Extra 30 Minutes for Students Appearing in OTBA March 2014 Final School Exams

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has come to decision of granting 30 minutes extra in the final exams March 2014 to students of Class IX and XI, particularly for the open book exam. The Open Text Based Assessment (OTBA) will be introduced in March 2014, as a distinct section, however comprised in the main question paper itself.

The CBSE came upon the decision of allotting 30 minutes extra, since OTBA questions will be an addition to the original paper pattern, unchanged from the last year.

Director of CBSE, Sadhana Parashar in writing informed to schools that Circulars has been providedmentioning that OTBA questions will be in addition to regularand typical question paper of 3 hours duration.

As per the CBSE circular have directed, the schools are nowto allot Exam duration time of 3½ hours to the students, in the subjects where OTBA has been introduced.The latest extended time of 30 minutes is in addition to the 15 minutes allocated for the students to read the question paper.

The OTBA is to be held only for students of Class IX and XI as part of the final exams in March. The OTBA study material has been released for Class IX for all chief subjects like English, Hindi, Mathematics, Science and Social Science. Whereas, for Class XI, the OTBA study resources are provided for subjects Geography, Economics and Biology.

This year OTBA Exam will be conducted only in these subjects, and this is a pilot project. Students appearing for OTBA exams will be provided with study material prior to one month of the final exam.These study materials are to referred by the students while attempting OTBA. However, the CBSE has certain that the introduction of OTBA will not affect the standard process of taking the exam.