GRE test training goes online in India

Chennai: As many as 50,000 Indians take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) every year but many flounder - not because of lack of knowledge but because they are not used to taking computer based tests. Now, GRE training has gone online, enabling students to be better prepared.

The GRE is an online, timed test that qualifies a person to get admission to American universities and is considered a proficiency benchmark by several other countries and international institutions.

On Wednesday, Valued Epistemics Pvt. Ltd (VEPL) launched greedge.com, India's first online training for GRE aspirants.

"The online test was put on public domain after thorough research and development since 2005," says Anand Kannan, managing director of VEPL.

As many as 15,000 successful candidates have passed through its portals during its development process on its technology platform wizdom.in.

"The inherent advantage of an online platform is that students can learn at their own pace and convenience, making it truly an anywhere, anytime learning", he added.

The programme is supported by a feature called The Millisecond Technology, a software that captures information on how students answer questions, analyses the data and offers them feedback and recommendations to boost their score. This technology is pending patent.

"In an online test environment - where every millisecond counts for scoring, this technology plays a crucial role in helping students boost their scores," said Yogish Lavanis, director of students facilitation at VEPL.

Another key advantage of greedge.com is that the student counsellor understands the time available and the student's specific skills to customise a programme which both can adhere to easily. This mentoring facility is available in person as well as over the telephone.

Anyone who enrols in greedge.com is assigned a Student Facilitator and Analyst (SFA) who guides the student through the entire duration of the preparation for GRE.

"There are two aspects to the functioning of Millisecond Technology - data capturing and analysis. The most important difference is that it does the analysis in real-time," said Lavanis.

When students log on to greedge.com and start working on GRE model tests, the Millisecond Monitor, which is embedded on the page, records the way students select their answers. With the help of predictive analytics technology, the data is "sliced and diced".

The information the SFAs gather about the student's behaviour from this process is then crystallised into intelligent feedback on their strengths and weaknesses, helping them understand where they are losing time and help them in correcting it.

New sex education module to stress on abstinence - NACO

New Delhi: Condom and safe sex are terms that will find no mention in the new sex education module being devised for school students in India. It will instead stress on abstinence, the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) announced Monday.

NACO director-general Sujatha Rao said the module would be adopted after intensive consultations with all partners, including parents and teachers.

"There will be no mention of condom or safe sex in the revised module on life-skill education programme. But we will be focussing on the aspirations of the youngsters and will also talk about being faithful to one's partner and abstinence. There should be no hypocrisy on the subject," Rao told journalists at a meet on Response to HIV/AIDS: Forging Partnership with the Media.

The decision to introduce sex education in India's schools was aimed primarily at creating awareness about HIV/AIDS since 2.5 million people in the country suffer from the disease. However, the module created a furore.

One of the main objections was a flip chart prepared for teachers jointly by the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) and the government-controlled NACO.

Educationists themselves turned against the programme and after states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka banned it, NACO formed a committee last year to make a new module.

After endless parleys, the committee managed to finalise a new tool kit that would not have any flip charts, Rao said.

NACO has undertaken a series of consultations, involving conservative as well as progressive people and groups before finalising the module.

"The youngsters need to get the right information. The children are growing in an unsafe environment. We have called a meeting of directors of NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) tomorrow (Tuesday) on the revised module," she said.

The current module would not have too many illustrations and drawings. Having burnt its hands earlier, NACO said this time it would first send the module to each state education department for a feedback.

Rao said that after the meeting with NCERT, secretaries of all states would be consulted, followed with consultations with teachers and parents.

"The youngsters need education and we should not forget that 15 percent of all pregnancies are those of teenagers," Rao added.