KOCHI: CBSE Class 12 commerce students appearing for their term-1 examinations got a rude shock on Monday when they received the question paper for the accountancy subject.
The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) had changed the entire question pattern entirely.
Even the teachers were baffled.
“The pattern was different from the sample question papers,” said Prasanth Venpakal, a teacher.
“This created confusion and chaos among students,” he said.
He said not only was the paper lengthy but students also had to spend a lot of time to understand the new format.
“It was a big blow for them,” said Prasanth.
While students had to attempt fewer questions than the ones given in the sample papers as per the new pattern, the main source of confusion was the number of questions asked in each part — there are two parts each having separate sections.
A teacher explained what was changed.
“As per the sample paper which we used to prepare students for the examination, part-1 has three sections and students have to attempt 15 questions out of 18 each in sections A and B (total 36 questions) and four out of five questions in section C. Part-2 has two sections with seven questions each. Students have to attempt five questions in section A and six in section B. So, they have to attempt a total of 45 questions out of 55,” he said
In Monday’s question paper, part-1 had total 36 questions and students had to attempt 14 each from sections A and B and three from section C, he said.
“That is a total of 31 questions to be attempted. Questions 37 to 48 were in part 2 and here, students had to attempt four questions from section A and five from section B. In effect, they had to attempt only 40 questions out of 48, each carrying one mark,” he said.
Sreya Warrier, a student, said only two students in her school found the paper easy, while the rest struggled.
“It took us a lot of time to understand the revised pattern,” she said.
Another teacher said the change in the pattern at the last minute caused confusion among children.
“A majority of the students said the paper was hard and lengthy. Too much time was spent on doing detailed calculations,” said the teacher.
“A few high achievers would find the paper moderately tough. Reverse calculation method had to be used to answer a few questions, which proved very difficult for students,” he said.
Prasanth also said the paper did not follow the percentage of inclusion of portions strictly.
“Most of the questions were from the Accounting for Share Capital chapter,” he said.