Tamil Nadu: Tough maths paper reduces students to tears

Chennai: Students of CBSE came out sobbing and crying after finishing Maths exam on Monday, as they said they could not complete the paper which was lengthy and complicated. They complained that the paper had the toughest questions from all chapters.

Students mostly found the six marks section to be too tricky. They found it very analytical, and even for small questions they had to think a lot. According to students and teachers, usually 70 percent comes from textbook and the rest from outside. But this year, it was the reverse.

“The six marks question for linear programming where it was in plot points in decimal numbers. But in NCERT books, it was in whole numbers. It was not logical on their part to give such questions for board examination,” said R. Smrithan, a student from National Public School. Further, he said there was a question in four marks section, which had two different answers. “It is ridiculous to give such questions. The six mark section in probability was also very tedious and time consuming.”

Another student, requesting anonymity, said the questions were not similar to the ones they practiced from NCERT books or sample papers. “These questions were never found in the sample papers or NCERT books.”  She added that for many questions, she answered only half.  

Students also said last year’s Maths paper was tough, but this year’s was tougher. Most students feel they can score a maximum 40 to 50 percent.
It shattered their dreams for centum. Another student S. Malavika said, “It is good to test the student’s ability which the CBSE paper did. But not during board examination as our college admission depends on the board marks. State board students get into colleges like Anna University because they attend questions for 200 marks.  In CBSE, we attend questions for only 100 marks. So losing one mark is like losing one per cent. A Maths teacher from a reputed school in the city, requesting anonymity, said, “Most of the questions were not textbook-oriented and it required a lot of thinking. Therefore, it was time consuming and students could not complete. In Tamil Nadu, the Maths paper was
not textbook-oriented. Our school will also take this issue to the CBSE board.”