The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced that it will conduct two sets of board exams for Class 10th and Class 12th students from the academic year 2021-22. 

In a significant overhaul of its examination scheme, the CBSE has decided to conduct the board exam in 2 parts, one between November and December 2021 and the other between March and April 2022. The first term of the exam will be objective, while the second term will be subjective. There will not be overlapping of syllabus and final marks will be awarded based on the student's performance in the two terms, which will carry equal weightage. 

According to the senior CBSE official, the decision of 2 board exams will continue as the board's new assessment system. For the current academic session, the board will conduct the first-term objective exam in November-December 2021, followed by the second-term subjective exam, which will be conducted in March-April 2022.

When the pandemic situation normalises across the country, the CBSE will conduct the term 1 exam in October-November and the term 2 exam in February-March for full syllabus, added the official. 

As per the released CBSE guidelines, the board will organise Term-1 exams in a flexible schedule between November-December 2021, with a window period of 4-8 weeks. The Term-1 question paper will have Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) including case-based MCQs and MCQs on the assertion-reasoning type. The exam will be conducted for a duration of 90 minutes and it will cover only the rationalized syllabus of Term I only (i.e. approx. 50% of the entire syllabus). 

Further, the CBSE will conduct the Term-2 exam for a duration of 120 minutes and the question paper will consist of subjective questions of different formats. However, if the Covid-19 situation remains not conducive for a normal description paper, then a 90-minute MCQ paper will be set, said an official. 

The question papers will be sent by the CBSE to schools along with the marking scheme and the exams will be conducted under the supervision of the superintendents and observers appointed by CBSE. Marks of the first-term exams will be contributed to the final overall score of students.

The responses of the students will be captured on the OMR sheet, which after scanning will be directly uploaded on the CBSE portal or alternatively, the schools will upload it on the very same day. 

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The CBSE official also notified that the students will study only the specific syllabus meant for that particular term-end exam. The part of the first term will not be a part of the second term or vice versa. 

Keeping in mind the Covid-19 situation, CBSE is also on the lookout for conducting online exams as an exigency measure. Owing to the pandemic, either the exams are being postponed or cancelled. So, the online exam is an alternate way of conducting the exams, said the official. 

The board has also decided that if the pandemic situation normalises, the exams will be conducted in schools/centers and theory marks will be distributed equally between schools. However, if the schools remain closed, the first-term exams will be held through the online mode at home and its weightage will be reduced. While the Term-2 weightage will be increased for the declaration of final results. In the case of vice versa, the same results will be applied. 

If the schools are completely shut down for both exams, then the results will be evaluated based on the internal assessment/ practical/ project work and theory marks of the students obtained in the Term-1 and Term-2 exams taken from their home respectively. 

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