The Maharashtra Higher Secondary Education (HSC) Board commenced the class 12 board exams on February 21 with English paper. As many as 15,13,909 students are estimated to appear in the exam at 3,320 centres in the state.
Students successfully completed the first paper wherein they were given a total of three hours and 10 minutes extra at the end to complete and submit the answer sheet. The English paper was of 80 marks, divided into sections including both literature and grammar. The paper was held in the morning shift which started from 11 am till 2:10 pm.
Students rated the paper to be moderately easy, however, some did find the grammar part a little difficult. “The novel was easy, but the grammar I would say was a little hard. Also, the passage was a bit lengthy and difficult this time. The topics for the speech were also easy,” said Amrin Mir from Swami Vivekananda Junior College. She also added that the exam pattern was similar to previous years and no extra changes were made.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Samruddhi Hirave of V.G. Vaze College of Arts, Science and Commerce, “our teachers told us important questions in the drama section which did come in the exam. I expect 70 above marks in the paper.”
However, Nidhi S, whose centre was Rustomjee Academy for Global Careers found both the sections to be easy,“I already predicted these types of questions so it was easy for me. The paper was a bit lengthy though and because of that I missed answering the last question.”
Bhagyesh More of VPM'S K.G. Joshi College Arts & N.G. Bedekar College Commerce, Thane said, “I missed a 6 mark question from the literature section in the exam because it was a little lengthy. However, the questions that came were mostly easy.”
The next scheduled paper is Hindi on 22 February, followed by Marathi on 23 February. The exams will end with the Sociology paper on March 19.
