Bihar Board counters TOI story on class 12 board marks

NEW DELHI, JUNE 9: A Bihar Board official has denied claims that two students have scored more than the total marks set in the Mathematics paper of the class 12 examinations. Bhim Kumar of Arwal district, who appeared for improvement, has been quoted by Times of India as having said that he scored 38 out of 35 in the Mathematics theory paper and 37 out of 35 in the objective paper. However, the Bihar Board official who spoke to Careers360 has stated that under the new exam pattern, introduced in 2018, the Mathematics paper is divided out of 100 and not 70 as in 2017, so that both theory and objective paper are out of 50 each. In that case, the claim that the student achieved 38 out of 35 falls flat.

"Even after introduction of 50 marks objective questions, mathematics was out of 100, 50 for objective and 50 for theory. So, the student scored 38 out of 50 and not out of 35 as mentioned in the Times of India story.

The Bihar Board of Secondary Education (BSEB) introduced a new exam pattern in 2018 which alloted 50 per cent weight to objective questions.

Talking about the other student, Sandeep Raj, the official said that as per the new pattern, Physics was held out of 70 marks, with 35 marks for each theory and objective sections. Before 2018, Physics was held for 70 marks of which 30 was practical. "The student appeared for the exam in 2017 under the old pattern, but he wanted to go for improvement. The rule says that a student appearing for improvement gets the higher of the two scores. Comparing his result, it was clear that he got more marks in 2017 than in 2018. So, he got 38 marks even after improvement." However, in 2017, theory was alloted 60 per cent and objective 40. Which means theory was held for 42 marks. So, the student had scored 38 out of 42 and not 35 (which is the total theory marks for 2018).

The Times of India story has been covered by other news sites as well, quoting TOI as the source. However, it seems neither has any national daily confirmed the same with the Bihar Board, nor has BSEB published any official notice refuting their claims.