File picture of students taking a matriculation test at a Cuttack centre

Cuttack, Dec. 26: The Board of Secondary Education today modified the schedule of 2014 matriculation exams.

Exams for regular students will end on March 10 instead of March 8, while exams for ex-regular students will start on February 26 and end on March 11.

“We have rescheduled the dates as February 27 will be a public holiday due to Shivratri festival,” said board president D.P. Nanda.

Nanda said though the grading system has been introduced for the first time, students scoring less than 30 marks in any subject would have to reappear for the tests.

The clarification comes in the wake of reports by guardians and other intellectuals that many students are taking the examination lightly as the pass-fail system has been abolished with the introduction of the grade system.

“The students, who will secure below 33 per cent of marks, will be awarded F grade, and in the certificate-cum-mark sheet, it would be mentioned that the candidate did not qualify in the examination and needs to appear again,” Nanda said.

A board official said students would be awarded on a seven-point grading system in which candidates securing more than 90 per cent marks would be awarded with A1 grade, A2 (above 80 below 90), B1 (70-80), B2 (60-70), C (50-60), D (40-50), E (33 to 40) and grade F (less than 33 per cent).

As part of the ongoing reforms in question paper pattern, students will have to appear multiple choice questions in part 1 (50 marks) on Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets.

The students will be allowed to enter the examination hall at 8.30am, while OMR sheets will be immediately provided. After writing their name, roll number on the OMR sheet, the students will be provided with question paper-cum-answer sheet booklets.

Similarly, the part II examination will be from 10am to 11.30am, in which students will have to write on the question paper-cum answer sheet, which was introduced for the first time this year.

“The total marks secured by students (600 full marks) as well as their grades will be reflected in the certificate-cum-mark sheets,” said board secretary Sashank Acharya.

Acharya said this time the certificate-cum-mark sheets issued to students would be laminated as earlier there were complaints about poor printing of the certificates.