NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has indicated that it could adopt a lenient approach while examining the tough March 14 Mathematics paper, including awarding grace marks.
The nature and scope of the lenient approach during the paper evaluations will, however, rest with the subject experts, who will sit after the completion of the exams in April and go through the feedback received from students, subject teachers and examiners.
“Providing grace marks could be one of the options. Awarding marks for the steps attempted even if the answer is incorrect could also be considered,” a source said. There have been complaints by students that they had to leave answers midway to rush to the next one for fear of failing to attempt all questions.
Initial feedback received by CBSE indicates that though the students have been complaining about the paper, a section among them had expressed confidence of scoring well in the paper despite the level of difficulty. The paper conducted on March 14 has been described as unusually tough, leaving even the best of minds in tears.
The students’ grievances on social media ranged from the paper being too lengthy to questions being difficult even for the studious. Last year, the CBSE had to review the Mathematics paper after similar complaints and had provided relaxation in awarding marks.