CBSE class XII students read their textbooks in the last moments before entering the examination hall. AFPKottayam: Many CBSE class XII students have still not gotten over the shock of writing a mammoth maths exam, which had reduced many of them to tears and cast a shadow on their future.
“Oh God, I don't want to say anything about it,” Neha (name changed) told Onmanorama from Chennai. “It was a very tough and lengthy paper. We couldn't complete it within the time given.”
“One student actually fainted after seeing the questions. We couldn't even attempt the questions we knew. We were totally shattered,” she said.
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Students said most of the questions were from outside the NCERT syllabus. They were busy preparing for the next exam on March 26 and were unaware that the central government was considering a probe into the paper. The students said they just wanted the evaluation to be “lenient”.
All three sets of maths question papers were difficult and even the brightest students are worried about scoring pass marks.
Neha's classmate Priya (name changed) was worried about the impact the tough exam will have on their future.
“I want to pursue engineering after school. But am not sure whether we will get the required marks to compete with the students from state syllabus,” the computer science student said.
Class XII marks are counted for ranking during admission to engineering courses and CBSE students now fear that the tough maths paper will give state board students an unfair advantage.
Meanwhile, the CBSE said that feedback received from various stakeholders will be placed before a committee of subject experts.
