CBSE Class 12 Physics Board Exam 2018: Detailed analysis by Subject Matter Expert

More than 5 lakh candidates appeared for CBSE Class 12 Physics board exam 2018 held on Wednesday (March 7th). While mixed reactions were received from students all over the country. Majority of students who took the exam yesterday; said the paper was lengthy and difficult. On the other hand, some gave the feedback that the question paper was balanced and they can easily score more than 60 marks (out of 70); even a student said he is expecting full marks

When we talked to subject teachers of various schools, some told us that paper was difficult whereas some denied this fact.

However, all the teachers and students accepted the fact that all the questions in the paper were asked from the syllabus. They also told us that some previous year questions were also repeated in the paper.

So, Subject experts at jagranjosh.com have done a detailed analysis to investigate the fact whether CBSE Class 12 Physics question paper was really difficult or not. Based on the opinion of subject experts, we ascertained the level of the question paper.

Format of the paper:

The pattern of the CBSE Class 12 Physics 2018 board exam paper was as per latest Sample Paper (issued by CBSE). There were 5 sections in the paper i.e., (A, B, C, D and E).  

Section A: 5 questions (1 mark each)

Section B: 5 questions (2 marks)

Section C: 13 questions (3 marks each)

Section D: 1 value based question (4 marks)

Section E: 3 questions (6 marks each)

Detailed analysis of CBSE Class 12 Physics question paper (Set – 2: Code No. 55/2): (Download this paper)

from the above analysis, we can see that majority of the questios are of Moderate level but lengthy in nature and time consuming.

Questions were repeated from previous year’s papers:

There are number of questions which are similar to the questions given in previous year papers. For example: Almost all six marks question were based on questions given in previous years papers (with a slight modification in language).

Then, why was paper considered as difficult?

Paper with a twist:

Major variation was observed in this year’s paper. For example: In case of the unit ‘Optics’, generally, more questions are asked from the ‘Ray Optics and Optical Instruments’ as compared to ‘Wave Optics’ but this year the marks alotment between Ray Otics and Wave Optics got interchanged.

Again, questions related to mirrors have been asked rarely in the last years' question papers, but this year CBSE has asked questions related to mirror formulae and abut the formation of images through mirrors which were not expected . Similarly, some more twists were also present in the paper.

More diagram and graph based questions

Drawing & labeling diagrams and plotting of graphs required considerable amount of effort and time. This year, number of diagrams and graphs based questions were quite high. Some difficult numerical problems were also present in Section ‘C’ of the CBSE Class 12 Physics question paper. Due to this reason, students were not able to finish the complete paper within allotted time.

Students who had attempted the paper sequentially from section ‘A’ faced more problems

Most of the students who had tried to solve the paper sequentially from question number 1 were not able to finish paper within allotted time. There was one graph-based question in section ‘A’.  Question in sections B and section ‘C’ were also time consuming. This is also one of the factors why was CBSE Class 12 Physics 2018 board exam question paper was considered as difficult.

CBSE Class 12 Date Sheet 2018: Analysis and Preparation Tips