BENGALURU: The Sixth semester exams for diploma courses will be held from September 7-28, the department of collegiate and technical education stated in a fresh circular issued on Monday.
Backlog exams will also be held on the same day. Details regarding the same will be published on BTE links web portal and www.dtek.karnataka.gov.in, it said.
The exams were initially scheduled from July 15 - August 8 and were later postponed indefinitely. The department has permitted students to write their exams at the nearest government polytechnic institute, in case they have already submitted a petition explaining a reason for not being able to visit their institute.
Students have been relieved of practical exams in view of the pandemic, it said. In case a student of the sixth semester fails to appear for the exam because of unavoidable reasons caused by COVID-19, the student will be allowed to appear for the immediate succeeding exam the department holds and will be considered as the first attempt.
The department has called off the second and fourth-semester exams in wake of the pandemic. As much as 50% marks will be awarded to a student based on their performance in the previous semester and the other 50% marks based on the internal evaluation. Hypothetically, if a student cleared all the subjects and scored an average of 76% in his first/third-semester theory exams, he will be awarded 38/50 marks in the second/fourth semester.
Explaining the second criteria for calculating marks, i.e. '50% of Continuous Internal Evaluation (CIE)', the department said if a student scored 18 out of 25 in theory part of the internal assessment exam, he will be awarded 36 out of 50 marks.
For a student who has failed in a few subjects, the department said that it is mulling over promoting to the next semester by considering only the marks be obtained in the subjects the student qualified.
A decision on this is, however, is yet to be taken, the department said.
Evening college students
For students of first semester evening polytechnic college, the department said it will consider 100% CIE and award marks accordingly in each subject in order to nudge them into the second semester.
Marks will be awarded partly based on CIE and partly on their performance in the previous examination for third-semester students. The fifth-semester students will, however, be asked to give their exam as per the schedule. Final semester and backlog students of Post Diploma in Industrial Safety, too, will write their exams as per the schedule, the department said.
In case the Ministry of Home Affairs doesn't permit to hold usual classes, the department said it will conduct classes as per requirements by adhering to all the precautionary measures taken in view of the pandemic and hold exams for third IA/improvement IA and award marks accordingly.
In case this doesn't happen, the average marks of students in first and second IAs will be considered, it said. Full carryover will be permitted to students of only 2019-20 batch, the department clarified.
Temporary schedule for 2020-21 diploma courses
First semester
Date of commencement: October 1
End date: January 23, 2021
Third and fifth semesters
Date of commencement: September 29
End date: January 23, 2021
Practical exams for first, third and fifth semesters
Date of commencement: January 28, 2021
End date: February 2, 2021
Theory exams for first, third, fifth semesters
Date of commencement: February 12, 2021
End date: March 3, 2021
Second, fourth, sixth semesters
Date of commencement: March 8, 2021
End date: June 26, 2021
Practical exams for second, fourth, sixth semesters
Date of commencement: July 1, 2021
End date: July 11, 2021
Theory exams for second, fourth, sixth semesters
Date of commencement: July 15, 2021
End date: August 4, 2021