CBSE Giving Out Marks For Free Since 2016, Gave 56 Extra Marks In Class XII Boards This Year

If you are in Class XII right now, you know what it means to be under pressure to score well. However, if you are in CBSE, you need not to worry! Evidently, CBSE has been giving out extra marks or 'grace marks' freely and happily. According to Times Of India, giving extra marks in CBSE's class XII board exams has become a trend since 2016.

This year, CBSE granted 11 marks each in Physics and Mathematics, 10 in Chemistry, 6 in Political Science and 5 in Economics, Biology and Business Studies. Sociology and Geography marks were also moderated by two and one respectively, taking the total to 56 for all the subjects.

According to TOI, Science students this year from the Delhi region who originally scored 84% or less in each of the main papers were given a boost of 32 marks, nearly 11% of the total marks in the three subjects, during the ¡®moderation¡¯ process.

For certain subjects, marks were raised by as much as 15 in 2016 and 2018.

CBSE

Moderation is a process of giving away extra marks to some students for a variety of reasons. ¡°It is a tool for boards to address issues such as ambiguity in questions, unusually high difficulty level of a paper, equalising different sets of question papers in case of multiple sets, unusually lengthy question paper, tricky questions and questions found to be out of syllabus. The decision to grant marks to candidates is taken by the result committee,¡± a senior CBSE official told TOI.

¡°Students who fail the subject will not be granted moderated marks. For others, the total marks in a subject after moderation must not exceed 95. For example, if 10 marks are being granted for a particular subject during moderation and a candidate has scored 89, he/she will be accorded six marks. However, candidates whose original marks are 85 of less will be given all 10 marks,¡± an official explained.

People obviously argue that high moderation is unfair to students who have genuinely performed well in examinations because the process enables not-so-good performers to catch up with the other students.

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In the last four years, the number of subjects where CBSE applied moderation came down from 10 and 15 in 2017 and 2016 respectively, and to six in 2018. This year it has increased to nine subjects.

Some experts also said that high moderation could also be a reason for the rise in the number of high scorers.

A former controller of examinations said moderation has been significantly higher in recent years. ¡°High moderation was a rarity, with nine marks granted in mathematics in 2014 because there was a wrong question. But generally, from 2005 to 2015, moderation was restricted to four or five marks,¡± the former official said.

Most boards are now resorting to competitive moderation as well, a school principal said that doing away with moderation is also not entirely desirable. ¡°Moderation is a scientific exercise in which one sees the distribution of marks across regions over time and then analyses the data with respect to changes such as those in syllabus, question paper and ambiguity,¡± she said.

The Centre has now set up a panel, Inter Board Working Group (IWBG), to ensure uniform marking for all students taking the Class XII board exam in 2018.

Representational Image - Indian Express

It is true that board marks do not decide how your life turns out, but the aim for every student is to get the maximum number of marks - from rote learning to pulling all-nighters, we¡¯ve done it all. Yet, some students outperform others, and the moderation process seems to be bringing all of them at par. While eliminating the process might not be the solution, there is a need to regulate it, so as not to discourage the high-scoring students.