HYDERABAD: The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) public examinations will start on April 3, the State government announced on Wednesday. As part of the examination reforms, the number of papers was brought down to six from 11 for SSC and Class 9 students and the examination pattern was also changed.
According to the GO, there will be summative assessment-I and II for Class 9 students. For SSC students, there will be summative assessment-I and public examination with six papers with equal weightage to all subjects — which means 100 marks for each subject with a ratio of 20:80 for formative assessments (4) and summative assessment-II /SSC public examination, respectively.
However, in the case of science, the question paper consists of two parts — Part I - Physical Science and Part -II - Biological Science at 40 marks each. Separate question papers and answer scripts should be given for both physical and biological sciences.
The marks for summative assessment for each subject is 20, which comes to a total of 120 marks. Each SSC public examination paper accounts for 80 marks, which comes to a total of 480 marks. Thus, the total marks for the summative assessment and main examination will be 600.
3-hour-long session
The exams will begin at 9.30 am and end at 12.30 pm. The duration of the examination for each subject, except science, will be three hours, which will also include reading time for question papers. For science, the total duration will be 3 hours and 20 minutes — 1.5 hours for each paper and an additional 20 minutes for the collection of answer scripts and issuance of question papers.
In the case of composite courses, the duration of the examination will be three hours and 20 minutes, students will be given two hours to write Part-1 (Languages) papers and an additional 20 minutes is allotted for the collection of answer scripts. After the completion of Part 1, the question papers for the Part 2 examination will be issued.
Review meeting
Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy held a review meeting with officials on the conduct of SSC examinations. She said that SSC examinations would be conducted as per the syllabus. She said that the choice would be available only for essay-type questions.
She directed the officials to make model question papers available to students. She also directed the officials to conduct special classes for SSC students and conduct pre-final tests in February/March.