HOTS worth 20 marks, so scale down the worry

There will be good news for those who fail in Mathematics, as CBSE allow students to appear for another subject in lieu of his compartment examination, reports Anuradha Mukherjee.

Heckled by HOTS? Do not worry. CBSE experts say there will be something for everybody in the question papers this year.

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And students worried about clearing their paper in Mathematics, cheer up. “We have also proposed to allow students who fail in Mathematics to appear for another subject in lieu of his compartment examination. The governing body has cleared this decision and this will come into force from this year,” said CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly.

And if 20 per cent of the question paper will be dedicated to checking Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), there will also be 10 per cent questions that will be very short answer type.

This basically means that if you know the answer, which may even be a one-word answer, you will notch up full marks — that is if you get the answer right. “These are basically one word answer. If you know the answer, you know it. There is no chance of bluffing it,” said a CBSE official.

Traditionally, it is said the CBSE papers are designed keeping the average student in mind, but the papers this time have something for everybody. Some portions of the question paper are actually meant for the below average students who may find it difficult to answer some of the higher range questions. “One must remember the CBSE question papers are not designed to fail students. The CBSE question paper is made with the thought that there are 6,000 rural and urban schools all over the country,” said Lata Vaidyanathan, principal Modern School (Barakhamba Road).

“Internal assessment in subjects like social studies and math is designed to test other aspects of learning and intelligence than those that can be tested in an examination,” added Vaidyanathan.