Open Book Exam System
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has introduced Open Text Based Assessment (OTBA) in Summative Assessment II of Class IX (in the subjects Hindi, English, Mathematics, Science Social Science) and final examination of Class XI (in the subjects Economics, Biology and Geography) from March, 2014 in which a component (15-20%) was based on the open text based assessment material supplied to students in advance. Open Text Based Assessment (OTBA) has taken a form of Open Case study-based approach in which questions of higher mental abilities were based on case studies related to the subject. The question paper contains a separate section named Open Text Based Assessment with set of questions based on the Case Studies related to the subject.
The CBSE introduced Open Text Based Assessment for classes IX and XI with the aims to take stress away from memory based assessments and to test higher order skills such as creating, analysing, synthesising, application, inferring and problem solving. The CBSE has not received any suggestion with regards to introduction of Open Book Exam System (OBES) from class-I onwards.
This information was given by the Union Minister of HRD, Smt. Smriti Irani in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question today.
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MC/DS/RK- open book