What are Board Exams?

At the end of each academic year (the school year), examinations are conducted.

What happens in an exam?

Exams are typically conducted by subject. Each subject teacher makes a question set which includes some questions from all parts of the curriculum.

Students have to write answers to these questions without looking at their books. They have to finish answering within a limited time. It is usually 1 – 2.5 hours.

After that, the teacher checks the answers written by each student and gives marks. Correct answers get more marks.

This system is used to decide whether the student will be able to understand the advanced concepts that are going to be taught next year. So, it is used as an eligibility criteria for next year. Every student has to get a predefined minimum percentage to move to the next grade. This is called passing a test.

Students who are not able to get the minimum required marks need more time to understand the concepts of that year, so they have to continue in the same grade.

What are Board Exams?

Satish goes to Girija Vidya Mandir school. At this school, if a student does not qualify for the next grade, the parents get aggressive and start fighting with the teachers. To avoid this situation, the principal and teachers have devised a strategy. They make easy question papers and give the students extra marks to ensure that all students pass to the next grade, whether or not they are ready. This means that average students also get high scores.

Rajan, on the other hand, goes to Bulbul Vidya Mandir. At this school, teachers are very strict and ensure that all students study well. Students who are slacking or not ready to enter the next grade are made to repeat the year.

Satish and Rajan both pass Grade 10 with 90 percent marks from their respective schools. They meet Ms. Saraswati at a social interaction. Ms. Saraswati is surprised to find that while both students have passed Grade 10 with 90 percent marks, Rajan is far more accomplished and aware than Satish.

She comes back and discusses this issue with the Minister of Education. The Minister feels that if schools give their own exams, we cannot ensure that the students will have the same level of awareness across schools. Obviously, this affects the perception of the state’s education system.

So, a new examination method is designed. In this system:

A. The question papers will be made by a group of teachers. The same sets of question papers will be given to all students of the same grade in all schools.

B. To ensure that teachers don’t give extra marks to their own students, the answer sheets will not be checked at the school. All answer sheets will come back to the Board, from where they will be sent randomly to other teachers, who do not know what school the child belongs to. Children will only be identified by their registration number.

In this system, all children will have to answer the same questions, so easy question papers cannot help children pass the grade. Since the evaluation is happening by external teachers who don’t know anything about the student, it will be impartial and objective (not influenced by anything).

This system, in which the Educational Board centrally sends the question papers and evaluates the answer sheets, is called the Board Exam.

Board Exams are not given every year because they are expensive and hard to administer. They are given only at the end of important classes like Grade 10 or 12. The marks of these landmark grades are important for admissions in higher education institutions.