A day after the mathematics paper of the Class XII Central Board of Secondary Education exam was reported to be the toughest in 10 years, the Board held a meeting with some of its affiliated schools across the city here on Thursday.

The Board was reported to be considering making the marking more lenient than before.

Among a number of other measures being considered, the option of an “improvement” paper for all students might be given.

In the exam conducted on Wednesday, students had panicked seeing a paper with a changed pattern. There were also rumours rife about the question paper being mistaken for the IIT Joint Entrance Examinations paper.

Although there was no official statement from the CBSE, agencies reported that the Board might have an evaluation committee take stock of the students’ grievances to decide if grace marks could be awarded.

The paper, though not out of syllabus, was said to have been different from the usual pattern. It was more application-based, and needed the students to have in-depth knowledge and a higher order thinking skill.

Higher scores in the board exam automatically result in higher cut-offs to get into the top colleges in the city.