The Central Board of Secondary Education on Monday announced that it will divide the 2021-’22 academic session into two terms in view of the disruption in classes because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The board said it will conduct exams in two parts based on a bifurcated syllabus for classes 9 to 12.

The CBSE announced that exams for the first academic term will be held between November and December 2021, with a window of four to eight weeks for schools in India and abroad. “Dates for conduct of examinations will be notified subsequently,” it said.

“The Question Paper will have Multiple Choice Questions including case-based MCQs and MCQs on assertion-reasoning type,” the CBSE said. “Duration of test will be 90 minutes and it will cover only the rationalized syllabus of Term I only (i.e. approximately 50% of the entire syllabus).

The CBSE will conduct exams for the second term between March and April 2022.

The board said that if the situation doesn’t permit holding a descriptive examination, students will take a 90-minute multiple choice questions-based test. The board said that students will take their exams at schools or designated centres if the Covid-19 situation improves.

Also read: Class 12 exams: CBSE announces new assessment criteria, says results to be declared by July 31

The board also elaborated on how the weightage of the two exams in the students’ final score will change according to the mode in which they are conducted. In case the students take their exams at schools and designated centres, marks will be distributed equally between the two tests.

If the second term exam can be held at centres in March-April 2022, its weightage in the final score would be more. On the other hand, if exams for the second term cannot be held in person, the weightage of marks of the first term examinations will be increased to provide year-end results.

In case the students have to take exams for both the terms from home, the CBSE will also factor in the students’ internal assessment, practical work and projects to ensure validity and reliability of evaluation.

In June, the CBSE had introduced a modified assessment criteria for Class 12 students since board exams were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The CBSE said it would evaluate students for theory by first giving 30% weightage to average scores obtained by them in Class 10 in their three best-performing subjects out of five. Second, another 30% would be given to marks based on the theory component of the final exam taken in Class 11. Last, 40% weightage would be given for marks based on unit tests/mid-term/pre-board exams in Class 12.

The marking scheme for Class 10 was announced in May. The new policy stated that students will be evaluated out of 100 marks for each subject. Twenty marks will be for internal assessment, while 80 will be based on a student’s performance in tests or pre-board exams conducted throughout the year. The CBSE added that the marks should be in consonance with the past performance of the school in Class 10 board examinations.