Cuttack, Nov. 23: The Board of Secondary Education (BSE) today approved the proposal for introducing a question-cum-answer sheet for the 2013 High School Certificate (HSC) examination scheduled to begin from February 20.

Ruling out changes in the question pattern, BSE officials said candidates would be required to write answers within a specified space on the question paper. Students and parents had raised concerns about this new format, saying that a limited space would not allow them to write answers freely.

“There is absolutely no change in the exam pattern and there is no need for students to panic as they would be provided with adequate space in the question paper-cum-answer sheet,” said BSE secretary Ramakrishna Sahoo.

The new provision allows for 20 per cent more space for each individual question. Besides this, two extra blank pages will be attached after the last page to ensure that students have scope to rewrite answers or corrections.

Sahoo said the blank space for answers would be ruled, which would bring in uniformity in handwriting of students to a certain extent and at the same time involve consumption of less paper.

BSE officials said a basic format of the question paper-cum-answer sheet would be available on www.bseorissa.in for students to download sample papers. This is expected to be uploaded on the website by December 3.

Students will also get 15 minutes instead of 10 to go through the question-cum-answer sheet and clarify doubts with centre invigilators.

Officials said efforts were on to help students download questions of the different papers from the website after two hours of the conduct of an exam in a particular subject.

A student helpline will soon be launched, which will be on from 11am to 2pm and from 3pm to 4pm to help students seek expert advice on anything related to exams, a BSE official said.