CBSE Class 12 English core, elective paper analysis: 'Easy, balanced paper' says teachers, students

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducted the Class 12 English core and elective paper today, February 24. The exams were held for a total of 80 marks from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm. The paper was divided into three sections- Section A, Section B, and Section C. CBSE 2023 Exam Live

Section A - Reading, consisted of two passages for a total of 20 marks. This section tested the student's comprehension skills, vocabulary, and inferential capabilities. A few students found it intriguing though most could sail through.

Section B - Writing skills, for 20 marks, consisted of four questions – two short writing skills and two long writing skills. It was declared simple by all the students.

Section C- Literature, for 40 marks, consisted of questions that included extracts from the literary texts, short answer questions, long answer questions and a few value-based questions. It put the students’ knowledge of the prescribed texts to test.

Students found the paper quite easy and are expecting to get excellent marks. Most of the students were ecstatic as the paper was totally as per the CBSE exam pattern.

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Sreemoyee Banerjee, HOD English, Shiv Nadar School Gurugram said, "The paper is direct and reasonably easy. A thorough textual knowledge would be sufficient to tackle the questions on literature. In fact, some of the MCQs, such as the one on my mother at sixty-six, had rather obvious distractors making the question extremely easy. The MCQ on the third level, q8, number 3, had some ambiguity in the phrasing. However, overall the paper caters to students of diverse skill sets and abilities. There was an overuse of analogy-based questions and very few assertion reasoning-based questions."

Ms Lakshmi Srinivasan, PGT English, DPS Raj Nagar Extension stated, "According to the students, it was a well-balanced question paper but quite lengthy. The questions were direct and the students found them pretty easy as they were prepared for tougher ones. The comprehensions too were fairly simple with easy vocab questions. The long answer questions this year were quite interesting and open-ended. They were amalgamations of two lessons with common ideas. The reference to context questions were also fairly simple.

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As per Sangeeta Hajela, Principal, DPS Indirapuram, "The English Core paper is a balanced one. The SAQs are very general and direct, and LAQs are collaborative and based on reasoning. The inputs given with long writing skills were found helpful by all the students.

Sakshi, PGT English, MRG school, Rohini said, "Grade 12 English Core exam seemed to be all that the students had prepared themselves for. The reading section demanded unwavering focus of the students. The exam kept the students busy in penning down their perspectives as Literature was a bit more challenging than the writing section. All in all, the question paper was moderate. Since it was their first exam, it must have set the tone for their other exams".

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Dr Mala Kapoor, Principal, Silverline Prestige School, Ghaziabad said, "Students were excited at the exam centre with happy and satisfied faces. We got many positive feedbacks. Students mentioned the paper was overall balanced and centres to their expected standard. The literature questions were direct while calling for a thorough understanding of the texts. The reading comprehension and the writing tasks were as per what they had been taught. Students were also glad that the school took the initiative for conducting the online remedial classes before their board exam which helped them a lot in preparing well and solving their doubts.

As per the students' analysis, this year CBSE class 12 English core subject examination was moderately difficult. Just like the sample papers issued by CBSE, this paper too was drawn on the same lines. Both discursive and factual passages catered to students' interests and were good enough to evaluate the language competency of students, said Preeti Singh, PGT English, Scottish International School, Shamli.

Writing section was comprised of lots of options and clues to ensure that students don't face paucity of ideas. Literature section appeared to be celebrating and acknowledging the work of women writers like Anees Jung, Kamla Das, Adrienne Rich, Bama, Zitkala Sa, etc.