Class 12 students taking the mathematics paper of the Central Board for Secondary Education in every place except Delhi were in for a jolt on Monday. Of the three sets of papers, sets 1 and 3 had an incomplete question, carrying 6 marks. This means that they could at best score 94 marks out of 100. Students in Delhi, however, had no such problem as the CBSE distributes a completely different set of papers for students in the national capital.

“I got set 3 and was stumped after reading question number 26. The question was on increasing and decreasing functions but the function was not given. This meant that the question was incomplete,” said Smirti Dhara of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ballygunge, Kolkata.  “In the first five minutes people panicked but calmed down after the invigilator said students with sets 1 and 3 would get marks if they just wrote the question number on the answer sheet,” said Ipsita Bhattacharya of R.N. Podar School at Santacruz, Mumbai.

Like many parents and students all over the country, Guwahati’s Dilip Saikia was upset with the goof-up. “I have lodged a complaint at my son’s school. If the anomaly is not addressed, I will move court if necessary.” But the CBSE sought to assure everyone that the mistake would be taken care of. CBSE Chairman Vineet Joshi said, “If there is any mistake at all then the controller of examinations has a special marking scheme to address such problems. And we would ensure that no student suffers.”

CBSE Controller of Examinations M.C. Sharma said, “Necessary consideration will be given at the time of preparing the marking scheme.”
(With inputs from Jaipur, Chandigarh, Shimla, Bhopal , Lucknow & Guwahati)