What The Most Powerfull Skill Or Consistency?

Cut-offs may be convenient but not adequate as writing an exam is merely a skill…

According to C. Selvaraj, principal of St. Thomas College of Arts and Science, Chennai, writing an examination is simply a skill. “Not all intelligent students may have it. I have had many good students who had a very good understanding of concepts, but did not like writing the long answers that the examination system expects,” says the former Head of the Economics Department of the Madras Christian College.

Moreover, consistency and ability are matters to be judged over a considerable period of time. S. Muthukumaran, former Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University, Tiruchi, says considering a student's performance over the last four years of schooling, from class IX to XII, is important. “The way some of the syllabi are designed, it is possible to learn Class X content even without attending class IX. In such a scenario, a student's performance over a few years becomes relevant in reflecting his or her degree of consistency,” he notes.

It is also time to reflect on prevalent evaluation and assessment patterns, Dr. Muthukumaran observes. “A good test will clearly point to the differences in students. These days, examination results present a skewed distribution, more towards the pass percentage. In that sense, our evaluation system may not be a true representation of students' knowledge,” he adds.

The culture of such high cut-offs which seem rather unrealistic to many, also has other implications. An institution of higher education is a community. “Resorting to admissions using such cut-offs denies large sections of our student population equity and access to higher education,” says Dr. Selvaraj.

A mixed group of students from varied religious, economic and social backgrounds, and different academic abilities, can add value to the learning experience and facilitate peer learning, he adds. “These high cut-off scores are administratively convenient, but can never be justified academically. We must remember that each student is a human being."

"Not good enough” — this is probably how most students feel after obtaining their results in the Class XII exam. With colleges across the country raising the bar for entry, by way of high cut-off marks, hundreds of students are left with the feeling that their performance was not good enough for being admitted to a premier institution.

Academicians such as D. Kumaran of the Department of Education, University of Madras, say that setting high cut-off marks is “unavoidable”. “In today's context, where there is such a huge gap between the number of applicants to a particular course and the number of seats available in it, institutions have little choice,” he says.

Pointing to trends in Tamil Nadu from the 1960s, Dr. Kumaran says that then, anyone scoring above 60 per cent was eligible to apply for professional courses. “They would be selected based on an interview.” Following scepticism about the interview process, some groups insisted that there be more transparency. Interviews were even recorded. “Over the years, there was a need for a more transparent and systematic process of elimination. That is when cut-offs began gaining prominence in our admission system,” he says.

However, cut-offs may not reflect a student's consistency in performance, argue some experts. They often serve as a tool that helps in elimination rather than in selection. How can one final examination alone indicate a student's potential and readiness for a particular course? Are factors such as aptitude, ability, interest in extra-curricular activities and other skills that an examination may not necessarily reflect, adequately accounted for?

I am convinced that sustained success cannot be achieved in the absence  of consistency.  Consistency is one of the cornerstones to success in any enterprise be it business, or sport.

I was reminded of the importance of consistency while taking a ski lesson during our March Break vacation in BC. Mike, our instructor (a level 4 which is the highest ranking attainable) was speaking and demonstrating consistency in executing the three phases of a turn.  Without consistency in all three phases, we can never become good or great skiers.  I won’t belabor the details of the three phases but you skiers out there should know what they are (if you don’t, take a lesson and learn them).

While riding up the chair lift with Mike, we were chatting about life, where we come from and what we do in the off-season.  As it turns out, Mike has a landscaping business in the Peterborough, Ontario area.  He is the third generation to be involved in this business – now there’s consistency!  Bill asked what my line of work was and when I told him we make signs, he related his experience with his local sign shop.  Until recently, he had been very happy with the quality of work from his sign supplier and they had been doing business for many years.  However, something changed in that organization last year and the quality of a job delivered was not what they were accustomed to – inconsistency.  I didn’t get all the details but his issues were unresolved and now he will be taking his sign business elsewhere.  If Bill is experiencing this inconsistency, then the other customers at the sign shop will also be experiencing it. A steady decline in clientele can be expected.

Consistency in the face of adversity is also important. Managing staff issues or equipment failures sometimes requires us to adapt to ensure that the end result is a positive experience for our clients.  Sometimes that means using alternate methods to achieve the same result.  I began writing this on a piece of paper because my laptop crashed while on vacation and there was no-one there in the mountains, an hour outside Kelowna, to fix it.  Rather than wait until returning home and getting the laptop fixed, I hand wrote this, transferring it to a digital file later because it’s important that I be consistent in publishing my content.

One of our clients recently sent an accolade to us in response to a job we had done.  He said it was great that we consistently delivered what we said we would, when we said we would. Accolades to us are unsolicited remarks from customers which we read out at our weekly Production Meetings.  They are the first items on the agenda and the entire team is present.  For us to be consistent, I feel it is important for the entire team to be on board and to hear how our customers feel about our work.

Consistency is something we strive to achieve all the time at Instant Custom Signs and I know the results speak for themselves.  We could not have retained repeat customers for 10, 12  and 15 years if not for consistency.

How about you? Have you experienced these kinds of inconsistent results with your suppliers? I would love to get your comments.  Here on my blog, you’ll get comment.  That’s great for you bloggers out there. By leaving a comment, you can leave a link back to your own blog.   But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment. I’d like to hear from all of you!