HSC exams to be held with shortened syllabus, question paper

This year’s Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams are likely to start on 22 August with curtailed syllabus and reduced marks.

Students will have two hours of written exam – 20 minutes for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and 1 hour and 40 minutes for creative questions (CQs).

This year’s exams will begin with the Bangla first paper followed by Bangla second paper.

The schedule, signed by Professor SM Amirul Islam, convener of the board’s Examination Regulatory Committee and controller of examinations of Dhaka Education Board, was released Sunday.

Typically, students would take a 3-hour test for 100 marks.

Although students will sit for tests with fewer marks – 45 to 55 – their final mark will be converted out of 100 during the evaluation.

Usually, HSC exams take place in April. The pandemic has forced the government to postpone the exam.

In 2021, following the resumption of in-person classes, HSC candidates sat for tests in December on only three optional subjects with a shortened syllabus and reduced marks.

HSC exams were not held in 2020 due to the pandemic; students were evaluated based on their results in previous public exams.