KOLKATA: When the first semester ISC results were declared on Monday, the only concern seemed the physics and accountancy scores. The CISCE Class XII scores, like ICSE results, did not turn out to be significantly different from last year’s. Students said a semester format with truncated syllabus gave them a better leverage going into the semester 2 examinations.
While schools are still analyzing results till reports last came in, several schools, such as La Martiniere for Boys and St Augustine’s Day School, Barrackpore, reported more than 99% as highest scores. Others indicated the top marks to be over 98%. But none of these are final tabulations.
“For the past two years, we had to do everything online. So to suddenly adapt to offline exams again was a bit challenging. For most of us, physics was hard. For science subjects, like physics, the MCQ pattern was a bit difficult as the options were very similar. It was hard to choose the correct answers,” said Aditya Roy, a DPS New Town student. Students also hope to do better in the second semester as they will be able to write subjective answers, where they cannot go entirely wrong and can’t be marked zero.
Sujoy Biswas, principal at Ram Mohan Mission School, said, “I heard a lot of schools had problems with physics. But my students have done very well and didn’t face any problems. The highest scoring subject was maths. In both ISC and ICSC, top scorers got between 97% and 98%. They were very well prepared, and the method of examination decided by the council was well managed.”
Jhuma Biswas, principal at St Augustine’s Day School, Barrackpore, said, “The general performance in ISC is quite good. The highest score is 99.25%. The best performing subject is maths but history marks were not too good. Other than that, accounts and physics scores were not as good as expected. However, overall ISC science marks are better than that in Class XII humanities and commerce.”
Echoing her, The Heritage School principal Seema Sapru said, “I can say accounts and physics were the poorest performing subjects. English and maths scores were the highest.”
Father Rodney Borneo, principal at St Augustine’s Day School, Shyamnagar, said, “Students have done fairly well. At this point, we can’t assess whether the semester system is more effective or less. We still need to wait for the second semester before making an overall assessment. Students definitely needed a little motivation because of the prevailing uncertainty of the mode and date of exams. But students are very resilient and always manage to perform despite the odds. While we are talk about it as mere ‘exams’, they see it as their future.”
Sonia Gidla, principal at Douglas Memorial HS School, said, “For both ISC and ICSE, the best performing subjects are English, and maths. Accounts, physics and chemistry did not turn out to be too scoring. Some students really need to work hard on that. We have not yet started analysing the overall results or identifying high-scorers.”
