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Secondary Exam Results In India Mean An SMS Flood

Posted by timothy on from the what'jdaget-huh-what'jdaget? dept.

syrinje writes "The Times of India reported that Indian high-school seniors who took the exams conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education sent more than a Million SMS messages within a 11 hour period to query the result database and receive detailed examination results. In addition making the results available to cellphone users, the CBSE has also published the results online at a dedicated web-site . Since the results were announced on the weekend, students would otherwise have had to wait for Monday to get their results from their schools. A spokesperson for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited , one of the operators involved in setting up the SMS result system estimated that they handled 100,000 messages per hour during the day on Sunday and said that "There was no problem in the network due to the heavy SMS traffic and we were able to give subjectwise marks to the students"."

7 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Just imagine the traffic... by Advocadus+Diaboli · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...if you could get the answers for the exam by SMS during the exam. :-)

  2. Wow by Loonacy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's a lot of work for something that really doesn't matter that much. I mean sure, grades are important, but they're not so important you can't wait until Monday to see your results.

  3. and the thoughput is: by dominux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    SMS =160 chars max *100,000 messages per hour *11 hours 176,000,000 bytes /11 /60 /60 =4444 bytes per second *8 =35555 bits per second = about the speed of a modem.

  4. Too Open by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you go to the page, and click on exam results, you can enter a roll number.

    Roll numbers starting with 12 seem to work, and in less than a minute I had the results of 5 students. Complete names, grades, pass/fail status.

    This would never fly in the US. There are laws against the publication of this type of data (apparently)

    1. Re:Too Open by thodu · · Score: 5, Informative

      You are right. It is a privacy issue. But, here, in India, traditionally, the entire spreadsheet of all students is put up in a public place in the institute (college, school, board, wherever) for all to see. Therefore, it is not a big issue for somebody who has grown up here.

  5. When the SMS is incorrect by Rurouni+Joe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Below is a link to a story of teenager who commited suicide after receiving an sms telling her she had failed, when in reality she had passed. It just goes to show the pressures some of these teenagers face in India today.

    news.com.au

  6. Can your Indian beat my Indian? by Vertex+Operator · · Score: 5, Funny

    Go to

    http://cbseresults.nic.in/class12/cbse12.htm

    Enter 1200003

    GRADE
    301 ENGLISH CORE 087 A1
    041 MATHEMATICS 095 A1
    042 PHYSICS 097 A1
    043 CHEMISTRY 095 A1
    044 BIOLOGY 097 A1
    500 WORK EXPERIENCE --- A2
    502 PHY & HEALTH EDUCA --- A2
    503 GENERAL STUDIES --- A2

    Can anyone find another Indian that beats my
    Indian?

    --
    San Diego Padres, 100 Park Blvd, San Diego CA 92101

    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by