Alike others, the IInd PU students too were deprived from attending the prescribed hours of classroom teaching and the academic days were also reduced due to Covid, would get more number of questions under every head in the annual examination.

Department of Pre-University Education has decided to increase the number of questions as additional options for students to choose while answering. This will be applicable for optional/core subjects.

Four to five additional questions would be given under each head of marks instead the fixed numbers. For example: Under the one-mark questions carrying a total of 10 marks, there used to be only 10 questions and no options. But this year, there will be about four to five additional questions so that students can choose and answer.

The authorised sources from the department said, “When there are only 10 questions carrying 10 marks (one mark each), there were chances of students leaving the questions unanswered or writing wrong answers. This year, they will have options even in one mark questions.”

The department has planned to organise a workshop for teachers to get suggestions on which chapters to be considered to give optional questions and waiting for the Covid-19 cases to decrease to conduct workshops.

The option is not available for language subjects because the department has already announced a 30% syllabus cut. The syllabus for examinations for language subjects will be only from 70%. The reduction in the syllabus will be as per the 2020-2021 academic year.

The students and teachers have welcomed this move to introduce more questions. “If there are more options, then there is no need for students to waste time on a particular question. They can move to the next question.

The department has recently released the tentative timetable for the first and second PUC final examinations and officials even said, that there will not be many modifications in the timetable.