Chennai: Following the outcry from parents and students over tough maths paper in the class 12 exams in March, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has reduced the difficulty level in the new maths question paper pattern for 2017 board ex-ams.
As per the new pattern, the maths question paper will have 80 per cent of questions with the difficulty level of ‘easy’ and ‘average’. Only 20 per cent of the questions alone would be at ‘difficult’ level.
‘CBSE has added two mark questions in the new format. Earlier, it had only 1, 4 and 6 mark questions. The new pattern is student friendly,’ said L. Neelakanta Pillai, principal, Kola Perumal Chetty Vaishnav Senior Secondary School, Chennai.
Welcoming the change he said, ‘CBSE has reduced the weightage for questions based on Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Previously the weightage given for HOTS was 25 per cent now it has been reduced to 10 per cent.’
Of 100 marks, 55 marks will be given to the questions which will test the remembering and understanding skills of the students. Application oriented questions will be asked for 25 marks and higher order thinking skills based questions and evaluation based questions will be asked for 10 marks each.
CBSE also said there will be no overall choice in the question paper.
Following the maths paper this year many representations from the students and parents were sent to CBSE saying that students were losing out to state board students in the comparative rankings.
This prompted CBSE to call subject experts from all the regions and asked for suggestions. “We suggested reduction in weightage for questions based on higher order thinking skills and also to increase the number of questions based on recalling and understanding,” said Ajeeth Prasad Jain, senior principal, Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidyashram, Chennai. He represented the Chennai region in the subject experts meeting.
In the new pattern, there is a scope for asking the questions from a wide range of topics. “It’s a welcome move and student friendly. The new pattern will also be helpful to the average and good students. The scope for moderation also will be less in the new pattern,” he said.
Other principals also welcomed the new pattern saying that it is students friendly. “The new question paper pattern is students friendly” said K. Mohana, principal, Modern Senior Secondary School, Chennai. “We find the question paper design very useful for students. Though they have increased the number of questions, students are able to score better,” she said.
