Cuttack, March 9: With conclusion of the matriculation examination today, the focus is now on streamlining the evaluation process.

An official of the Board of Secondary Education said adequate steps would be taken for error-free evaluation of answer sheets and optical mark recognition sheets - that was likely to begin on March 17.

The evaluation will be conducted simultaneously in 66 centres spread in various parts of the state, said board president D.P. Nanda.

The process of dispatching confidential materials, including the answer sheets of the first three subjects, has started.

As student-friendly measures such as grading system and optical mark recognition sheets were introduced, it helped students prepare for the examination without any pressure, said an official.

He also said instruction would shortly be issued to the examiners on ensuring an error-free evaluation of the answer sheets since abnormal marking in a few subjects had created a lot of hue and cry last year.

A number of students were awarded single digit marks in Hindi and Sanskrit - which were, however, subsequently rectified by the board after reviewing the copies.

This year, over six lakh students had appeared in the matriculation examination.

The students have expressed satisfaction over the board's decision to conduct the mathematics paper on the last day of the examination.

'This time, we got ample time to prepare for the paper and the question paper was relatively easier. We hope that the overall performance will be good,' said Subhrajit Senapati, a student.