The Central Board of Secondary Education started verification and re-evaluation process of the Class XII exam sheets on Monday, results of which had shown students score even in single digits.

As per the board's notification, students can apply for verification from May 25 to May 28. Only those students who have applied for the verification of marks shall be eligible to obtain photocopy of the evaluated answer sheets, for which they can apply from June 3 to June 6. They will be charged Rs 700 per subject. For the re-evaluation of obtained answer sheets, students can apply from June 7 to June 9.

Controller of Examinations K.K. Choudhary said students have to pay Rs 3,000 per subject for verification of the copies.

"Payment can be made through online on the board's official website ( www.cbse.nic.in). For payments made by e-challan, the date has been extended to May 31," he said. "The result of verification will be uploaded online. In case a mistake is detected, a formal letter will also be sent to the candidates."

The board will accept requests for a maximum of 10 questions for theory portions in English core, English elective (CBSE), English elective (NCERT), Hindi core, Hindi elective, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, business studies, economics and accountancy. Rs 100 will be charged per question.

On Sunday, students staged protests outside the board's regional office regarding the poor marking in physics, chemistry and mathematics papers that slimmed down their chances to get admission in good colleges.

"Students who think they got unfair marks can apply for re-evaluation. The compartment examination will be held on July 16. The board will give three chances to students to perform better in the Class XII compartment examinations," said R.R. Meena, CBSE regional officer (Bihar and Jharkhand).

The students, who have now pinned their hopes for a better grade, welcomed the decision.

Dipak Mishra, a Patna Central School student who had secured 72 in chemistry and 80 in physics, is ready to apply for a re-evaluation for his mathematics paper in which he scored only one. "I'm stressed for the past four days and I'm unable to make any plans. I'm sure I'll get more than 60 when the paper is re-evaluated," he said.

Parents were however unhappy over the re-evaluation fee. "Charging Rs 700 per subject for photocopies of answer sheets is exorbitant. The board is looting students. First, the students failed in the papers and now they're making money in the name of re-evaluation," snapped Manohar Singh, whose daughter got 9 in mathematics and secured more than 70 in rest of the subjects.