The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will start the board exams for classes 10 and 12 from November 16 onwards.
These are term 1 exams and will be held in MCQ-only format. Students will have to fill circles given on a sheet of paper to mark their answers. The OMR sheets will be given to schools by CBSE. Each OMR sheet will be customised, said CBSE in an official notice.
The term-1 exams will be held for the duration of 90 minutes. It will be held for half the exam only. Term-II exams will be held in March, April 2022. The term-II exams will be held in subjective format. Board exams will be held only for ‘major’ subjects. After the controversy of the Punjab government being irked by calling Punjabi ‘minor’ subject, the board has taken back the term major and minor and instead is using the term “subject offered by all schools” and “subjects offered by some schools”.
CBSE offers 114 subjects for class 12 students and 75 subjects for class 10. CBSE will hold exams only for major (subjects offered by all schools) subjects. “If exams of all subjects are conducted, the entire duration of exams would be about 40-45 days. Therefore, to avoid learning loss of students, CBSE would conduct exams of only “subjects offered by all schools”,” the board said in the official notice.
CBSE 10th, 12th Board Exams 2022: Key Changes to Remember
Apart from the exam pattern, there are many changes introduced in the exam including –
— Exam to be held on 50% of the syllabus
— Exam to be in MCQ-only format
— Exam to be held for 90 Minutes (1 hour 30 mins) duration
— reading time increased from 15 minutes to 20 minutes
— Exam to begin from 11:30 instead of 10:30 am
— Practicals/ internals to constitute 50% of total marks
— Practical marks to be uploaded at the official portal by December 23.
— No external examiner will be appointed in term-1 exams by CBSE for practicals
— Schools will use their own answer book for practical
— CBSE will appoint an observer in each exam centre
— For every 500 students there will be one observer
— For more than 500 students, CBSE will send 2 observers
— CBSE will also appoint city coordinators at all exam centres
— CBSE will provide customized OMR sheets online to exam centres
— A copy of the OMR sheet will be provided to schools for practice
— Separate sheet to be given for rough work
This year, the board will conduct two exams. The term-1 exams being held in November-December are more crucial as the CBSE in an earlier circular had said that “in case if due to the COVID-19 situation if the term-2 exams are not held then the result will be announced based on term-1 exams.”
CBSE in an official statement informed that the board is trying to assign students their schools as exam centres to ensure the least amount of travel. Not just for regular students but for students who have registered in open mode, the exam centres will be assigned in their vicinity to ensure the least amount of travel. Students who are residing in a city different from the one their schools is in will also get a chance to apply for a change in the exam centre.
