CBSE Internal Assessment Marks Distribution

CBSE conducts exams for 80 marks and Schools give 20 marks as Internal assessments. Do you know how these remaining 20 marks are given?

There are two types of subjects in CBSE exams. Subjects involving practical exams like Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, IP, Information Technology, Home Science etc and subject having no separate practical exams like English, Hindi, Maths, Social Science, History, Political Science etc.

Internal Assessment (20 Marks)

The internal assessment of 20 marks is for those subjects which don’t have any specific practical exams. Let’s understand how these 20 marks are given by schools.

The one-time year-end examination is complemented and supplemented with an Internal Assessment (IA) that assesses students in a diverse manner, at different times and also examines a broad range of curriculum objectives. IA, in effect school-based assessment, plays the dual role of providing a complete picture of students’ abilities or progress towards fulfilling the aims of education and informing teachers’ of students’ progress and therefore supporting classroom learning. It also informs the individual learner about his/ her progress over a period of time enabling them to develop strategies to improve learning.

(1) Periodic Assessment (05 Marks)

The main purpose of Periodic Assessment is to assess the learning progress of students. Such Assessment done at regular intervals provides feedback and insight to teachers regarding learners’ needs and helps them to improve instruction, do remedial teaching and set curricular targets for a student or a group of students. The feedback also helps students to know their errors as well as strengths and weaknesses. The students, thus, are enabled for better learning and setting up realistic goals. In essence, this is an assessment for, of and as learning.

Periodic Assessment is further divided into the following: Periodic Tests (05 marks): As earlier, these would be restricted to 3 in each subject in a year and the average of the best 2 would be taken for final submission of marks. These tests tend to follow a pattern, which is quite similar to the final end-of-course examination and have a gradually increasing portion of content. Hence, they also tend to prepare students for final summative exams in a more confident manner.

(2) Multiple Assessment (05 marks)

Multiple assessment strategies relevant to particular learning outcomes are advised over the period of curriculum transaction. The subject teachers would determine the type and frequency of these. This would make assessment more comprehensive and provide schools/teachers flexibility to use multiple and diverse techniques to assess learners viz. observation, oral tests, individual or group work, class discussion, field-work, concept maps, graphic organizers, visual representation etc.

Hence, the schools are given autonomy to use alternate modes of assessment as per the demand of the subject and the context towards addressing the goal of assessment for and as learning, such as, quizzes, project-work, Self and peer assessment, collaborative projects, experiments, classroom demonstrations, etc.

Caution must be observed that recording of such assessment is not cumbersome and can be easily translated into individual student scores. Thus, developing simple scoring criteria and rubrics becomes of equal importance when deciding to use a particular technique. In tune with the purpose of periodic assessment, i.e., to provide feedback to improve teaching and learning, it becomes of equal importance to use follow-up measures in case students are found deficient in the proficiency of relevant learning outcomes.

(3) Portfolio (05 marks)

The creation of portfolios is suggested to broaden the scope of learning and achieve diverse curriculum outcomes by examining a range of evidence of student performances being assessed.

A Word of Caution: Portfolios need to be developed in an easy to manage form. They need to be meaningful but simple and accessible. Developing them should not be a burden on students- both in terms of cost and time.

(4) Subject Enrichment Activities (05 marks)

Subject enrichment activities aligned with the secondary school curriculum aim at enrichment of the understanding and skill development. They provide in-depth learning that motivates students to dig deeper into the discipline. These enrichment activities need to challenge students and permit them to apply knowledge to the next level. These activities become an important instrument to learn the processes by which knowledge is generated in a particular discipline.