education

Updated: Mar 27, 2018 15:50 IST

The Class 12 biology paper of the Central Board of Secondary Education examination on Tuesday evoked a mixed response from students as some complained about tricky questions and others said they were happy with the paper.

Lucknow

The students of City International School in the Uttar Pradesh capital’s Indira Nagar said the question paper was a bit difficult as compared to last year.

“The overall paper was tricky especially the three mark questions which were confusing,” Anusha Bhardwaj, a student of CIS, said.

Asif Anwar was of the view that most of the questions were application based but manageable.

Maahi Dixit said the paper required lot of brainstorming and a high level of basic skills. Rohit Giri felt section E was easy as compared to section B. “Overall paper was moderate,” Giri said.

Their teacher Amita Mishra said the paper was a good mix of direct and application-based questions and those who had studied the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books properly can score better.

“The questions were brain trickling but students managed to perform well. Very few questions were based on the diagram which is the essence of the subject,” she added.

According to students of GD Goenka Public School, the paper was quite balanced. They said Section A and B had tricky objective questions while Section C, D and E had direct questions.

Teachers at GD Goenka said that not much weightage was given to reasoning but there were more value-based questions in which students had to formulate their own activities.

Some questions were related to environmental awareness and acronyms were given and a thorough analysis was required in most of the questions, teachers and students said.

“It was difficult to solve the paper in case thorough studies have not been done throughout the academic session,” Manishika Pawaia, a student, said.

“The questions were average except a few tricky ones. Continuous practice of difficult questions from sample papers helped to solve this paper,” Ankush Singhal, another student, said.

“The paper was quite easy and not lengthy at all,” Mitul Singh added.

Patna

Vaishnavi of Holy Mission School in Bihar’s capital said she did not find the questions tough and was very happy with them.

“I am sure I will score above 60 out of 70 and if the board adapts lenient marking I will score above 65. I attempted all the questions and solved it before time,” she said.

Antara Mitra, the biology teacher at Notre Dame Academy, said the paper was easier than last year.

“Short answer type questions carrying 2 marks each and the objective type question carrying one mark each were tricky. Only those students who would have done thorough study from the book could have solved it. Questions from sections like ecology and pollution were asked and were easy for the students,” she added.

Bhopal

Rubiya Siddiqui, a student of St Francis School in the Madhya Pradesh capital, said she did not expect the questions to be “that easy” in the board examination.

“Every question was from NCERT books. I concentrated on the NCERT books and I am definitely expecting good marks,” she added.

“Except physics, I didn’t find any question papers difficult. Today, the questions and diagrams were so easy to attempt,” Sujata Saxena, a student of Rajeev Gandhi School, said.

Saxena’s teacher PK Pathak said the paper was moderate in terms of difficulty level.

“Even an average student can score good marks. Maximum numbers of students completed the exam before time.”

Allahabad

Nivedita Nandan, a student of Gangagurukulam School in the Uttar Pradesh city, said the paper was easy and in accordance with the pattern of questions asked in the two pre-board exams.

Anita Srivastava, a senior biology teacher at Gangagurukulam School, said the paper was comparatively easier to last year as direct questions were asked, which did not confuse students.

“The three questions of five marks each on double fertilisation in flowering plants, human reproduction and ecosystem with each of the three questions having an option were easy and well attempted by students. Eleven questions of three marks each on topics like evolution, genetics, biotechnology and diversity, etc were also scoring,” Srivastava said.

Another biology teacher at the same school said five questions each of one and two marks requiring one word or one sentence answer were also scoring.

“The 70 marks paper was well balanced and all topics were covered adequately,” she added.

The CBSE Class 12 board exams started on March 5 and will end on on April 12. This year, 11,86,306 students are appearing for the Class 12 exams conducted at 4,138 centres in India and 71 venues abroad.

(With inputs from Rajeev Mullick in Lucknow, Nandini in Patna, Shruti Tomar in Bhopal and Kenneth John in Allahabad)