Tuitions are Passe Internet, TV guide students

Ten years ago, when exams were round the corner, the rush was to tuition centres and coaching classes. An additional hour of study or an extra tip to solve the questions became the lifeline for students.

Cut to today's IT city. Parents no longer rush to Avenue Road to buy question banks as exams come knocking . Television and internet that anyway rule a child's life continue to do so even in matters of academics.

Today, there's nothing that's not available online. Question paper banks of all classes, starting from Class 3, are available for a price. For previous years' board exam papers, the price varies from Rs 100 to Rs 2,000. You can pay by credit card/debit card or through online banking. Purchase can happen for yearly packs, half yearly or even for the eleventh hour preparation.

That's not it. There are experts available online for live chats, ones who can help you with your doubts - academic or otherwise - doubts that you were scared to ask in the class thinking it could sound foolish . There are video lessons to demonstrate steps involved in solving a problem. You can rate a video, you can suggest it and you can make friends with others who are accessing the website for the same reason.

There are online tuition classes. They can conduct online pre-board exams that will give you a feel of where you stand in the national-level exams like CBSE or ICSE. There are online guides that can give you tips and techniques, some even for teachers to prepare lesson plans for exam times. These are only few of the wide range of things that the internet has to offer.

Now switching over to television . Not just regional language channels, but even private dish channel providers conduct classes on various subjects. Educational channels are available on DTH platforms, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV and others. All you need to do is contact the DTH operators or concerned distributor and subscribe the channel . You can pay online.
Students who keep experimenting with these new learning techniques say sometimes they find them satisfying and sometimes not. "I have tried studying from question papers available online. However, I find studying guides from book stores a better option. In the online material, there is so much stuff that's not necessary. You finally end up filtering many of those to study only the required ones. Guides are more precise," says Vandana Konidala, a Class 10 student preparing for her ICSE exams.