The annual High School Certificate (HSC) examinations will be held from February 25, 2014, School and Mass Education Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda said on Tuesday.
More than 5.5 lakh students in both regular, ex-regular and correspondence streams will appear in the exams across over 2500 centres. The examinations will end on March 8 and results declared by April-end.
“The process of filling-up of forms will be over by December 31. The process of deciding the centres is on”, Board of Secondary Education president DP Nanda said.
The examinations this year will mark the shift from marks-based to grade system of evaluation. There would be nine grades as per their performances ranging from A (91-100 marks), B (81-90), C (71-80), D (61-70), E (51-60), F (41-50), G (31-40), H (21-30) and I (11-20). There will also be no division for the students.
The marks obtained by them would though reflect in their marksheets.
The examinations would be held in a single session every day with alternate days for regular and ex-regular students. In a first this year, the examinations that comprise objective multiple choice units (MCUs) and subjective type will be held with break between the two parts.
Fifty per cent of the questions would be MCUs involving optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets.
The students will appear for the objective papers for one hour and then proceed to the the 90-minute subjective type Part-II with a 15-minute break.
In a bid to ensure smooth conduct of examinations and prevent incidents like theft and malpractice, special arrangements will be made in and around the centres. Sensitive centres would be put under CCTV surveillance.