CBSE Reduces Class XII Maths Exam Paper Difficulty

CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) would include only 20 percent difficult questions for class XII board exam from this year, which might benefit science students. Since most students had complaints about the questions being quite difficult and some questions coming from outside the syllabus, in particular, the board had altered the question paper pattern.

The revised question paper format would have 60 per cent average questions, 20 percent difficult questions and 20 percent easy question.  The choice system would also be discontinued by the board. From now onwards the internal choice of 30 percent with six and four mark questions would take the place of overall choice.

Last year in 2016, a circular was sent by the board in the month of July so as to re structure the question pattern. The circular had provided for test the understanding of student questions of 35 percent, test the remembering of students questions of 20 per cent and around 10 percent Higher Order Thinking Skills(HOTS) questions  where the last one being the most difficult one. The paper would also contain short and very short answer type questions.

As per the words of a CBSE official, majority of question would be centered on the Understanding and Application side of the subject as per the conclusion of a team meeting of subject experts. The focus on HOTS question types would be low owing to the fact that only bright students would be able to solve them and the question paper is catered to all students and not just to the best ones.

The committee of subject experts were set up by the board to address the issues of students complaining where the former was of the conclusion that the question paper was following the curriculum properly.

The board would like to ensure that from this year onwards the questions should be completely based on the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) textbooks

Mathematics question pattern (revised):

Question Type: Percentage

Remembering:  20

Understanding: 35

Application: 25

Higher Order Thinking Skills:10

Evaluation: 10

Question Pattern : Mark Weightage

Very short answer: 4

Short answers:  16

Long answers -I :  44

Long answers -II :  36