Plus Two students enter an examination centre and (below) write a paper in Bhubaneswar on Monday. Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, March 3: Plus Two theory tests for arts, science, commerce and vocational stream under the Council of Higher Secondary Examination commenced today amid improved security measures pressed by the state government in view of last year’s question paper leak.

A total of 3,24,461 examinees took the test at 1,080 exam centres across the state. The tests began at 10am and continued till 1pm. Students appeared happy about the newly introduced 32-page stitched answer paper. On the first day, students of the science stream appeared for their MIL Odia exam.

The number of papers were sufficient, and we did not find any difficulty,” said Mithun Mohapatra, a student.

Besides, the council also introduced increased number of objective questions and four separate sets of question papers to prevent malpractice through prompting.

“It was easier for us as the model question papers were uploaded on the website beforehand, and we already had an idea of how it would be like,” Smruti Swagatika, another student.

Earlier in the morning, the question papers, kept in 205 heavily guarded hubs, were brought to the examination centres amid tight security and opened in the presence of a senior administrative, police and education officials.

After the exam, the answer sheets were collected, sealed and deposited in the hubs, which have been put under CCTV surveillance by the designated officials.

Three-tier squads, formed by the council, paid surprise visits to various examination centres to monitor the exams. Higher education secretary Gagan Dhal, too, paid visits to a few centres to oversee the exam process and expressed his satisfaction over the new system put in place.

Executive magistrates have been made in charge of the overall supervision of the examinations in each district, council chairman Basudev Chhatoi said.

Practical exams, which were for the first time held prior to the theory, ended on February 22.

In another development, the annual Class X examinations, conducted the Indian Council of Secondary Education (ICSE), began today.

About 5,000 ICSE students in 83 schools in the state are taking the tests.

As many as 18 students were caught cheating during the exams, informed Chattoi.