Smooth start with CBSE English exam, students ready to tackle next

Anxious while sitting for the first Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class-12 examination here, students were a relieved bunch three hours later, and termed the English examination a morale booster.

Anxious while sitting for the first Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class-12 examination here, students were a relieved bunch three hours later, and termed the English examination a morale booster.

Having breezed through the first challenge, students now feel the “good start will lead to a good finish”.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, a group of students from Sri Guru Harkrishan International School, said, “We were quite nervous as it was our first board exam. But thankfully, it was English. While we were jittery in the morning, on reading the question paper, we realised no question was out of syllabus.”

“English doesn’t freak us out as much as science and maths. Yet, we were still concerned whether the examination would be lengthy. Luckily, we all completed it in time,” they said in a chorus.

Sharing her experience, another student Prejot Kaur said, “On seeing the question paper, I said to myself ‘easy hai, hojayega’. The paper was divided into three sections — reading, writing and literature. Reading was the most time-consuming.”

For Gurnoor Singh, literature (40 marks) was the toughest. “There were three to four tricky questions. But we got 15 minutes for reading the question paper. So it was alright,” he said.

However, several students claimed there was no clarity on the reading time. While the question papers were distributed at 10:15 am, it was not made clear that 15 minutes were set aside for reading the questions.

Simranpreet Kaur and Navinaaz Kaur of Senior Study II found the literature section quite easy, and added that other sections were also not so tricky.

“We have to appear for the physics exam next, which is quite tough. But with the English test going smoothly, I am confident of taking the subsequent exam. It was a good decision by the CBSE to start the examinations with English,” said Harsimran Singh.