Class X students of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) across all Jamshedpur schools appeared for their first paper on Friday.

While the ICSE students wrote their English language paper, their CBSE counterparts answered their Hindi paper on Friday.

This year, about 8,500 students from across 64 schools across the city are appearing for the Class X exams. There are 32 schools each under ICSE and CBSE boards in and around the city, including the neighbouring Seraikela-Kharsawan district. The ICSE exams will conclude on April 17 with mathematics, while the CBSE students will answer their last paper (social science) on April 10.

ICSE students answer their exams in their own schools, but CBSE examinees are taking their tests from five centres - Vidya Bharti Chinmaya Vidyalaya in Telco, DAV Public School and St Mary's English High School in Bistupur; Jamshedpur Public School in Baridih and Baldwin Farm Area High School in Kadma.

The students, who will write the English literature paper on March 15, said their English language exam went well. CBSE students will answer the science paper on March 22.

"We are never afraid of English. We are apprehensive about math and science. However, I personally found the paper to be a bit lengthy but it was nice. The the duration of the exam is too lengthy this year," said Komal Tantubai, a student of Dayanand Public School in Sakchi.

CBSE students felt that the paper was a bit tougher than the sample papers they had practised. Laboni Borai, a student of DAV Public School, said, "I won't say it (the Hindi papaer) was bad but it was tougher than the papers in the last three years."

"It was good but could have been better. However, science poses the main challenge," said Aditya Raj Tiwary, a student of Vidya Jyoti Vidyalaya at Tayo Colony in Seraikela-Kharsawan.

Principals of ICSE schools were happy with the easy paper and smiling faces of their students. "It was simple. The comprehension and composition were direct. At times, the comprehension is very philosophical and students find it difficult to understand the inner meaning or it may have lot of puns. The grammar part was easy, too," Indrani Singh, principal of ADLS Sunshine School, said.

Ashu Tiwary, principal of Motilal Nehru Public School, said. "It is so satisfactory to see students smiling after exams. I hope it continues this way," Tiwary said.