Board examination
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In India, board examinations refer to the pivotal examinations that occur at the end of the 9th to 10th grade education (SSC), or at the end of the 11th to 12th grade education (HSC). The scores achieved in these exams are considered very important for getting into university, getting into professional courses or training programs, and even possibly in finding employment.
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[edit] Preparation
Students often go to great lengths to prepare for these exams, including extra assignments, summer and holiday classes, overtime tuition, and even extra coaching at professional coaching institutions specializing in exam coaching. Many schools also schedule the semesters preceding the board examinations to end early, so that the exam candidates get a few weeks of study break to fully concentrate on their studying, coaching and syllabus reviews.
[edit] Procedures
(This section and the next describe the CBSE board examinations. Procedures may vary with other boards.)
Each of the examinations takes place simultaneously across the world, to ensure that questions are not leaked in advance across time zones. Security is usually very high for these board examinations. The question papers are distributed by the overseeing board of education, and their contents are guarded closely until the exam begins. The examintions may include multiple sets of question papers as well. The candidates are issued identification passes in advance, which are presented to the staff at the examination site. The site itself must not be the same school where a candidate is from; to ensure impartiality, the candidate must travel to a different school to take the examination. For the same reason, the candidate may not identify himself/herself on the answer sheet except with an identity-masking number. Use of calculation aids other than logarithm tables is prohibited. The examinations last about 3 hours per course.
[edit] Evaluation
The answer sheets are sent back to the board of education overseeing the certifications. The papers are evaluated based on examples of ideal answers. A false roll no. is attached to the answersheet before evaluation. Once the answers have been evaluated, the identity numbers are matched to the actual roll no. (and identity) of the candidate. The board then issues an official grade/score report for the exam to the candidate, as well as a certificate of completion in the case of the HSC exam (for those who pass). Reevaluation of the answers by the board is possible with the payment of a fee.
