CBSE Proficiency Test
Students will be tested through a combination of different types of objective questions in the first Central Board of Secondary Education proficiency test next year aimed at helping students gauge their abilities, the CBSE has said. Guidelines for the proficiency test finalised by the CBSE state that the examination will rely on a combination of multiple choice questions and questions which have a single, objective answer.
In math and science, students will also have “numerical questions” where they have to darken a number representing the correct answer, and “column match questions” in which students will have to match options across two columns.
The test structure —focused on analytical skills and understanding of a subject rather than any rote — is completely new for any CBSE examination, though the Board has over the past few years tried to reduce levels of subjectivity in its questions papers.
“The proficiency test will be a test for the CBSE and other Boards too. If the format clicks in terms of student satisfaction and giving stakeholders a genuine snapshot of a student’s strengths and weaknesses, this could be the way we go forward even with the Board examinations,” a senior Board official told HT.
The proficiency test was announced last year close on the heels of the decision to make the class X Board examination optional. The idea behind the proficiency test — which will cover the syllabi of both classes IX and X — is to allow students a platform other than the Board examination to test themselves in a public examination.
The proficiency test is optional and its scores are not valid for admission but are aimed at helping students pick subjects and streams in class XI and plan career paths.
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