Chennai: Plus-1 maths exam under new syllabus leaves students in tears

Chennai: Plus -1 students found the maths exam under the new syllabus was very tough and many students left the exam hall in tears. Many students who appeared for the exam in Chennai schools said two marks and three marks sections were the toughest they and could not finish the exam within two and a half hours.

"Usually, the board exams will have one mark questions from book back questions. But, more questions were asked from inside the chapters this year. The two marks and three marks were concept based questions. Only students who know the concepts alone can answer these questions," a student who wrote an exam in Ashok Nagar school said.

Another student said only a few five marks questions alone were direct questions.

Teachers said the questions were not equally distributed to all sections. "Differential calculus, integral calculus were given more importance whereas the topics like trigonometry were not given its due importance in the selection of questions," a teacher from Pudukottai district said.

Another teacher said the model question papers issued by the school education department and half-yearly and quarterly exams were vastly different from the annual exams.

"This is the first board exams under new syllabus. The directorate of government examinations also scrapped blueprint method which has made the exam doubly difficult. The students need to prepare two volumes to get good marks in the exam," a headmaster in the government school said.