Comprehension

In my school, we used to do 'comprehension' in Hindi and in English. The English one was more complex than the Hindi(second language).

We were given a passage to read and then had to answer questions based on that.

In geography to, we had something similar. We would get a large map of some small locality...it was a small town in the West Indies for my 10th class exam, for example. The map had latitudes & longitudes, contours, water bodies, marshland, harbour etc marked and we would be asked questions based on this map. .. what would be the climate, nature of the crops grown, possible livelihoods of the the people there etc. You just had to give logically reasoned answers, and it would test your ability to read the data and derive information from that.

This is all that is required to test a person and sift the ones with"innate ability" from the rest.

I set papers for a local science talent test for school kids. I do not stick to the syllabus. If a new concept is clearly explained, then the child should be able to deduce the answer even if he has never come across the concept before. In fact, I give one comprehension passage and ask 3 or 4 questions on it. In fact this levels the playground for those who are innately good, but have not been taught well in their schools.

I do this at class 8,9,10 level, but I am sure it can be done for the 12th class students.

Then no one can guess what questions will be asked, so no coaching is possible. Or, if children are coached to think, read data and deduce information, such coaching is not a bad thing at all.

One may ask questions from any field of engineering and science and need not stick to any syllabus.