Highway tea stall or verandah of a building, a number of commerce undergraduate students in Ananda Chandra College of Commerce of Jalpaiguri under the North Bengal University wrote their exam on Wednesday in odd locations.

Some sat for the “online exams” on the verandahs of the District Primary School Council and Samagra Shikshay Abhiyan buildings which stand opposite the college. Others wrote their papers at Kishan Mandi in Maynaguri block. Some answered their exams at tea stalls off NH27.

The reason: under norms of the online exam, examinees have to submit their answer scripts at their respective colleges within two hours of the completion of exam time, or they would have treated as having not answered their exam at all.

On Wednesday, exams of second and fourth semesters for BCom under the NBU were held online. The second semester was held from 10am to noon and the fourth semester exam from 2pm to 4pm.

Students could write their exams anywhere but had reach the college with their answer scripts by 2pm in case of the second semester and 6pm in case of the fourth semester.

Hence, students from villages decided to come to places near the college, such as the DPSC premises or even the highway, their smartphones and answer sheets in hand.

As soon as question papers were released online, they got busy writing the answers. As there was no invigilation, many bystanders reported that students checked books and surfed the Internet for answers.

“From my village, it takes over an hour to reach the college. As it is mandatory to submit the papers within two hours after examination time, I felt it is better that I reach a place near the college and write the papers so that I can submit the answer scripts in due time,” said Rani Sarkar, an examinee, who was among the 150-odd youngsters on the DPSC premises.

Another 100-odd students of the college from Maynaguri block — Maynaguri is around 20km from Jalpaiguri — wrote their papers at roadside tea stalls and at the premises of a local Kisan Mandi.

“From my place, the nearest bus stop is 3km away. So I went to the highway, wrote my paper at a tea stall and boarded a bus to reach the college in 40 minutes. Had I stayed at home, it could have taken over two hours,” said a student.

A faculty member of the college, when asked about this offbeat way of answering exams, said that in the online exam, there was no provision for the students to sit in class.

College authorities, when told that some students had opened books and surfed the Internet while writing answers, said it was not their concern. “I know some students wrote their papers at the building opposite the college. We have nothing to do in this regard,” said Siddartha Sarkar, the college principal.