The president of the state higher secondary council said on Saturday that it was wrong to assume that the council had diluted the standard of the examination system by introducing multiple-choice questions-based evaluation in the segmented plus-II course.
During a webinar on the semesterized plus-II course, he said a student’s fundamental knowledge and command over a subject can be fairly assessed through multiple-choice questions (MCQs), which is an internationally acclaimed model.
“A popular perception has emerged that the council has made it easier for students to score by introducing MCQs and that we have diluted the examination system. I want to assert that this perception is completely wrong. It is wrong to assume that a student can score 100 per cent through MCQs. If the MCQs are set properly, this can judge a student’s fundamental knowledge and command over the subject in a better way,” council president Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya said.
“Through a notification issued on April 16, we have introduced patterns so the MCQs are set in a way that test a student’s grasp over the subject,” he said.
Bhattacharya said this in response to a question at the webinar.
He said students, apart from encountering simple MCQs in the first and third
semesters, would be tested on assertion-reasoning type questions, case-based questions, diagram-based questions, column matching and other types of MCQs to assess their logical and analytical skills.
In the second and fourth semesters, the students will be tested on short-answer type and descriptive-type questions.
He said a student has to study the entire syllabus to answer the MCQs.
“Around 50 per cent of MCQs in the first and third semesters will consist of basic and simple questions,” Bhattacharya said.
“Around 30 per cent of MCQs will be a bit more complex and the remaining 20 per cent will be for the achievers, as in these questions will comparatively be a bit tougher and will test the logical and analytical skills of the students along with their subject knowledge,” said Bhattacharya.
“So, I want to reiterate that it is not that we have diluted the standard through the MCQs. Rather we can make a proper judgment whether a student has thorough knowledge of a subject,” he said.
The comparatively tougher questions in the two semesters will also include fill-in-the-blanks, rearrangement of sentences and true-and-false type questions.
Each theory paper in the first and third semesters will be of 35 marks for laboratory-based subjects and 40 marks for project-based subjects.
Thirty per cent is the pass percentage in each theory paper.
The council president said at the webinar that the schools will conduct the first- and second-semester exams.
The council will conduct the third- and fourth-semester exams.
The council will request schools to distribute more than one set of MCQs in the first semester exams to prevent students from copying answers from each other, a council official said.
While the questions will remain the same, the sequence will vary from one set to another.
“The idea behind testing students entirely on MCQs is to prepare them for competitive exams. This is why the council wants to test the logical and analytical skills of the students, along with their subject knowledge,” Bhattacharya said.
Swami Ishteshananda, headmaster, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, also attended the webinar.
“Teachers will have to shift from lecture-based teaching to comprehensive and conceptual understanding of the students so that the subject could be made thought-provoking. The teachers are required to take chapter-wise short class tests so the students can be prepared,” he said.