Syllabus

We all have heard the word syllabus at least once in our life. It is a list of subjects that are included in our curriculum. We can say that it is a plan of what we are going to achieve through our teaching and our student learning. If we put a particular word for the syllabus “specification” it is a document of “list” which communicates information regarding a particular subject or academic course.

Nowadays, everything in our world is designed according to some set of rules and regulations and for that, we need a document. A syllabus is also a document or list which gives an overview of different examinations whether it is academic or a competitive exam, which is set out by many examination boards or generalized by a tutor or instructor who teaches the course.

As per the exam, the concerned syllabus is more important because it is nothing but it works as a guide, which gives the idea of how to act upon it to learn or gather the information about a specific subject. The 21st century is a competitive world to get anything you have to fight with knowledge in specific documents or syllabus.

If students have a defined syllabus it means they have limited time to achieve or gather knowledge of the curriculum. If you talk from a student's point of view during the first day of class it may be given to every student whether it is an online or offline paper form, so that the obtaining objective is clear.

With the help of the syllabus, students' objective is clear when, where, and how to consult with faculty to take guidance or overview of what is going to be covered in the classroom, according to which exam will be conducted. What is an exam? It is nothing but only a knowledge test based on the syllabus. According to the syllabus, a question is asked on an exam to check whether the student learned something or not.

India is a diverse country that has the second-largest population in the world after China. Here to get a job is a big challenge because you have to face competition. Which is also the most difficult task to crack the exam. If we look at the competition from the exam point of view, without a syllabus you can't be able to crack the exam because in this type of exam you need to know what to study or what to not, which means which topic you should study for the exam-specific syllabus with limited time duration.

If you follow the syllabus properly then getting a chance of selection might be increased. From that information, you have estimated the importance of the syllabus. It is a document that outlines all the essential information about the curriculum. It is the list of the topics that include tests, quizzes, exams, or coursework.

Every academic has its own defined syllabus. In the syllabus of a particular subject, there are various chapters and every chapter has a dedicated topic. According to that means you act upon it.

There are lots of competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, BANK, Engineering, State PCS, NEET, etc. As per the syllabus, UPSC is tough. The variety of subjects demands more determination and a large amount of time to cover the syllabus.

The advantage of that is gathering all the valid information about your classes. When you have questions about how your class works, check your syllabus first or it will work according to the syllabus.

The disadvantage of the syllabus is that it does not contain detailed explanations. The syllabus does not cover everything that students want to know. The syllabus doesn’t necessarily have legal chapters, they are not binding, they are indicative.

But we can say that without a syllabus curriculum is not possible. I want to elaborate with the help of a case study. One exam is the ESE(Engineering Services examination) which is conducted annually by UPSC in four domains: Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, and Electronics & Telecommunication for the techno-managerial post. The exam consists of two stages written followed by an interview. ESE is considered one of the toughest exams because it has less number of vacant posts. But with the help of the syllabus, the way of learning and understanding is an easier process. From this exam railway also recruited good no of students which is gazetted post.

But in 2017 UPSC has suddenly changed the syllabus and pattern of exams and added a huge amount of syllabus which is in non-tech part in paper-l. Due to this, aspirants faced a lot of problems to prepare because it is not a cup of tea to handle ten subjects on paper-l which fully is unknown for the aspirants. Students also don't know about the pattern which is asked in exams, that time cutoff was too low. From that time to till now, it is not possible to identify the way of asking questions in a paper-l. So due to the change of syllabus, many exams are affected but it is also a part of changes or we can say updates are required from time to time. Era always demands some change in syllabus for including new things. Two years later the railway gave the surprise to the ESE aspirant, they have decided to withdraw the vacancy in between the examination process. And said that they will conduct a new exam IRMS(Indian Railway Management System) due to this decision. It means they changed the syllabus. It means the students need to study more and different syllabus since a huge number of aspirants quit the preparation. Because the syllabus is not easy to cover all the technical and non-technical aspects.

From the above discussion, we can understand the importance of a syllabus, to do something you should have defined a syllabus. Every work needs or demands discipline and discipline needs a set of rules and regulations, for rules and regulations some set of the syllabus, which is a contract of mutualism relationship between student and faculty, organization and employee.