Chennai: Tough class 10 maths question paper leaves students in tears

Chennai: One of the toughest maths exam question papers in recent years has left many class 10 students in tears and some of them even fainted in exam halls for not being able to answer any questions.

Students from the city schools said the question paper had only a few familiar questions.“The questions under the two marks category were twisted and very few questions were asked from first few chapters. We could not understand the questions,” a student from a city school said.

Another student said she could attempt only 50 per cent of the questions. Many students who came out of exam halls looked very upset after writing the tough paper.

Teachers claimed that the question paper would bring down the pass percentage as many students were not able to answer for more than 20 marks.

“Out of 9 five mark questions, slow learners could answer only one question and average students would have answered 3 or 4 questions only. There are no familiar questions in two marks section as well,” teachers said.

Some headmasters were livid with the standard of the question paper.“It is important to prepare the students for higher education and competitive exams. But, all the students are not going to aim to study engineering and MBBS courses. There are slow learners and rural students. The present question paper was prepared without considering all the students,” they said.

Usually, the question paper would have up to 40 per cent easy questions and 30 per cent moderate level and 30 per cent difficult level questions. “But, this question paper had up to 70 per cent difficult questions,” teachers said.

“The above-average students can score more than 60 marks,” they added. “This is the first board exam for the students. If they ask such difficult questions, then the students would not take maths group in the plus 1,” another teacher said.

The students got panicked after seeing tough geometry question. “If they looked at the question paper thoroughly, then they would not have panicked,” she added.