president (operations) of Whizmantra who is actively engaged in organising the test, cited a candid example. “During a survey among Class VIII students in the country last year, we found out that most children were victims of rote learning. Around 82 per cent could not say what the square of eight is just because the question was tweaked a little. We asked them to ‘evaluate’ the square of eight instead of ‘find’,” he said.
Chakraborty, an alumnus of De Nobili School Digwadih, presented another case of textbook-happy students mugging up a few details. “At the same survey, we asked students to find an odd number divisible by 10. There was a cluster of different answers, but no one thought that the question might be wrong, which was the case. It was a googly,” he said, adding that the questionnaire for the ongoing aptitude test had been prepared after in-depth research.
Based on performance in the test, Team Whizmantra will recommend the right career for the candidates.
