New dates for ICSE Class 10, Semester 1 Board exams to be held offline.
An official announcement is made for ICSE and ISC Board Exams to start from 29th November and 22nd November respectively.
CISCE finally announced the final dates (see here) of ICSE & ISC Semester 1 Board Exams with surprisingly very little gaps provided in between many subject dates. ICSE Exams are starting from 29th November 2021 with 1st paper of English Language 1 and ending on 15th December. The mandatory reading time is also added separately of 10 minutes apart from the 1 hour paper.
Mode of Exam
It is confirmed now that the exams will be conducted offline in respective schools. According to the responses from the majority of students in a survey conducted by CISCE, it was previously almost decided that the Board Exams will be conducted online. Invigilators, IT Support Executives and Super Proctors were supposed to start training this week, where each proctor would have been trained to monitor 25 students at a time. However, the program was cancelled this week as per the sources.
MCQ Paper Pattern Changed Again
ICSE introduced some major changes in the already 100% MCQ based paper pattern for English Paper 1 (English Language) and H.C.G. Paper 1 (History+Civics), by re-uploading the Specimen Papers on the CISCE website. There was no official notification in that regard. The changes were major in terms of replacing MCQ types completely and increasing options for each MCQ.
To help students prepare for these latest changes, an exclusive practice papers book (for all subjects) was made available in collaboration with Educart. This book contains lots of Sample Papers on the latest pattern along with a Time Management Chart to help students figure out how to tackle the 1 hour paper.
Link to the uploaded book here.
OMR Sheets
Use of OMR sheet is officially confirmed now. Previously, ICSE schools were going to hold online pre-boards after Dussehra (probably on laptops) but now this plan is also cancelled. Instead, many schools are advised to start offline Pre-Board exams post Diwali to begin Semester 1 Board revision and practice. Students can access these OMR Sheets also in the practice book resource made available in partnership with Educart for Semester 1 Exam.
Students and teachers should now focus on this final practice material provided for complete Sample Paper practice along with the correct pattern of OMR sheets (with instructions).