CBSE to make amends over 'wrong' Class 10 maths question

New Delhi, March 15: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has admitted to a printing error in a mathematics question set by it for the Class 10 board examination and said students who attempted it would not unnecessarily lose marks.

"There was a problem in this particular question. Consideration will be given to the students in the marking scheme," M.C. Sharma, controller of examinations, CBSE, told IANS Sunday, a day after many students protested that the question in the third set of mathematics papers was wrong.

Calling the error a "typographic misprint", Sharma added: "A panel of experts in the subject will meet on Monday. Accordingly, a decision would be taken on the marking scheme."

Thousands of students sat for their Class 10 CBSE maths exam in centres across the country and abroad Saturday. Many found the paper "tough" while others felt the questions were "indirect".

However, controversy has arisen over question 19 in the third set - different students are given different sets of question papers to avoid cheating - as students said it provided incorrect dimensions that would yield no solution.

Question 19 of the third set required the construction of a triangle similar to a given triangle.

"If we used the given angle, the dimension of one of the given sides fell short. In the other two sets, the angle was marked differently in a similarly framed question," said Aman Sehgal, a student who sat for the exam.

As anxious students and parents spoke with the teachers concerned to tackle the problem, CBSE officials admitted that there was a mistake.

This year over 1.45 million students are sitting for the board examinations at over 5,000 centres spread across the country and abroad. Of them, 824,438 students are Class 10 students and 637,578 students are of Class 12.