Students come out of school after taking an examination in Patna. Telegraph picture

Patna, Sept. 5: The CBSE students of classes IX and X have begun their final revisions for the summative assessment (SA) I this year. According to the board’s directive to the affiliated schools, the examinations would be conducted in the second-half of this month.

Kajal, a Class X student of Radiant International School, said the dates were no surprise to her and she had begun her final revisions.

She said: “I know of the dates. I have begun revisions.”

The board recently asked all its affiliated school to conduct SA-I exams after September 15 this year. The question papers for the examination would be sent to schools on CDs by September 10.

Under the examination reforms and continuous and comprehensive evaluation, which the CBSE introduced in the 2009-2010 academic year, four formative assessments and two SAs have to be conducted in classes IX and X.

SA-I for this academic year has to be conducted after September 15 or the second-half of this month.

According to the guidelines of CBSE, though the schools will conduct SA-I, the question papers would be provided by the board. Sources said this method was followed to ensure that the questions were of the same standard for all the students.

The examinees would take the tests for communicative English, English language and literature, Hindi A, Hindi B, mathematics, social science, science and communicative Sanskrit.

Noorussabah, a Class X student of Notre Dame Academy, said: “I am working hard in mathematics, as I am weak in the subject.”

The grades that students get in SA-I would be reflected in their board marksheets.

Schools, however, would have the option of choosing the question paper they like from the bank that would be sent to them. They can also mix and match by selecting different questions from different question papers they would get from the board.

Educational institutions can also prepare their own question papers according to the blueprint available on the CBSE website. However, the question papers and the marking scheme they follow have to be sent to the board for approval within a week of conducting the examination.

The schools would also evaluate the answer scripts themselves. However, they would have to follow the marking scheme provided by the board while evaluating papers. Sources said the board would conduct random verification to check if the evaluation was conducted in the correct manner.