CBSE Board Exam 2024: More MCQs From Next Year, Weightage To Competency Based Questions Increased

The upcoming CBSE board exams in 2024 will prioritize MCQs over short- and long-answer questions.

CBSE Board Exam 2023: More MCQs from next year in board exams. ( Image Source :PTI )

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced changes to its assessment scheme for the CBSE board exams 2024. The alterations are aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP). Under the revised scheme, the significance of competency-based questions has been increased, while that of short and long-answer-type questions has been decreased. This change is aligned with the recommendations outlined in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, news agency PTI reported.

It is possible that this change will only apply to the academic session of 2023-24, as the board exams are expected to undergo reform next year with the implementation of the new National Curriculum Framework (NCF).

"The National Education Policy, 2020, has affirmed the need to move from rote learning to learning more focused on developing the creative and critical thinking capacities of students to meet the challenges of the 21st century proactively. The board is initiating changes in the examination and assessment practices for the academic session 2023-24 to align assessment to Competency Focused Education,"  Joseph Emanuel, Director, CBSE (Academics) told PTI.

"Therefore, in the forthcoming session a greater number of Competency Based Questions or questions that assess the application of concepts in real-life situations will be part of the question paper," he added.

In Class 10, half of the questions in the exam will be competency-based and may take the form of multiple-choice questions (MCQs), case-based questions, source-based integrated questions, or other types. In the previous academic session, the weightage for such questions was 40 percent.

The objective questions in both Class 10 and Class 12 exams will now exclusively comprise MCQs and carry a weightage of 20 percent.

Compared to the previous academic year, the weightage for short-answer and long-answer type questions has decreased from 40 percent to 30 percent.

Similarly, for Class 12 exams, 40 percent of the questions will be competency-based, consisting of MCQs, case-based questions, source-based integrated questions, or other types.

The weightage for competency-based questions was 30 percent in the previous academic session.

For Class 12 exams, the objective questions will now be in the form of MCQs and carry a weightage of 20 percent. Additionally, the weightage for short-answer and long-answer type questions has been reduced from 50 percent to 40 percent compared to the previous academic year.