New Delhi: With all the preparations and last minute revisions over, more than 16 lakh students of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) class X and XII have finally embarked their journey to board exams today.

Their counterparts belonging to the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and Indian School Certificate Examination (ISC) also started with their exams today.

While class X ICSE exams would conclude on April 6, all papers of class XII will be over by April 8.

For ICSE class X, the exam starts at 11 a.m., except for the four art papers, which would start at 9 a.m. Students would get the question paper 15 minutes prior to the start of the exam.

Physics for CBSE class XII is going to ease the pressure for students for the first day today.

For class X, although their main paper will start on March 5, for Social Science but they have already started with Music as their first paper today.

CBSE boards for class X is going to be the last ever from this academic year, as they will go optional from the next with grading system replacing the marks obtained by the candidates.

The marksheet of class X students will now only show grades awarded on the nine-point scale basis with the advent of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) in all CBSE schools.

Such a measure is expected to tone down the cut-throat competition as well as the stress faced by many during this period. CBSE has this time ensured that nobody fails the class X exams this year as it has started with discontinuing the practice of declaring a candidate’s compartment.

Those students scoring an E1 or E2 grade in a subject will now be given five attempts to improve their score to get a qualifying certificate.

Marks of these candidates however, will not be disclosed unless it is a special case. Subject wise percentile rank/ score at the national level shall be provided on demand to schools.

The grade card, which shall be awarded to a class X student, will be based on the following classification:

Marks range: 91-100
Grade: A1
Grade Point: 10.0

Marks range: 81-90
Grade: A2
Grade Point: 9.0

Marks range: 71-80
Grade: B1
Grade Point: 8.0

Marks range: 61-70
Grade: B2
Grade Point: 7.0

Marks range: 51-60
Grade: C1
Grade Point: 6.0

Marks range: 41-50
Grade: C2
Grade Point: 5.0

Marks range: 33-40
Grade: D
Grade Point: 4.0

Marks range: 21-32
Grade: E1
Grade Point: -

Marks range: 20 and below
Grade: E2
Grade Point: -

The CBSE has although stored something new for the class XII students as well as from this year. These students would be appearing for the first time in exams for subjects like graphics design and heritage crafts. Unlike class X, their seniors in class XII will not be awarded grades.

The differently-abled students too have a reason to rejoice as they too are offered the exemptions. It is for the first time that the board has decided to provide class X Maths and Science question papers in Braille for visually challenged students.

The number of differently abled students taking the exams has dipped as compared to last year. In class X the number of registered students in special category has come down to 1,891 from 2,228 in 2009 and for class XII, the number of such candidates has come down to 1,306 from 1,707.

But in the city, the number of differently abled candidates, including the visually impaired, hearing impaired, spastics, and dyslexics, has gone up. This year, 810 students will take class X Boards in the special category as against 774 in 2009 while 649 class XII students will take the Boards as compared to 564 last year.

As far as possible, the CBSE has asked the centre superintendents to keep the seating arrangements for the differently abled candidates only on the ground floor.

According to a new directive issued by the CBSE, these candidates are also entitled to the time extension benefits. For a three-hour paper, they would be allowed one hour extra while for a two-and-a-half-hour long paper, 50 minutes extra will be granted.

Candidates belonging to special category will get 40 minutes extra for a two hours paper and for a one-and-a-half-hour paper they will get 30 minutes.

Class X will be through with the exams on March 31 while class XII Boards will be over by April 6.