Mita Mukherjee

Day one of the 2023 ISC (Class XII) exam went off peacefully on Monday with most teachers saying that the paper was up to the “standard”, “scoring” and students having no problem writing the answers. Monday’s paper was English 1 (English Language).  

Teachers had said before the exams that the test would be tougher for the current year’s ISC batch compared to the students who had written the test three years ago because the 2023 ISC students did not write the Class X board exam in 2021. All examination boards had cancelled the tests two years ago because of the surge in Covid -19 and students were assessed on the basis of a marking scheme devised by the board.

“Many students looked nervous when they went inside the examination hall before the start of the exam today. But all the students looked happy when they came out of the hall after the test. I don’t think students will have any problem in scoring the marks, that they are expecting,” said Sujoy Biswas of Rammohan Mission High school in Kolkata.

Teachers had also said that the current Class XII batch could face difficulty in completing the paper on time as they had been attending online classes and writing online exams since the outbreak of Covid in 2020 till the beginning of 2022 and started writing the tests sitting in school only after February last year.

But Father Rodney Borneo, principal of St. Augustine’s Day School, Shyamnagar in West Bengal said students had no time management problem.

“The paper was up to the standard and set exactly the way students had expected,” Father Borneo said.

“I had no problem finishing the exam. In fact, I completed the paper before time,” said a student from a school in Howrah.

Nearly 99,400 students are writing the ISC in the country.

The 2023 ISC is the first full-length board exam being held after three years. The last full-length exam was conducted in 2019.

In 2020, the board exams had to be cancelled midway because of the outbreak of Covid and the lockdown. 

No board exam was held in 2021. Last year, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, which conducts the ICSE (Class X) and ISC , had divided the school-leaving exams into two semesters.

Also Read:  ISC 2023 to begin on February 13, ICSE on February 27: CISCE