CBSE SA-II papers to be available from 3rd March

The Central Board of Secondary Education has announced that question papers for the school-based summative exam -II will be available for download from March first week onwards.

The SA-II is basically the final exam for Std IX and X under CBSE's comprehensive and continuous evaluation (CCE) scheme. Schools have also been advised to ensure that datasheet for board and school-based SA-II are different.

The portal called CBSE Integrated Test Management System (CBSE-ITMS) has a bank of over one lakh questions and generates two unique question paper sets for every subject. Question papers can be downloaded from March 3 and the SA-II can be conducted from March 10. CBSE will provide schools with the marking scheme from March 17. This year, the question papers can be downloaded only in MS-Word file which would ensure that schools can change data if required.

With these question paper sets ready, schools will have three options. First, they can choose any one of the sets and administer the SA-II. Second, they can mix and match questions from those two sets and create a new paper. The final option is for schools to prepare their own question paper adhering to the weightage pattern given by CBSE. In case schools create their own question paper, a copy has to be emailed to CBSE within a week of the exam for quality control and verification. Schools have been given the independence to design their own datesheet for school-based SA-II and hence the online delivery of question paper becomes vital.

A circular issued by CBSE says it will support schools to generate online question papers in major subjects only. These are English communicative, English language & literature, Hindi Course A & B, mathematics, science, social science and communicative Sanskrit.