File photo used for representative purpose

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education is planning some big changes in the pattern of questions for the Class X exams, from the current academic year, to reward “creative answers and discourage rote learning”.

As part of its ongoing reforms, CBSE has decided to diversify the current format of objective questions that carry 20 marks. But the bigger changes will happen in the theory portion worth 60 marks. These sections will now have fewer questions, with each given higher marks to encourage long form and creative answers .

The internal assessment done by schools, which accounts for the remaining 20 marks, will henceforth require students to create a portfolio that will carry 5-10 marks.

A CBSE official said to ensure quality in the objective questions carrying one mark each, different methods of obtaining the answer will be employed. While some will have multiple choice answers, others will need blanks to be filled in or the answer given in a single sentence.

CBSE will reduce the number of questions in the portion carrying 60 marks. Each question will now carry more marks, an official said.

“Students will have to answer in the long form, longer than in the present format, and in a more creative way. The marking scheme and evaluation will be formulated likewise,” the official said.

For the practical/internal assessment segment of 20 marks, students will have to prepare a portfolio on a particular subject and their learning during the year. “It has not yet been decided how many marks this will carry, but a minimum of five marks will be allocated for the portfolio and could be up to 10 marks as well,” added the official.

According to CBSE sources, the sample question papers based on the new pattern will be made available by the board on its website from July 2019. “We will share the new pattern in the form of sample papers for teachers and students for their understanding and preparation,” disclosed a CBSE official.

The question pattern was also changed ahead of the class X and XII board exams in 2019, as TOI had reported in February, to increase the value of objective type questions from 10% to 20% and offer examinees more options on which questions to attempt.

At the time, CBSE officials had said that such a pattern would “help boost the confidence of the students and help them score better”. This resulted in the number of high scorers (90% and above) crossing the three-lakh mark this year (94,000 in Class XII and 2.3 lakh in Class X).

