Test paper nudge to teachers: More analytical questions in ICSE and ISC

Several ICSE and ISC schools in the city have reminded their teachers to not have only application-based questions for the term exams in school this month.

The change to analytical questions has to be gradual so all types of learners can keep up, said a principal.

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) has said the ICSE (Class X) and ISC (Class XII) exams in 2024 will see a "small increase" in the percentage of "higher order and critical thinking questions" and the share of such questions will progressively increase in subsequent years.

The council had said the transition to more analytical and application-based questions would gradually be introduced in "small doses".

"Subject coordinators have been told that when teachers are setting a question paper, they can have only a certain percentage of analytical and critical thinking questions. More such questions will make it a lopsided paper and will not be in keeping with the council's guidelines," said Terence Ireland, principal, St James' School.

The term exams in some schools have just finished and in several others, they are set to begin next week.

"To prepare students better for application-based questions there is a tendency among teachers to include more such questions than that prescribed by the council. We have asked teachers not to do that because that will only create confusion for students when they appear for the board exams," said Terence John, principal, Julien Day School Kalyani.

Students of Classes X and XII exchange question papers from different schools to get an idea of a wide range of questions, said teachers.

"For the term exams, teachers are confining the questions to a limited number of critical thinking ones only. If teachers want to give more practice of critical thinking questions to students, they can do so in the weekly tests that happen twice," said Anil Jha, academic coordinator (Classes XI and XII), The Heritage School.

Teachers cannot expect all students to answer a paper filled with higher-order questions, principals said.

"There has to be gradual change. Otherwise, a section of students will blank out. The teacher has to think of every child in class and cater to all types of learners," said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal, Loreto Day School Elliot Road.

Teachers are preparing MCQs (multiple choice questions) to test concepts the children have learnt.

"MCQs can be challenging. A student has to be thorough with the concept. But not everyone is a conceptual learner. There are students who memorise texts or definitions to be able to score marks," said Gomes Surana.

The council has published specimen papers for the 2024 board exams and schools have asked teachers to refer to them while setting questions for internal school exams.