CBSE bungles, students benefit

Many candidates will get six marks on a platter in mathematics

Thousands of Class XII students were in for a surprise when they were handed out the Maths question paper, which featured an incomplete six mark question.

For every subject, the Board has three sets of question papers and the incomplete question was more than enough to send the students into a tizzy. Some of the students, at first thought that just one set of paper had the mistake. However, later students who received the question papers from Set 1 and Set 3 also had incomplete question.

The incomplete question has been attributed as a probable mistake by the Board.
The six-mark question was the last one in both Set 1 and Set 3, which was about application of derivatives in which the value of the function was missing and using the function, students were required to find out the intervals in which the function value was increasing or missing.

An official from CBSE Board, speaking to Deccan Herald on condition of anonymity said that all measures would be taken such that the students do not suffer due to the printing mistake and grace marks is likely to be allotted.

The official mentioned that during each exam, an CBSE observation schedule is sent to all school, in which the observation and grievance made has to be reported.

The observations would be examined by a subject expert and an official from the Board, and subsequently appropriate measures would be taken, he added.

In some city schools, the students who alerted the principals and the co ordinators about the incomplete question were advised to attempt the question which appeared in the both the Sets. Manju Sharma, Principal, Delhi Public School, said that students were not anxious about the defect as they were prepared by the school authorities that some times there might be some printing mistakes in the question paper.

Sharma added, “The Board sends an redressal schedule during the examinations where the grievances if any, are to be reported which would be examined by a subject expert”.  
Left in the lurch

However, students say that it would be injustice to a whole lot, as most of them have attempted the set 1 and set 3 question papers who are likely to get grace marks and this would leave the students who attempted set 2 question paper in lurch as they stand to lose six marks.

Deepa Jain (name changed on request), Class XII student, says, “Students who attempted set 1 and set 3 question paper will get grace marks, which makes students who attempted set 2 to lose out on those marks. Six marks would be about two percent of the overall percentage. With a difference of two percentage, it will drastically affect the careers of science students who will be appearing for various entrance tests”.