Class - 10th

Hindustan Times - Mains

Question 1: Where can I get CBSE board exam question papers of the last 5 years (2008-2012) with solutions?

Reply: You may find the Board’s Question Papers and their Marking Schemes of the years 2008, 2010-2012 in the CBSE website under Examination related material and its Archive

Question 2: In application- based subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, is studying the NCERT textbook enough to score well? Are there any other reference books one can use, to solve additional practice problems?

Reply: Textbooks published by NCERT are the only textbooks prescribed by the Board.And these are sufficient. However, in order to have understanding of concepts covered under different sub-topics,in a different manner, if needed, one may like to refer to some other standard textbooks. Different topics are found to have been dealt differently in various textbooks.However, it is not advisable to refer to new textbooks at this point of time. Even NCE RT textbooks include sufficient number of practice problems.

Question 3: I am very scared of board exams and despite studying the whole year, I am not confident. What can I do to overcome this?

Reply: During this time of the year, many students face a high level of performance anxiety. You must stay relaxed. Start writing down whatever you learn in order to avoid making mistakes. Solving Board’s sample papers within stipulated time limit will help you retain the subject matter. This will also make you confident. You must also take frequent breaks and relax in ways you enjoy.

Question 4: I am a class 12 student from the commerce stream. What is the importance of the value-based questions that have been introduced this year?-Akshay Sharma, DPS Vasant Kunj

Reply: It has been widely felt that our existing educational environment needs to be further strengthened to deliver values enshrined in our Constitution. The curricula cutting across all subjects need to articulate values in explicit terms and the assessment schemes, at the same time, must reciprocate by assigning a weighting to value based items.The Framework on `Education for Values in Schools’brought out by the NCERT focuses on the
environments in which the learners grow, live and also on future work environments by highlighting the interplay of different cultures. The framework intends to prepare students for living in a multi-lingual,multi-cultural and multi-religious country and to appreciate and respect diversity.Continuing with its efforts in the area of value education and in light of above framework, the Board has decided to follow an interdisciplinary approach in value education where values are intermingled with the content of all the major subjects in classes IX to XII .The Board has also decided to assess students for 5 percent weighting in the major subjects (English, Hindi, Mathematics, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Accountancy, History, Geography, Business Studies, Entrepreneurship and Economics) in classes XI and XII through questions which will be integrated with the content of the subject and analysed on the basis ofthe values it reflects.

Question 5: It is generally seen that humanities students do not score as well as science and commerce students in the class 12 board exams. As a humanities student, what can I do to ensure that I get above 90 percent
?

Reply: The CBSE does not promote subject streams.As per the Scheme of Studies, the students are free to choose 3-4 electives of their choice from the given list of subjects based on their aptitude and interest in addition to one or two languages out of which one shall be Hindi and / or English. Subjects like History, Political Science, Sociology etc deal with the study of human behaviour that requires methodologies which are more analytical, critical and speculative making it difficult to score full marks. But the Question paper Designs in these subjects are comparable with those of Science and Commerce subjects.With the introduction of Project Work in Sociology and History, the students also get marks on their yearlong efforts of developing projects. These subjects offer students witha plethora of career options to choose from. Like any other subjects, the students of such subjects also need to develop conceptual clarity, analytical way of progression in the subject, and time management. Try this way and you can get good marks too.

Courtesy: CBSE Academic