The academic session will be bifurcated into two terms: Term I exams will be held in November-December 2021 and Term II exams will be held in March-April 2022. 

 

Amendments: The year 2021-22 and beyond

 

For the first time in the history of the CBSE board, a never-made decision by the CBSE this year took place i.e. cancellation of class 10th -12th exams because of the pandemic. Not only this, the new CBSE pattern for the academic session 2022 is way more different than it used to be earlier. 

 

New CBSE format and is it beneficial?

 

The old pattern followed by CBSE was to conduct single-board exams at the end of the session. The new pattern constitutes changes like exams will be conducted twice in an academic year. Not only this but internal assessments will also be evaluated and their marks will be counted for calculating the final score of students in board exams. Moreover, the session will be further divided into two terms:

  

 

	Month	Duration	Type of questions
Term 1	November-December	1.5 hours	MCQ and assertion reasoning type
Term 2	March-April	2 hours	Open-end questions, long and short questions

 

 

Here are a few questions that must be going inside your mind: Is the new format beneficial for students? If yes then how? What impact and changes will be caused because of this new format? Let’s try to find out. In this blog, we will be discussing whether this new CBSE format is really of some importance for the students or not.

 

CBSE is facing various troubles from the year 2020 itself were due to excessive COVID cases exams had to be stopped midway however, exams for major subjects were conducted. 2021 also saw a revolutionary decision which is already discussed above. So, to make examinations more “student-friendly, transparent, tech-savvy and future-oriented in case of provision for alternatives” CBSE decided to change the assessment system for the 2022 batch, the same as was suggested in the National Educational Policy (NEP) 2020.

 

This entire format is getting mixed reactions from students and teachers. Some are supporting it while others are against it. Let’s discuss some of them here.

 

• Some are of the view that they will be getting more time to prepare for various entrance exams like engineering, medical etc. This is very correct as earlier students used to revise the complete syllabus of class 12th for boards as well as for entrance exams. Since the syllabus is rationalized now, students will get adequate time for an in-depth revision of concepts which is very much needed when one prepares for All India Exams.

 

 

• Some believe that this scheme should be adopted in the year 2020 when the entire country was COVID stricken instead of promoting students because class 10th and class 12th are much needed to develop a base for the upcoming career journey and this promotion decision had resulted in good scores for those students as well which are least concerned about academics and do not study at all. Such students won’t be able to adjust well in higher stages of their educational journey and this is quite lethal for their careers.

 

 

• Earlier, as exams used to be conducted at the end of the year with restricted types of questions, rote memorization was in excess amidst students. But, this new scheme of examination will reduce rote to a greater extent. Students will first understand the concept and then learn it instead of going for the entire syllabus in a few days. This format is a type of semester system only, like colleges and universities where students are expected to go for theory as well as practical instead of just memorizing information based on repetition.

 

 

• The source of tension is of course COVID, in this format as well. Touchwood, if cases remain less then it’s not a problem. But what if COVID cases increase and the situation of lockdown arises again? If this happens, exams will be conducted in digital mode for sure. The only point of concern is the authenticity of results if a student attempts the exam from his/her home. Proctoring software has to be forecasted in advance if this happens so that any malpractice related to exams can be avoided.

 

 

• Moreover, this new scheme, according to some teachers and counsellors requires more explanation. Not only explanation, practice papers and materials are also required because this format of the examination is happening for the first time and students are not sure of how to prepare and act for the same.

 

 

 

• Apart from all this, this bifurcation of terms will help in easing out peer pressure of the students. As the course is divided, they will get a chance to go through various types of questions which is very beneficial from the entrance exam point of view. For example, MCQs and assertion-type questions will be asked both in boards as well as entrance exams.

 

Key Takeaways

 

This new format is very beneficial for students if it is implemented effectively and CBSE should be well prepared for few alternatives in case any mishappening takes place due to an ongoing pandemic.

 

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Also published on Medium.