Students of class XII who attempted the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) higher secondary examination on Saturday were in for a rude shock when their English paper turned out to be lengthy. Students complained that sets I and II were more lengthy than set III, which is why some students failed to complete their exam on time. Ojaswi Alankar, a student of class XII said, “In set I, there were no choices available in the advanced writing skills section. However, in Set II, Section B had two sets of optional questions which had the same questions and students attempted it easily. The students who got Set I could not complete their exam.” Student Roubal Sharma said, “Section B of the question paper was supposed to have five types of letters. But the optional questions had the same questions asking to write a job application. In Set III, there were options between an invitation letter and poster-making but it was not mentioned whether the invitation letter was formal or informal. Due to this, almost all students preferred to do poster-making that took time.” An English teacher said on condition of anonymity, “It was surprising to see a board paper that was unbalanced in such a way that the students who got Set I had an advantage over the students who got Set II. The paper was not standardised.” However, CBSE regional officer, R J Khnaderao said, “I got reports from the subject expert that the paper was easy for all students. I never got any such complaints.”
