CHENNAI: In what may come as a shock to many students ahead of the Class 12 State Board exam results, the school education department has firmly put down its foot against grace marks for any subject.
Earlier, the Directorate of Government Examination (DGE) had indicated that it would consider granting grace marks for allegedly incorrect questions.
Speaking to Express, Director of DGE, K Devarajan said this decision followed a careful analysis of question papers, including Mathematics, that showed that not a single question was wrong contrary to what was claimed by many students.
“All question papers have been thoroughly analysed before the evaluation of answer sheets. None of the question in any of the subject was wrong. Certain questions have been twisted so as to test the students’ command of the subject,” he said.
He added that papers had already been evaluated without awarding any grace mark for questions that were supposed to be incorrect.
According to some students a 10-mark question on complex numbers in Mathematics paper was unusually tough that many considered was not part of the syllabus.
“It was from the textbook and in a class of over 50 students in my school, only three got it correct. Even the teachers told us it was wrong and that we would be awarded grace marks,” said a student.
B Mira, a student of St Anne’s Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Peerkankaranai, expressed shock that there won’t be any grace mark.
“A lot of my friends hoped that grace marks was the only way to score full marks in subjects like Physics and Chemistry, which had extremely tough one-mark questions,” she said.
Sharath Jayakumar, a student of DAV Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Gopalapuram, firmly believed that grace marks would be awarded for questions that were seemingly incorrect.
“In multiple choice questions in Physics and Chemistry papers, two-three questions appeared to be incorrect. We were told that grace marks would be given,” he said.
A Physics teacher who did not wish to be named said there were two multiple choice questions in the Physics paper which were twisted in such a way that only very few intelligent students could have cracked them.
“This is not the way questions ought to be, as there are all types of students who take the State Board exams,” the teacher opined.
Satya Narayanan, a Mathematics teacher, said students should be prepared to face questions that are tough and out of syllabus.
Nevertheless, he added that the 10-mark question on Complex Numbers wasn’t actually wrong, but twisted slightly.
“It’s not always correct to blame the examiner. It’s the examinee who needs to be trained in order to tackle all sorts of questions,” added HE Wilkins, chairman, Doveton Group of Schools.