As many as 5.48 lakh students from all over India will be appearing for the Class 12 CBSE exams and a total of 7.65 lakh students will appear for Class 10 exams. The class 10 students will be writing the exam in 2,624 centres and class 12 students will be writing in 2,394 centres. In Southern region, as many as 96,903 students are expected to write Class 10 exam while 48,623 students will be appearing for Class 12 exam. Number of students appearing for Class 10 exam from Karnataka is 11,581 and 4,473 students are appearing for Class 12 exam.

There has been a lot of apprehension among the students and parents as this year CBSE - for both Class 10 and 12 - will have new question paper for the students, which involves Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). The examination, which is set on the new curriculum, will have 20 per cent of questions based on HOTS, where they will have to understand the questions.

Like last year, this year too, the students will be given an additional  15 minutes so that they get time to read the questions.

Social science jitters
Meanwhile, Deccan Herald reports from Gulbarga that thousands of students studying Social science in the tenth standard CBSE are keeping their fingers crossed.

The subject with which the exam opens, has aroused unprecedented anxiety due not only to its voluminous content but also some of the chapters which are marked as optional.

Though the schools have told students that questions from these optional chapters would be given as choice questions still students get jitters as they had to answer the questions from optional chapters compulsorily in the pre-board examinations.

Ignored
The subject has five books with 35 chapters spread over 560 pages. Of the 35 chapters the CBSE has specified only 29 chapters and the remaining are said to be optional. Accordingly in majority of the CBSE schools only the specified 29 chapters have been taught while the remaining six chapters have been ignored.

“Though the six chapters are said to be optional we have no other go but to study them also. If we get questions from these chapters we have to answer them. Otherwise we will be the losers,’’ remarked Kiran, a X class student from a local CBSE school.

The students are required to study all the textbooks and chapters for the sake of only 80 marks in theory while the 20 marks are for practical.

This means each school has 20 marks each for itself. And out of the remaining 80 marks if they scored 15 marks a students would get through.

New pattern
“The new pattern is designed to enable every student to get through and reduce the failure percentage’’ remarked a Kendriya Vidyalaya teacher.

“The confusion on optionals should have been avoided’’ says Udaykumar a tenth standard student of a CBSE school.

‘BE PREPARED’
Bangalore, DHNS: Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghtan Education Officer Dr S D Chakrabarti said that the students should thoroughly study the specified chapters they choose.

“This is known to all. The students should start their preparations for the exam much earlier. In Geography and History, the students should go through the maps,” he added.

Dr Sulochana Balakrishna, Principal, Venkat International Public School said that preparation should not be difficult as the students are offered help by the Board.

“The students can access the sample question papers which are also uploaded on the website. In case of doubts, students can always contact the Academic directors or access the helplines,” she added.