Allows 15-Min Cool-Off Time, To Overlook Some Spelling Errors
The CBSE may not go blanket soft on spellings as yet, but it has decided to take it easy What will be a mild reprieve for students is that from this year, marks will be deducted for spellings only if the particular word is important in the context of the skills being tested. This was revealed by board chairman Ashok Ganguly on 15th Feb 06. The Class X CBSE examination begins on March 2 and Class XII examination begins on March 1. From Delhi, 2, 08, 532 students will be appearing for the Class X exam and 1, 51,679 for Class XII. The new approach means that while students will be penalised for spelling mistakes in the writing skills section, they might be able to get away with the same mistakes in reading skills. A mistake in spelling Aurangzebs name in the history paper may not be pardoned but anything less integral to the subject, may be. The boards de-stress regime has brought good news for students. Three subjects in Class X Maths Social Science and Science and five in Class XII Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Business Studies, can be answered in 2.5 hours. The exam time will remain 3 hours plus the 15 minutes cool-off time that is being introduced from this year. Ganguly said: This doesnt mean that the number of questions will be less or that they will be less difficult. The dimensions have been made such that 2.5 hours are enough to answer the paper. This is also the first time that the Class X social science paper will carry eight marks on disaster management. There is more good news for Class XII students. In an amendment to the existing exam bye-laws, the board has decided to allow students clearing five subjects to appear for the sixth subject in the same year, thus saving them the year and giving them option of sitting for competitive examinations the same year. The subjects in which alternatives are provided for visual questions, for the benefit of blind candidates, will now include economics too in class XII. Meanwhile, of the 529 exam centres in the city, 198 have been categorised as sensitive. They will have full-time observers stationed in them apart from the regular flying squads. Any centre which has more private candidates, or a school which has detained too many of its own students in the pre-boards is treated as sensitive. The past records are also taken into account, Ganguly said.
Date: 16th Feb 2006.
Source: The Times of India.
News of CBSE