Students preparation for pre-Boards HOTS up
in thecity, making students ready for the final run. According to CBSE, Board exams 2009 will begin from March 2 and the detailed schedule of exams is expected to be released in the last week of December.
Teachers say students are now in the last leg of preparation and the High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) concept, which was introduced only a couple of weeks before the 2008 Boards, has been their focus of preparation this time. “Students are fairly exposed to HOTS now. We conducted some workshops for students to explain to them that HOTS is just a technique. It’s about how you answer the questions in SAT or TOEFL,” said Jyoti Bose, principal, Springdales, Dhaula Kuan. Teachers say that indirect questions have always been a part of the exam, but the new name of HOTS has created some panic amongst students of the upcoming batch as well.
“Students were a little nervous about HOTS during the beginning of the session. But teachers got into action and developed different angles to various questions to help students,” said Rumna Mitra, head of department, English, Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar. She added that literature generally contains around 30% HOTS questions. Economics is another subject, which can throw up a lot of HOTS questions because of which students cannot avoid reading text books even in pre-board examinations. “Schools are also a little strict in marking answers in the pre-boards, so students should also be careful of their handwriting and presentation,” Mitra added.
The CBSE had announced earlier that the question paper will carry about 20-25% HOTS questions in all subjects. For students taking or preparing for pre-boards, Bharti Ratan, who teaches Chemistry in Apeejay School, Pitampura, suggested, “The best way to tackle HOTS is to read NCERT text books thoroughly. Students should take mock tests in all subjects for three hours, say from 10 am to 1 pm, to have a feel of Board exams.” She further said, “Organic Chemistry should be brushed up every week until the final exams.”
More : timesofindia.indiatimes.com