The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has introduced grading for Class X from 2010. Board examinations will finally come without the pass or fail tag for students.
The nine-point scale grading system will require students to get qualifying grades in four of the five subjects to get promoted to the next level. It has been decided not to carry pass or fail on the mark sheets of students. Students will have four options to improve on their grades within a period of two years from their exam.
The grading system will adopt a five-point scale, which means awarding students grades from A to E. This will eliminate the schools from showing raw scores on the evaluation report of each student.
The new grading system is based on two parameters - absolute and percentile marks. There is a uniform model to be followed in assessing all subjects. But the parameters are different for different subjects depending upon the difficulty level. For example, A star grade would signify 9 points for Maths, while the same would signify 7 points for English.
Under the new grading system there will be subject-wise grades, no cumulative grade will be awarded, as our mark sheets do not carry the total marks at present. The last grade will be the un-qualifying grade and this will decide whether the candidate has passed the exam or failed it.''
Gradually the word 'fail' would be abolished once this system is successfully implemented. This would reduce stress on students. "But we may have to wait for some more years before completely abolishing fail from Boards.
Summative Assessment Based on the term-end examination- There will be two evaluations each in the first and second terms.
- Each evaluation will carry 10 marks apiece.
Formative Assessment To evaluate and grade class work, homework, assignment and project work- There will be one term-end exam for each term.
- The first term-end exam will carry 20 marks.
- The second term-end exam will carry 40 marks.
Evaluation
Students
of class IX and X will be evaluated on a 9-point grading system. Each
grade, given on the basis of both formative and summative assessments,
will correspond to a range of marks.
The nine point grading scale for measuring Scholastic achievements is reproduced below: -
| Marks Range | Grade | Grade point |
| 91-100 | A1 | 10.0 |
| 81-90 | A2 | 9.0 |
| 71-80 | B1 | 8.0 |
| 61-70 | B2 | 7.0 |
| 51-60 | C1 | 6.0 |
| 41-50 | C2 | 5.0 |
| 33-40 | D | 4.0 |
| 21-32 | E1 | C |
| 00-20 | E2 | C |
Points to Remember
(i) Assessment of theory/practical papers in external
subjects shall be in numerical scores.In addition to numerical scores,
the Board shall indicate grades in the marks sheets issued to the
candidates in case of subjects of external examinations. In case of
internal assessment subjects, only grades shall be shown.
(ii) Subjects of internal examination in Class X the assessment shall be made on a five point scale I.e. A,B,C,D & E.
(iii) The grades shall be derived from scores in
case of subjects of external examination. In case of subjects of
internal assessment, they shall be awarded by the schools.
(iv) The qualifying marks in each subject of
external examination shall be 33% . However at Senior School
Certificate Examination,in a subject involving practical work, a
candidate must obtain 33% marks in the theory and 33% marks in the
practical separately in addition to 33% marks in aggregate, in order to
qualify in that subject.
(v) For awarding the grades, the Board shall put all the passed students in a rank order and will award grades as follows :
- A1 : Top 1/8th of the passed candidates
- A2 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
- B1 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
- B2 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
- C1 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
- C2 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
- D1 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
- D2 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
- E : Failed candidates
Important Points
(a) In case of a tie, all the students getting the same score, will
get the same grade. If the number of students at a score point need to
be divided into two segments, the smaller segment will go with the
larger.
(b) Method of grading will be used in subjects where the number of candidates who have passed is more than 500.
(c) In respect of subjects where total number of candidates passing
in a subject is less than 500, the grading would be adopted on the
pattern of grading and distribution in other similar subjects.
