SSC students can now test waters with practice exam

Edu dept hopes move will help students to familiarise with new paper pattern

Mumbai:

The Maharashtra education department has decided to start practice tests for students appearing for their Class 10 board exams this year. The move intends to help students familiarise themselves with the new paper pattern that would come into effect from the 2019 board exams. Sunil Magar, the director of Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT), said the practice tests would be released online by the end of November.

“With the new paper pattern, students might be undergoing some stress and confusion before appearing for their board exams. With the practice tests, they would get an idea of what the actual paper would look like, which may help them prepare better for the boards,” Magar said. This year, the state education department revised the curriculum for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam. Students would also have to appear for a 100-mark exam for all subjects, except Maths and Science with the department’s decision to scrap the oral exam.

Magar said while a detailed plan on how the practice exams would be administered is still being discussed by the education department, students would be notified about the same soon.

As per senior officials in the education department, practice papers for all the subjects and mediums would be uploaded on the Balbharti website by the end of November. Students can download papers from the website and solve the questions in the stipulated time given. After the test is over, a model answer sheet would be uploaded on the website for each question paper. Teachers

and parents can then refer to the model answers to assess a student’s performance in a subject.

A series of Youtube videos on some of the key concepts in the subjects would also be uploaded on the Balbharti website.

While schools under the state board conduct preliminary examinations to prepare students for the final boards, the education department is offering such tests for the first time.

Though teachers welcomed the move, they felt the practice should have been implemented much before. “The idea to introduce practice test is a welcome

move and would benefit those students who are facing stress due to the new paper pattern. However, the education department should have implemented this idea at the beginning of the academic year and not now, when the board exams are just three months away,” said a teacher from a suburban school.

SSC examinations in the state will be conducted between March 1 and March 22, 2019. In 2018, 17.85 lakh students had appeared for the SSC examinations, while 14.16 lakh students had appeared for the higher school certificate (HSC) examinations in the state.