The number of students securing top grade (A+) has fallen this year in the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams because most failed to answer all four segments in the creative questions, experts believe.
They also see political unrest and general strikes as responsible for the drop.
In the creative questions segment, students have to answer questions in four categories from an article.
These test students’ ability to memorise and recall, and practical reasoning and analytical skills.
Most of the time, the article is selected from outside the textbook which discusses a familiar topic dealt in the book.
Dhaka Education Board’s training and evaluation expert Rabiul Kabir Chowdhury said certain ‘clues’ to answers are provided in the article.
But Rajshahi Board’s Examination Controller SMA Huraira said clues for the first two levels are not provided most of the time.
Chowdhury said some students may well be able to answer certain questions merely requiring one to ‘recall’ certain information from memory.
That is because they are familiar with rote learning.
But, he said, many of them could not answer questions that required sophisticated ‘reasoning’ and ‘analytical skills’.
He said although it was ‘very easy’ to clear the creative essay type questions, it was rather ‘difficult’ to get a full score.
“Because, not many can answer all four parts of the questions,” he said.
Consequently, he saw good reason for lower-than-expected scores to increase because of the long format questions.
He said there was no scope of subjective grading for the first two parts of the answer which mostly require students to recall their memory.
In that other parts, he pointed out, where examinees are required to apply practical reasoning and analytical skills, it may be up to the examiner.
“But benefit of doubt generally goes in the favour of the students,” he said.
The new question format in general has 60 percent in creative questions and 40 percent in multiple choice questions. No matter what the subject, they have to deal with more creative questions than ones with multiple choice.
Chittagong Board’s Exam Controller Pijush Dutta observed that many students had failed the examinations because it is mandatory to clear both the creative and the multiple choice segments separately.
Source: Bd news24
