Resilience – the theme of the year is showcased in the stories and poems of the first Newsletter of the academic year.

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The month of February kept the children busy with a galore of activities. The Reading Campaign
made them explore new books and new vocabulary; Matrbhasha Diwas – a week of celebrating our mother tongue – gave them the opportunity to dwell in their roots. National Science Week filled their time with scientific research, presentations, experiments and much more. This exciting and invigorating month converges on a month of assessments and examinations. Our best wishes to the whole school for a fine new beginning. Do read the contributions of these budding writers. Thank you for all your encouraging comments throughout the year. Read more…

Hardik Agrawal Batch 2020-2021 Topic: JEE Preperation – My journey to IIT Kanpur I joined Deens Academy in first grade, and before I could notice, I passed 12th grade and now I am studying Computer Science and Engineering at IIT-K. Let me take you on a roller coaster ride of my journey from Deens to IIT-K. I spent twelve years at Deens, and it was a matter of time before it became a second home for me. The several years I spent in this school truly shaped my thought process and developed me from a shy boy to a confident and deeply motivated teenager. I received a very open and healthy environment which helped me bloom. Shanti ma’am was always approachable to the students, and she gave me the best guidance and support to achieve new heights. In fact, all my teachers in the school always gave me the proper guidance, love, and affection throughout the years. After going through the entire preparation for clearing JEE Advanced, I decided to share my story with my juniors and give some tips to help them make their dreams come true. Till 10th grade, I had not attended any formal coaching and entirely relied on the school. I had never prepared with marks in my mind, and my main focus was always to have conceptual clarity. This clarity was achieved not by spending any extra time but by having rapt attention in class and troubling my teachers with all the doubts I possibly had. With just a week of preparation, I cleared NTSE in 10th, and it was possible because of the conceptual clarity I had gained in the classroom. Then I wrote the board examinations intending to score decent marks. After the result came out, I was surprised to know that I had topped in Deens. I chose engineering for my career as I have always been passionate about physics and mathematics. I joined FIITJEE coaching in class 11th and began my preparation, keeping JEE in mind. This was a notable change for me, and it took me some time to adapt to a new learning system. During this stage of learning, the time management skills of a student are put to a complete stress test as the student has to manage both school and college entrance examinations. Many students believe that they need something different to prepare for these exams, but that is not true. On the contrary, things are still the same. You need to gain conceptual clarity in a class by maintaining child-like curiosity and doing daily practice through a good question set. Developing an interest in the subjects is very crucial, as this interest would automatically guide the student towards a deeper understanding. Many students have a myth that school and NCERT are unnecessary. No doubt, NCERT alone might not be sufficient for in-depth knowledge of the topic, but school and NCERT are essential. They are the stepping stones for our preparation and give us a basic understanding of the topic. Such exams check the sincerity of the student and the student’s confidence in the subject. With this strategy, I was able to clear BITSAT (CSE), KVPY, NSEP, JEE Mains (AIR 560) and JEE Adv (AIR 166). So friends, this was a milestone achieved by a student just like you. You may be an average student or a genius but what matters is your persistent hard work and dedication to achieve your goal. With the proper guidance and ideal strategy, even you can make it to IIT. Good Luck to all my aspiring juniors! P.S. If anybody else needs more help from me, you can contact me personally. I would love to help you in any possible way. Hardik Agrawal (Batch of 2020-21) Ph no.: +91 96671 20817 Email ID: Hardik.agrwl03@gmail.com

our December edition of Deen-a -logue , showcases FIT India campaign activities conducted in our school….to read more click on the image

Topic: MCQ based paper- CBSE

    The pandemic has certainly flung our routines into a challenge, but the largest challenge is to evaluate where children are in the learning of age appropriate concepts. There is ample engagement with learning, and a lot of it is subtle and not visible. This is for certain. But to assess the gaps in their acquiring age appropriate conceptual learning is the need of the hour. The shift to multiple choice questions is a two headed missile.

On one end there are worries of children forgetting the art of descriptive writing, which is palpably true. This skill can be attended to though, in various formats, without it having to be assessed for now.    On the other end global trends of assessment and competitive examinations incline very strongly towards the multiple choice assessment mode.

Contrary to belief, this is not just making a choice from the options provided, but the questions are cleverly composed such that a student has to draw from different concepts, analyse and apply learning to find the appropriate answer choice. The shift very clearly being- from that of rote learning to that of conceptual learning; from that of unadulterated textual response to that which is meta-cognitive.

Of course the compiler of a question paper should remain very mindful of the kind of questions that are created. Questions cannot be based on the format of the original assessment mode, requiring the student to work out lengthy answers to arrive at the options listed. Questions need to be ingenious enough to take cognisance of the fact that it is not the answer but the process of deriving an answer that needs to be assessed. To check if the student knows the concept to be drawn from to arrive at the answer. A test of the examiners ability to check for true learning, I would say!

I had the opportunity to understand a child’ perspective regarding MCQs as the assessment format. Students seem to favour this mode for the challenge it poses. They feel enthused that there is no lengthy writing required and this mode exercises their intellect.

Training a child to focus on conceptual learning and fostering a habit of regular study, in a child, and starting them off on this journey of ownership for their learning at a young age, is a sure dime method of preparing them for an MCQ based assessment mode and lifelong learning.

Of course, not every student is up for this challenge, but that is a choice that is for a student to make!

An excerpt from an EDUTV interview on the same topic  a few weeks ago.

Deen-a-logue October 2021

October 29, 2021 Comments Off on Deen-a-logue October 2021

“October is best known for its Halloween festivities and many international events. Children contributed their perspective through articles and art. The issue includes excerpts of a virtual tour and activities done in various classes. “

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