Class X students to get less time to attempt objective-type questions

As against 75 minutes given to solve 50 questions in all six subjects during 2011 and 2012 examinations, the students will now be asked to solve 50 questions in 60 minutes, officials of the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) said. Questions are also likely to be more detailed than before with an aim to engage students.

The 50-mark objective-type questions was introduced in 2011 board examination. The new pattern has question papers with both subjective and objective questions. "Upon evaluation, we found that the MCQs are too short to effectively engage students. Most of these questions are one-liner, and options are of one word each," MM Pathan, the officer on special duty at GSHSEB, said.

The Board has found that an average student completes 50-mark MCQs in 30 minutes in most subjects and has to wait for next 35 minutes for the session to get over, giving him enough scope to engage in unethical practices like exchanging notes in the examination hall.

"We have asked for MCQs to be framed in such a way that the questions engage students and allow them to think before they decide to tick the answers," Pathan said.

This apart, from the 2012 academic year, the Board has also introduced continuous evaluation system for schools, which will evaluate students in all subjects through internal tests conducted four times in a year. Internal marks thus accumulated will be added in Board results.

Pathan said the ongoing online registration of students for 2013 Class X examinations has been quite a success by reducing logistics hassles. After the online registration is complete, schools will be sent replica of hall tickets for final evaluation so they could rectify any wrong data for the last time. The hall tickets will then be printed out and distributed to individual schools by the end of February.

"This is one process after online registration that will be conducted manually. We plan to allow schools to both evaluate and print out hall tickets from next year," Pathan said.

Already, around nine lakh students from over 9,000 schools across the state have registered themselves online for March 2013 examination. The process is nearly over. Schools that have not been able to do this by November 30 due to technical glitches will be assisted by government officials, Pathan said.

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