New CBSE exam rules to reduce pressure on students

Focussing on reducing stress on the main year-end Board exam, CBSE on Wednesday announced a slew of reforms for the 2007 examinations.

Focussing on reducing stress on the main year-end Board exam, CBSE on Wednesday announced a slew of reforms for the 2007 examinations.

As first reported in The Indian Express, students appearing — and failing — in the maths compartmental exam in July, can for the first time sit for an exam in an alternative subject. Also, 20 marks will be allotted for practical skills and continuous evaluation in the maths exam.

In a controversial move, however, the Board has also decided to allocate 40 per cent marks to practicals in the Class

X Science and Technology paper, 20 marks of which will be allocated for a syllabus-based multiple choice question (MCQ) exam based on theoretical knowledge of practical skills, and not practical activities.

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“We noticed that the practical exams were not being conducted well. We want to change that as well as allocate more marks to this component. We decided to stick to the MCQ format as it’s not strenuous,” said an official.

Two other changes CBSE has made this year are that each exam will have 15 minutes “cool-off” time to read the question paper, which will be provided with a sealed answer paper. The seal can only be broken after utilising the cool-off time. “Students will get the cool-off time for each written paper, even if it is a two-and-a-half hour paper. We have also tried to restructure all questions such that the exam can be completed in two-and-a-half hours. The answer sheets will also have more additional sheets,” says Chairman Ashok Ganguly.