While I was preparing for my final viva voce & presentation, I was carrying out an analysis for approval criteria for FYP course CS619. During that I talked to some present & former students of Virtual University of Pakistan to establish the bottom boundary, or worst case scenario, you can say the answer to the question, What results in a student failing the course CS619?
In my previous post, I have written about factors on which your final presentation & viva’s marking is based. I have also gathered experience & observation about how to score good in the course. During this research process, I have established some facts:
- The Supervisors are not very well-versed or versatile when it comes to use of languages. Better check with your supervisor what is his area of expertise.
- Supervisors (if not all, then most) are former students of VU. They were also once where you are now.
- Supervisors also know that you have not been taught any languages (.NET, PHP etc) so they do not expect you to be professionals when it comes to final project.
- The marking for your project is 99% based on your attitude in your final presentation.
- No matter how well your previous deliverables (From SRS document to Design Document 2) went, if your project is not APPROVED then you are sacked. No marks for any deliverable,Period.
- Marking of the project is dependent on approval of project, which in turn depends on Final Viva.
Now we can see that getting the project approved is the main step. The approval has some factors:
- Panel: Its an insider story (shhhh) that the Final Year Project Viva panel is actually comprised of two-three people. One is your supervisor/any technical expert who knows the project well. Other is a member from HEC who is there just to determine what the student has learnt so far & if the student deserves to pass out & represent VU in market. Third is usually a psychologist who is there just to see your confidence level etc. The Panel as a whole takes a decision whether or not to approve your project.
- If you satisfy the external examiner, the HEC member, you are safe no matter what. Do you remember our viva exams in School & college? When the external examiner comes over & our professors and teachers can help us, but the external examiner has right to pass or fail us? Its the same here too.
- The only thing the external examiner wants to know is that you have put in effort & that you have made the project on your own. How you prove that to him? By making it, your self, or if you have got it done or purchased it, then you should know it well enough to pass it as your own without getting caught. Its a bad practice I won’t support it but fact will still remain a fact & fact is that many VU students, at the end of 2years (MIT & MCS) are unable to code on their own in languages they never learnt.
I asked many people about the worst case scenario & what will result in a student failing the course CS619 & the only answer I got is; when they know you have not done it yourself. Some students are unable to fool the examiners simply because they never put enough effort in to understand the code they purchased from abc software house.com or they “mentioned” a friend during viva. I have seen that Panel members never ask you “have you done it yourself?” unless they suspect or you actually give them a reason to suspect that. You do not have to lie, but you need to be careful about your choice of words when you are stuck somewhere in code explanation. Never, never mention anyone as your source of help except internet. Look at a few websites/forums to use as example from where you got help. Even write down names of some books about coding & remember to mention them (if asked). Besides that, learn the code well. You cannot pass someone else’ work as your own unless you are an expert on that.
Blessings & Success.
