Plus-1 students find new pattern difficult

Chennai: The new question paper pattern has proved to be a tough one for plus-1 students as majority of government and government-aided schools registered less than 50 per cent pass percentage this year in the half-yearly exam.

The state government has converted plus-1 exam as board exam from the coming academic year (2017-18) to make it compulsory for students to study plus-1 subjects as national level competitive exams give equal importance to plus-1 and plus-2 syllabi.  

As per the new exam pattern announced by the government, plus-1 exam will be conducted for 600 marks and each subject will have a maximum of 100 marks.

Of the 100 marks, 90 marks will be awarded for the written exam and 10 marks for the internal evaluation. For the subjects which have practical exams, the written exam marks would be 70 and practical marks would be 20 besides the internal marks.

The results of the plus-1 students are poor compared to the plus-2 and class 10 students. Plus-2 students register around 50 per cent to 60 per cent  pass percentage whereas the pass percentage of plus-1 students hovers around 40 per cent to 49 per cent.

“Along with the new question paper pattern, the students are yet to take the challenge of the board exams seriously. We are conducting special classes and revision tests for class 11. We hope the results will improve in the board exam,” a school headmaster from Kancheepuram district said.

Some government school headmasters are optimistic that the results will have major improvement in board exams. “Plus-1 students are coming regularly to schools now and even attending special classes on holidays due to internal marks under new pattern. Like in classes 10 and 12 where students pick up in the last two months, we will have better results in board exams,” said K.John, headmaster, Thiru.Vi.Ka Higher Secondary School, Shenoi Nagar, Chennai. He also pointed out that students need only 15 marks to clear the science subjects.

The state board has removed the concept of blueprint on the number of questions from each topic. “Unlike last year, students have to read the full book instead of a few chapters. It also forced many schools to teach plus-1 portion completely,” said G.J. Manohar, headmaster of MCC Higher Secondary School in Chetpet.

“In our school, around 65 per cent students cleared in all subjects which is less compared to last year. It will take time for plus-1 students to get adjusted to the new question paper pattern. Many students found the science subjects easy and maths slightly tougher,” he added.

Though matriculation schools got more than 90 per cent pass percentage the students were not able to get high marks.

N.Vijayan, founder and principal of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Tambaram,  said, “The question paper had more understanding based and application-oriented questions. While matriculation schools have registered more than 90 per cent of pass percentage, students found it difficult to score high marks under the new pattern. But it will help the state board students to perform better in entrance exams such as Neet.”

Officials from school education department said, “The question pattern was changed slightly. Students appearing for  board exams always perform better in annual exam as most of them study only in the last two months.”

“There may be some teething issues. But, these changes were made keeping students future in mind,” officials added.