Assessment of Practical Skills in Science class 10

CBSE has issued new Sample Papers and Scheme for assessment of Practical Skills in Science for class 10. The New Scheme is effective from March 2010 examination. The problem of neglect of experiments in our schools and of proper assessment of students in practical skills has always been a matter of great concern for the Central Board of Secondary Education. Giving importance to experiments, this circular is made out. Students are advice to take these experimental subjects seriously to have a practical knowledge of course study. MyCBSEguide enables you to get all the details of Assessment of practical skills in science. Class 10 is the stage where being practical as important as theoretical knowledge. So CBSE is emphasizing on it. We should welcome this move and suggestion by CBSE.

The problem assumes even greater importance for Class X, which is the terminal stage of secondary education.  The Board has been keen to find out ways to promote laboratory work in our school system and has taken a number of initiatives in this direction.

The Board tries to ensure that its affiliated schools have the necessary infrastructure to carry out experiments prescribed in the syllabus to Class IX and X.  To make this feasible for all its schools, care is taken that the laboratory curriculum does not demand prohibitively costly equipment or other unrealistic requirements.

As another important initiative to make assessment of practicals fair, uniform and reliable and to increase the emphasis on practicals in schools, the Board introduced a new scheme of assessment for Class IX from the academic year 2005-06.  A document giving detailed guidelines on the new scheme of assessment of practicals with sample question papers was brought out by the Board.

This was done to ensure that practicing teachers understood the new scheme clearly and were sensitized and oriented to the same before it was introduced for the more critical Class X stage.  The positive experience and feedback to the new scheme for Class IX convinced the Board that this was a step in the right direction.

The Board published another similar document for class X at a later stage. The present document includes questions based on experiments included in class IX as well as class X and has been thoroughly revised. As per the scheme, theory and practical examination will have a weightage of 60% and 40% respectively. The practical examination will comprise of two components.

Practical Skills in Science

One component of this practical examination will be in the form of a multiple choice type theory paper test, to be conducted by the Board in Class X as an independent paper.  This question paper will be of 20 marks and 1 ½ hour duration.  It will aim at testing of practical skills through multiple-choice type questions.  Each multiple-choice question will have four options, with only one of them as the correct option.  The second component will also have a weightage of 20 marks but will be conducted at school level on the lines being followed presently.

The Board hopes that this initiative will be an important step not only to give experiments their due place in the subject of Science but also to promote, in general, an experimental culture in our school system.

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1. Assessment of Practical Skills in Science class 10
   2. List of Experiments (only for MCQ Paper)
   3. Categories of Practical Skills

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4. Design of the Question Paper
5. Sample Question Papers and Marking Scheme