Guidelines on Answering Questions in Science Exams

GUIDELINES FOR QUESTIONS

IN

SCIENCE

General instructions

1. Objective/task of the question school be well difined.

2. Value points should be stated clearly in the marking scheme.

3. If the expected answer is based on a diagram given in NCERT text book, its reference be given with fig no. and page no.

4. In numerical based questions emphasis should be given on scientific concepts rather than computational skills.

5. Numerical problem should have all possible information required for the solution. For example, value of g, Avagrado number, atomic masses etc. should be mentioned.

6. The data given in the numerical problems should be practicable.

7. No question should be lifted directly from any help book.

8. Language of the questions should be simple and unnecessary detail should be avoided.

9. Multicoulured diagram for printing in question paper should be avoided.

10. Syllabus prescribed by CBSE should be followed strictly. However, for depth of the content, NCERT book may be considered as reference.

GUIEDELINES (SCIENCE PAPER)

VSA

1. Questions should be precise and pin pointed.

2. Action verbs like define, explain, describe and discuss should be avoided.

3. The anwer should not be of more than 2 value points.

4. The answer should be of one word or one sentence.

5. In diagram based questions instead of asking “to draw the diagram”, “to label” can be asked.

MCQ

1. The questions should be strictly based on testing the skills required for doing practicals and these should not be theory based.

2. The questions should be such that it can be answered by only those students who have actually performed the practicals in schools.

3. All the four options should be relevent.

4. Options like ‘all the above’ and ‘none o the above’ should be avoided.

5. The stem of question should not be too long.

6. As far as possible the language of the stem should be such that on adding the option it makes the sentence complete.

7. The objective to be tested should be clear while framing the question.

8. Irrelevant hypothetical data/diagram should not given in the question.

SA-1 (2MARKS)

1. Question should not be of more than 4 value points.

2. Questions asking comparision, differents definitions, simple diagrams with two labels can be asked.

3. Question should be from different units.

4. Question should not be divided into parts.

SA-II (3MARKS)

1. Complete diagram with 4 to 6 labels can be asked based questions.

2. Numerical based questions can be asked.

3. Explanations, reasonings, prediction, interpretation type question can be asked.

4. Maximum value points should not be more than 6 and not less than 3.

5. If the question is divided into parts, the parts should be inter related and not unrelated.

FOR LA (5MARKS)

Please refer to attached file for Guidelines on Answering Questions in Science Exams