In a major change forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in India decided to conduct Class 10 and 12 board exams in two parts from the current 2021-22 session. For an all round assessment, the board has decided to base the first term on objective questions and the second on subjective content.

According to a senior CBSE official, the new guidelines will be the Board’s new assessment system from now on. Here’s all you need to know about the changes announced on Monday:

– The board will conduct the exams at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated syllabus.

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– Both exams — first and second term — will carry equal weightage.

– There will be no overlapping of syllabus and the final results will be based on the performance in both the terms.

– For the current batch, first term exams will be held in November-December 2021, second term in March-April 2022.

– The first term exam will be of 90-minute duration and the second term of 120-minute duration. 

– The first term will be an MCQ-based exam and the second term will have subjective questions of different formats.

– Students’ answers will be captured on Optical mark reader (OMR) sheets and uploaded to the CBSE portal.

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– During the pandemic, if the situation improves exams will be held in exam centres and theory marks will be distributed equally over two exams.

– If the pandemic situation does not improve in November-December, students will take Term I exams online/offline from home but its weightage will be reduced and the weightage of Term II exams will be increased. Same rules will apply in a vice versa scenario

– When the situation normalises, the first term exam will be held in October-November and the second term in February-March.