Testing times for students as practical exams begin

Class XII students of Everwin Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Kolathur, take the practical examination on Thursday. Photo: R. Ravindran

The school examination season for this year began on Thursday with the State Board practicals for class XII students.

Like in the past, the practical examinations for higher secondary examinations are being conducted in two phases – February 2 - 11 and February 13 - 20. “Schools are given the flexibility to select dates within these two spells. Depending on the strength of students in the school, they [institutions] can allot the number of days the exam will be held,” said an official.

Practical examination is not a new component in class XII but schools do not want to leave anything to chance to help students score maximum marks. “For the last two to three days, we have been going to school to practice all the 10 experiments. Physics can be quite tricky, sometimes the apparatus do not work if we have worked on it continuously or we do not get the output,” said Arpana Andrews, a class XII student who would give her first practical exam on February 6.

“Teachers have asked us to be thorough with the procedure,” she adds. Each of the practical papers carries 50 marks and experiments are performed under the supervision of external invigilators.

K. Selvam, physics teacher at SBOA Matriculation Higher Secondary School, who would also be going as an external invigilator, says they look for confidence in students. “In Physics for instance, if the approach a student is following – such as connecting the apparatus or the arrangement of the circuit – is convincing enough we are satisfied,” he says, adding that presentation is important to score marks.

Schools with no laboratory facility would be availing the lab facility at the nearest school. Practical examination dates for private candidates and class X are yet to be announced. Once the practical examination concludes, schools gear up for one more round of revision exams for the Board theory papers.

A good number of CBSE institutions have also started their practical examination and schools have been asked by the Board to complete the process by mid-February.