A ready reckoner for Higher Secondary exams

Close to 8 lakh students will write the school leaving examinations conducted by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, which start on Friday.

The higher secondary examinations will have several security features this year to prevent circulation of images of question papers on WhatsApp while the tests are on.

Metro gives a lowdown of the exams.

• HS exams: February 16 to 29.

• Candidates: Around 7.9 candidates will write the examinations.

• Venues: The exams will be held at 2,341 venues across Bengal.
• Timings: The exams will be held from 9.45am to 1pm. Earlier, the exams were scheduled to start at 11.45am. Candidates will have to reach the venue by 9am.
• What to carry: Candidates must carry their admit cards.
• What not to carry: The candidates must not carry smartphones or any other electronic gadgets, including smart watches and high-end calculators. Council president Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya said only basic scientific calculators for trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic functions and arithmetic calculations are allowed.
• Sensitive venues: The council has identified 176 venues as sensitive. At these venues, the candidates will be frisked with hand-held metal detectors so the examinees cannot sneak any mobile phones and electronic gadgets into the examination venues. The council will use radio frequency devices to identify students in possession of smartphones or any other electronic gadgets in these 176 venues.

• Security features: The council has introduced QR codes in question papers, a measure that had helped the secondary education (Madhyamik) board track down 36 examinees who took pictures of their question papers and circulated them on social media while the tests were on this year.

Every question paper of the HS exams will have a unique serial number as a security measure and the examinees must legibly write on their answer scripts the corresponding serial numbers from their question papers.

This mechanism will help track down the errant students who might try to circulate the images of the question paper, said council president Bhattacharya.