The ISC results has triggered complaints from commerce and humanities students with mathematics as a compulsory subject that they had not benefited from the grace marks awarded in the subject.
The results were declared on Tuesday afternoon, along with ICSE results.
The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations had instructed examiners to award grace marks in math — at least 28 out of a total of 100 — following complaints that several questions in the paper were “too tough”, particularly for those from commerce and humanities backgrounds.
After the results were made available on the Internet, many commerce and humanities students said the move had not helped them much. The general consensus was that examinees from the science stream had done well in math.
“The math paper was difficult and commerce students in my school were definitely affected. Many of them have scored low in the subject,” said Terence Ireland, the principal of St James’ School.
According to heads of schools, the few students from the non-science streams who are “exceptionally good” in math have scored up to 90 per cent in the subject. But the majority of students who were expecting 70 to 80 per cent marks had to settle for much less.
“The math paper was standard for the science students. But many of my students from the commerce stream, who could have scored in the 70s, have scored in the 40s and 50s,” said Keya Sinha, the principal of Vivekananda Mission School.
It is essential for non-science students to score high in math to study honours in subjects like geography and economics.
Council sources said the trend was the same across the country.
“There should be a mix of simple and difficult questions in the paper so that everyone can attempt some. This time the math paper was meant only for the science students,” said Nabarun Dey, principal, Central Modern School.
Gerry Arathoon, the additional secretary and officiating chief executive of council, however, said the paper was “balanced”.
The pass percentage in ISC in Bengal has dipped 0.37 from last year to 97.72. In ICSE, the percentage has increased 0.53 to 98.55 in Bengal.
All-India pass percentage in ICSE is 98.61, up by 0.30 from last year, and in ISC, 97.24, 0.13 more than 2010.
