Students of engineering colleges under the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University(JNTU), Hyderabad, are having a tourgh time with the delay in conduct of exams. And, the predicament of those with backlogs is much worse as there is harldy any gap between regular exams and supplementary examinations.

Nearly 2.4 lakh students from second, third and fourth year of B.Tech are taking the smester-end examinations which have begun on November 25.

Of these, 72,000 students (30 per cent of the total) are likely to appear for supplementary exams.

The examinations will go on from December 26 to January 14.

Registrations for students writing the supplementary exams will begin in a week's time.

Students without backlogs will not miss any classes but those with backlogs will have to sacrifice some classes of their semester, said Dr.V Kamakshi Prasad, additional controller of examination branch at JNTU.

However, Students with mutiple backlogs complain that they has left them with no time to prepare for the supplementary examinations.

Classes were held during Dasara vacation and other holidays to complete our syllabus. Also the gap between regular exams and backlogs is very less and I will probably have to miss classes to clear backlog subjects which I could not write last year due to ill-health, "says P Geetha, a B.Tech 3rd year student.

Furhter, students might have to sacrifice two weeks of their vacation in the month of May to make up for the lost time in the even semester.

Well, looks like the 'engineers-in-the-making' have to burn the midnight oil to clear their backlogs and their furture ahead.