CBSE Class 12 English core exam analysis: Few questions in writing section ‘tricky’, say students

“The overall difficulty level of the questions was easy to moderate. The questions were based only on the topics mentioned in the term-1 CBSE Syllabus. Reading and literature sections were easy while a few questions in the writing section were a bit tricky. Most of the students were able to finish it in time. The question paper had a variety of multiple-choice questions. Literature section was based upon the NCERT textbook,” said Yogesh Chandra Pandey Senior Educator, Unison World School, Dehradun.

The term-1 question paper having 60 questions had to be solved in 90 minutes, with a 20 minute reading time. It had 3 sections allotted to Reading, Writing Skills and Literature.

“The paper was a combination of assertion and reasoning, case-based, resource-based questions and data interpretation with choices. Students had to attempt 50 out of 60 questions, with no negative marking. A unique inclusion was writing skill topics like articles, notices and advertisements were also tested in the MCQ format. Apart from testing skills of retention and recapitulation, students were tested for logical reasoning, analytical thinking and compare and contrast which required higher-order thinking skills,” said Sunila Athley, Principal, Amity International School, Sector-6, Vasundhara, Ghaziabad.

She added that the paper was challenging, which required the examinees to scrutinise the stem of each question carefully n order to select the appropriate option or reject the distractors.

Vijayalakshmi Dutta, English teacher, JAIN International Residential School (JIRS), Bengaluru, said that the question paper was tricky. “The questions tested the innate understanding of various concepts and characteristics of writing skills. The literature questions expected the students to have a broader view and knowledge of the topics and sub-topics,” Dutta said.