Kollam: Several students, parents and teachers have claimed that the a few papers of the recently held Term-1 examinations for Class 10 and 12 of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) were inordinately tough. The matter was even raised in the Parliament with demands for liberal valuation of the answer papers.
Class 12 English, Math papers
The Term-1 CBSE 12th standard exam has disappointed students and teachers with many raising complaints that the questions were unusually difficult. Many parents claimed that their children are indeed stressed after the exams and fear that the likely low marks could have a bearing on the final results if the Term 1 total is considered if the Term-2 exam or board exams are again done away with after assessing the COVID-19 crisis.
Some questions in the English and Mathematics papers were found very complicated. The questions in the English paper were lengthy and time consuming. Some Maths questions required lengthy calculations. Some calculations were tricky and the students didn’t find enough time to complete them.
Teachers pointed out that there were questions from the deleted portions too.
Complaints about Class-10 exam
The Term-1 CBSE 10th standard exam too didn’t fare better as the questions were found tough and confusing. Complaints of two faulty and ambiguous questions in the Maths paper have been raised. Teachers pointed out that the answer key of question 38 was wrong. Similarly, they have found mistakes in another question too.
Meanwhile, CBSE said that that they will look into the matter and come up with an appropriate solution.
Issue raised in Parliament
New Delhi: NK Premchandran, MP, raised the issue in the Lok Sabha and demanded that the valuation criteria of both the exams, Term 1 and Term 2, should be liberal.
Hundreds of students who attended the exams were disappointed and that the authorities should do the needful to address their complaints, he argued.
MPs Anto Antony and Rajmohan Unnithan too supported this demand in the Parliament.
New pattern of answering
The Term-1 board exams have objective type questions and the students have to answer on OMR sheets.
In the old pattern, the student would get marks for each correct step. However, as per the latest pattern, the candidate would lose the entire marks if the final answer is wrong.
The Term-2 exam has been scheduled for March-April. The academic board would take a call on holding it depending on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parents have raised their concerns to the respective Members of Parliament.
Guidelines on answering on OMR sheets
The guidelines regarding marking the OMR sheets for the 10th and 12th CBSE Term-1 exam have changed. Earlier, it was instructed that the students should write the correct answer separately in the given columns, besides darkening the bubbles. The initial instruction was to write the English answers in small handwriting. However, as per the latest instruction, the English answers have to be written in bold handwriting.
The class 10 examination began from November 30, and class 12 examination commenced from December 1. This terminal exams are set to finish on December 11 and 22, respectively.