PUNE The theory exams of Maharashtra State Board Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Class 12, began on Friday as students appeared for the English paper while following the Covid-19 guidelines. According to students, some bits were difficult and time management was key. There were also several mistakes in the question paper.
On Saturday, the Maharashtra State board of Secondary and Higher secondary Education (MSBSHSE) declared that full credit will be granted to students who have attempted the question 1-A5 (i). However, students and teachers are now worried about how the difficulty level for other papers would be.
Speaking about the decision, Sharad Gosavi, Chairman, MSBSHSE said, “As the instructions for the question were not printed on the question paper, full credit will be given to each student who attempted it.”
A student of Arts requesting anonymity said, “Many questions which otherwise would be scoring were difficult to attempt. Many questions had typing errors as well which confused me further. I was not prepared for such a difficult paper. I hope the board has set simpler question papers for other subjects.”
Surekha Jamale, a English teacher from MT Balwadkar Junior college, Balewadi said that the question 1 had simple sentences formation but the sentence which was to be transformed was a simple sentence itself. “There are two simple sentences. There cannot be two questions with the same pattern. Also, poetry questions were confusing. In the interview questions, there were no clues given. Although this question was easy, students expect clues to frame questions. According to the pattern, clues are important. In question 5, the novel questions were descriptive. It would have been confusing for students. The answers to descriptive questions were University level. Many students found the question paper difficult. If the child had come from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the state board English paper would seem easy. But many average students who had taken Arts and Commerce said that the paper was difficult for them,” said Jawale.
{{/usCountry}}Surekha Jamale, a English teacher from MT Balwadkar Junior college, Balewadi said that the question 1 had simple sentences formation but the sentence which was to be transformed was a simple sentence itself. “There are two simple sentences. There cannot be two questions with the same pattern. Also, poetry questions were confusing. In the interview questions, there were no clues given. Although this question was easy, students expect clues to frame questions. According to the pattern, clues are important. In question 5, the novel questions were descriptive. It would have been confusing for students. The answers to descriptive questions were University level. Many students found the question paper difficult. If the child had come from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the state board English paper would seem easy. But many average students who had taken Arts and Commerce said that the paper was difficult for them,” said Jawale.
{{/usCountry}}Medha Sinnarkar, principal at Laxmanrao Apte Prashala also shared that the overall question paper was challenging to students. “In question 5 which was based on a novel. The syllabus has a part of the novel not the entire novel, but two questions were based on the entire novel. Questions asked for vocabulary were also difficult,” said Sinnarkar.