The Curious Case of the A5 Paper

The number of pages and size of the paper restricts the content of a book. This statement is unremarkable. In this note I argue that the size of the question paper and number of pages is crucial in what can be asked and explains what is being asked in Bachelor of Engineering examinations.

A few weeks ago, I was preparing the question paper in the sample document circulated by the exam division. First thing I notice was that the size of the question paper is A5 (half of A4). In the first page, which contains preamble and the header, I could fit about 200 words. How many words I can write is further constrained by the whitespaces – the spacing between question number, the actual question and marks allotted to it, the spacing between two questions, and the margins width/height. In the following page, which does not have the preamble, I could write about 300 words. These numbers are ballpark figures and accurate measurements are not integral to my arguments. So, I leave it at these numbers.

It is rare to find an examination question paper that spans more than a single-page (double-side print). I do recall using A4 for internal exams myself but those were outliers. The single-page double-side limit has become a self-enforced hard-limit. It is unlikely to have been mandated by the university or the college rules. If it has been mandated, then it is questionable. This limit is however implicitly taken into consideration by question setters. Consequently, the questions setter unknowingly rules out many types of questions. I give three examples to make the point clearer. I am sure my colleagues can add many more.

• Questions that have diagrams/tables/charts 
• I ask myself, could I have fit three questions that require the examinee to refer to the diagram and not exceed the one-page (two-sided) limit? The answer is “No Way”. I could manage to fit two such questions if the diagrams can be squeezed to the sides and the question is short. Including diagrams constrains the length of other questions. I end up asking a single-line “define X” questions to adjust to the space the diagram has gobbled up. Tables that span more than four rows are simply out of consideration.
• Questions that have a narrative/background/scenario
• I like to give students a scenario and ask them to propose a design that addresses the challenge. The issue for me is that the description of the scenario takes substantially more than a couple of lines. Imagine this.  I am setting a question whose narrative spans 4 lines followed by a single line for the question itself. I have spent about sixteen percent of the available space in the page for a single question. I ask myself, how many such questions can I ask? The answer, one. Two if the narrative text is less than four. Remember that 4 lines for a scenario to an engineering problem is small. There are technical terms that needs to be explained, symbols/equations occupy more space and so on. 
• Algorithm-based questions
• I teach Artificial Intelligence. It has algorithms, a lot of them. We also have a subject that is called “data structure and algorithms” in computer engineering. It has algorithm in the name. Algorithms are everywhere in computer science. Where am I going with this? To non-computer science folks, writing an algorithm requires a huge amount of space for it to be readable. If I were to ask a question where I provide a search algorithm (or pseudocode), the smallest algorithm will take ten lines. The question text will take at least two more lines. How many such questions can I ask given the one-page limit? Zero. It has taken the space of three to four questions. This is a luxury I cannot afford.

Before I conclude, I also must add the observation that to accommodate about fourteen question along with the preamble and header in a single (double-sided) A5 page, the font-size is reduced and diagram-sizes are scaled to a level where they are difficult to read. Has anyone asked students who has problems with their vision if they can easily read the question papers? There have been papers where I have had to squint to read the tiny numeric values in the down-scaled diagrams. Anyone who has had to develop fill-in forms such as admission and exam forms knows it is not a trivial task. However, not much thought has gone into something that is so critical to evaluation of a student.

I started with the observation “why are disproportionately large number of BE examination question papers one page (two-sided) long?” My answer is that it is the outcome of a self-enforced hard-limit. The self-enforcing might be due to conditioning that the institutions are unknowingly doing such as by prescribing a template. It can also be because, a new faculty who has gone through the same BE programme and follows on their senior’s footstep are likely to emulate what they have always seen. They have always seen the question paper printed on a one-page (double-sided) A5 paper. I also presented the consequence of such a limit on what is being asked and what can be asked. Paper is a technology. It has to be studied and there has to be a search for what is appropriate.