CBSE New Assessment Scheme 2021-22 – Curriculum Transaction, Two-term examination pattern, FAQs

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has officially released the much-awaited special assessment scheme for class 10th and 12th board exams for the session 2021-2022. In an official notification, CBSE said “Academic session 2021-22 of class 10th & 12th to be divided into 2 terms with approx 50% syllabus in each term. Syllabus for Board examination 2021-22 will be rationalized similar to that of last academic session to be notified in July 2021”.

CBSE New Assessment Scheme 2021 Notification 

The major highlights of the CBSE New Special Assessment Scheme 2021 are as follows. 

• Academic Session to be divided into 2 terms with 50% (approx.) syllabus in each term

• • The syllabus for the Academic Session 2021 – 22 is going to be divided into two terms.
  • Each term will have 50% syllabus approximately.
  • To divide the syllabus into two parts, the board is following a systematic approach by looking into the interconnectivity of concepts and topics by the Subject Experts.
  • The Board will conduct  examinations at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated (divided) syllabus.

• The syllabus of the Academic Session is going to be rationalized

• • The board is going to rationalize the syllabus for the board examination 2021 – 2022 similar to the last academic session.
  • Currently, the schools will follow the curriculum and syllabus released by CBSE on 31st March 2021.
  • Apart from this, the schools will also the Board will conduct  examinations at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated (divided) syllabus.

• Internal Assessments/ Project Works/ Practicals to be more credible

• • The board is also set to make Internal Assessments/ Practicals/ Project Works to be more credible and valid.
  • To ensure fair distribution of marks, CBSE will announce further guidelines and moderation policy.

Check: CBSE New Updated Syllabus

Details of Curriculum Transaction as per new CBSE Assessment Policy 2021

The details of the curriculum transaction according to the new CBSE Assessment Scheme 2021 – 2022 is explained

• Schools will continue teaching in distance mode until the permission of in-person classes is provided.
• For class 9th and 10th – The internal assessment (throughout the year-irrespective of Term I and II) will include –  3 periodic tests, student enrichment, portfolio, and practical work/ speaking listening activities/ project.
• For classes 10th and 11th – The internet assessment will include – end of topic or unit tests/ exploratory activities/ practicals/ projects.
•  The schools have to maintain profiles of all the students. These profiles will have information about the student’s performance in all assessments undertaken over the year. In this way, schools can keep the evidence of student’s performance in digital form.
• CBSE will also provide facilities to the schools to upload Internal assessment records online.
• To help schools, CBSE will release Guidelines for Internal Assessment for all subjects along with the rationalized term-wise divided syllabus for the session 2021-22.
• In addition to the divided syllabus, the board will also provide additional resources like sample assessments, question banks, teacher training, etc. for more reliable and valid internal assessments.

Term 1 Examination as per New CBSE Assessment Scheme 2021

Dates of Term 1 examination – When will the CBSE Term 1 examination take place?

• The board will organize the Term 1 examination at the end of the first term.
• The exam will take place as per a flexible schedule between November 2021 and December 2021.
• To help schools situated in remote areas of the country, the board will conduct the exam in a window of 4 to 8 weeks.
• Dates of examination will be notified subsequently.

CBSE 1st Term Exam Pattern 

• Objective type multiple-choice questions (MCQs) will be asked in the exam. Both case-based MCQs and MCQs on assertion-reasoning will be asked in the paper.

• CBSE will send the question paper to the school along with the marking scheme. 
• The External Center Superintendents and Observers appointed by CBSE will supervise the exam at the school.
• Candidates have to provide their answers through OMR Sheets.
• Schools may upload the OMR sheets on the CBSE website after scanning them. Alternatively, they can upload the marks secured by candidates after evaluating the OMR sheets. The final direction in this regard will be conveyed to schools by the  Examination Unit of the Board
• Marks secured by the candidates in the first term examination will be added to the final overall score of the students.

CBSE 2nd Term Exam Pattern 

• The board will organize the Term II or Year-end examination at the end of the second term.
• In the second term, the questions will be asked from the rationalized syllabus of Term II only (i.e. approximately 50% of the entire syllabus).
• The examination will take place in the month of March – April 2022 at the exam centre fixed by the board.
• The duration of the exam will be 2 hours.
• Questions in the term II or year-end exam will be of different formats (case-based/ situation based, open ended- short answer/ long answer type).
• In case the situation doesn’t allow for a normal descriptive exam then a 90 minute MCQ based on the 2nd term syllabus will take place.
• Just like the marks of the1st term, marks of the 2nd term will also be added to the final overall score of the students.

New Examination/ Assessment Scheme of CBSE 2021 as per different situations

The different situations are explained in the following questions and answers.

Question – 1: What will happen if the situation of the pandemic improves and students are able to come to schools or centres for taking the exams? 

Answer: In such a situation, the board would conduct Term I and Term II examinations at schools/centres, and the theory marks will be distributed equally between the two exams.

Question – 2: In case the situation of the pandemic forces complete closure of schools during November-December 2021, but Term II exams are held at schools or centres. How the examination will take place?

Answer: In this type of situation, Term I MCQ-based examination would be done by students online/ offline from home. In this case, the weightage of this exam for the final score would be reduced, and weightage of Term II exams will be increased for declaration of the final result.

Question – 3: What will happen if situations of the pandemic force complete closure of schools during March-April 2022, but Term I exams are held at schools or centres? 

Answer: The term 1 examination will be most important in this type of situation. The Board will prepare the final year on the basis of the performance of students on Term I MCQ based examination and internal assessments.

Question – 4: What will be the process of assessment if the pandemic forces complete closure of  schools and Board conducted Term I and II exams are taken by the candidates from home in the session 2021-22?

Answer: In this type of situation, the CBSE will prepare the final result on the basis of the Internal Assessment/ Practical/ Project Work and Theory marks of Term-I and II exams taken by the candidate from home in Class X / XII subject to the moderation or other measures to ensure validity and reliability of the assessment.