Bhubaneswar, Jan. 1: Plus Two examinations in the state will begin from March 3 and conclude on March 26.

Higher education minister Badri Narayan Patra announced this here today.

For the first time, this year the examinations will be held in a single-sitting-a-day format, starting at 10am and ending at 1pm. Earlier the practice was of two sittings on a single day.

“The single sitting will ensure better security and vigilance,” Patra said.

Practical examinations will be conducted prior to theory papers. Practical examinations will begin from February 17 and will be completed on February 22.

“This is being done to ensure that students do not face problems due to the overlapping of their practical exam schedules and the various entrance examinations,” said the minister.

Around 3.5 lakh students in arts, science, commerce and vocational streams from more than 1,400 colleges will appear for the annual examinations.

The authorities clarified that the exams would be held as per the schedule — both theory and practical — even if any of the dates were subsequently declared as holiday.

A host of measures have been introduced this year as part of the examination reforms following last year's leakage of question papers.

The new measures include a 32-page stitched answer paper, increased number of objective questions, and four separate sets of question papers. “All sets will have same questions, but with different serial number. This will make malpractice through prompting difficult,” the minister said adding that a model question paper on English has already been uploaded on the website for the students and teachers to make it convenient for them.

District collectors and district police officials have been involved in the process in order to ensure proper securing of the question papers.

Also from this year, the Centre for Higher Secondary Education will store question papers at 200 high-security examination management hubs and supply those to the centres on exam day.

“Although single sessions have stretched the total number of days, the exams will be over by March-end so that evaluation can be done on time, since the general elections are likely in April-May this year. Many teachers will also be deployed on election duty. We would like to complete the evaluation process before the polls,” Patra said.