New Delhi: Those appearing for XII class board exams this time, might have to work a little harder as the paper pattern will not be the same as that in previous years.
As per a report published in The Times of India, the Central Board of Secondary examination (CBSE) will be shifting completely from ‘objective-type' questions to ‘application-based' ones – meaning it will be harder to score this time.
The numbers of questions in subjects like political science, economics, business studies and accountancy has been reduced while the number of ‘long answer' questions has been increased and two-three markers reduced.
The changes which came to be known only after the sample papers were out will have more analytical questions and the marking will also be more subjective.
In political science, the number of questions has been reduced from 31 to 27. There will be 5 one-mark and 5 two-mark questions instead of ten each.
The Mathematics paper will carry 26 questions instead of 29 and Business Studies will have 25 questions instead of 30. Also, there will be no choice in the six-mark long question.
In Economics, the total number of questions has reduced from 32 to 29. There are 8 six-markers now instead of six and the number of one and three-markers have been reduced from 10 to eight in each case.
According to Pooja Bahl, Head of Commerce Department, Indian School,” There'd be a choice in every question before. But the circular saying there won't be a choice came in January.”
She further added that this time there is a clear shift from short-answer objective-type questions to long analytical kinds.
In Accountancy paper, half of the questions in the sample paper are based on the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) of candidates. They are application based and don't test the child on just understanding. Same is the case for Business Studies also, in which 60-70 per cent paper is of this level only.
Bahl further stated that students performing well are enjoying the changes however; these may impact badly the performance of students who take time to absorb new things.
Tania Joshi, principal of the same school, even argued that bringing sudden changes is defeating the purpose of CCE (continuous comprehensive evaluation) which was to reduce stress.
When CBSE was questioned upon the same, it clarified that such changes are always based on the subject-committee recommendations.
They refuted the claims of schools and clarified that though the changes were announced late but the same were made available to all the schools as part of the curriculum documents.
A CBSE official further explained, “The idea is to de-emphasize rote-learning and move towards more exploratory and evaluative lessons".
