In a video conference with the school teachers, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has said that more than 50% of the paper in the Term 1 Board examinations will have competency-based MCQs. This will make the entire task for the teachers to make the final practice of students more difficult. As per the National Education Policy 2020, competency-based questions have become a part of the sample question papers for the upcoming Term 1 examinations. This type of question includes simple and complex MCQs, assertion-reasoning based questions and case-based questions.
The important point to note is that competency-based questions for Science are not complex case-based MCQs that come with a diagram and case-study paragraph in it. These questions can be in the form of a diagram, table, and statement –combination or labelling-based MCQ. They already cover 50% of the CBSE Class 10 Science sample paper that was provided earlier. Similarly, the Term 1 examination for Mathematics will cover simple, complex and case study-based questions. These questions will be asked in a way that will demand the students to use their low and high order thinking skills.
MCQs for English will evaluate the students’ reading, understanding, analytical and decision-making skills. Moreover, assertion or reasoning-based MCQs can be asked in the literature and reading section. Candidates can expect more than 50% of such questions in the question paper. In general, competency-based questions will be assessing the student’s ability to apply theoretical concepts in real-life or unfamiliar situations.
As a result, to ace these questions, a lot of practice is required. Students can consider the final sample papers along with the provided resources for practice. For most students, these types of questions can be new and they are likely to get confused. In that case, one can refer to the online videos and test series that are available on YouTube and other online platforms to practice the competency-based questions. Channels like Unacademy, Anurag Tyagi Classes, etc. can be helpful in this regard.
In addition to these, students can refer to the newly introduced sample papers for the Term 1 examination that can be bought online. For example – the sample papers by Educart can be helpful. These books contain the MCQ sample papers for the students to practice. Amidst all these, a student must focus on time management as they have to complete the CBSE Term 1 examination maximum of 1.5 hours. Hence, while practising, they can have a fixed time and complete the paper accordingly.
