Bengaluru, DHNS: Students who wrote the First Language paper on the first day of this year’s Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination were pleased that the test was easy.

Students wrote Kannada, English, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu, Hindi, Telugu and Marathi paper on the first day.

Students who wrote the Kannada exam found the paper lengthy. “It was very easy but I was not able to answer all questions in time,” a student said.

Director of Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB), Yashoda Bopanna visited the Government Girls High School on 13th cross, Malleswaram.

“All the 234 candidates registered there were present. There was one child with multiple disabilities and he was given a scribe and a separate room to write the exam,” Yashoda said.

The number of candidates who were denied hall tickets owing to attendance shortfall is not known yet, as reports from 204 Block Education Officers (BEO) are still coming in, she said.

Yashoda said that no malpractices were reported in the state. She dismissed rumours of mass copying in a school in Chikkodi in Belagavi district.

“The deputy director of public instruction said that unknown people were trying to climb over the compound wall of a centre but they were stopped. This happens in other centers too but it did not lead to any copying or malpractice,” she said.

Meanwhile, three students were debarred in Ballari for malpractice. All are private candidates.

New pattern
Students appreciated the new pattern introduced this year, in which the question paper and answer booklet are provided separately.

Adithi P S, a student of Vidya Mandir School, said, “I think it is better, because in the old pattern, we could write only in the space provided below the question. Today I had the freedom to write as much I wanted. If I make a mistake, I have space to rewrite the answer neatly and clearly,” she said.

Another student, Sneha V, said the new pattern was convenient.

“We can start with the section we are comfortable with and come back to tougher questions later. We just have to put the right question numbers,” she said.

On Friday, students will be writing core subjects of ‘Elements of Engineering’, ‘Engineering Drawing’, ‘Elements of Electronic Engineering’, ‘Elements of Computer Science’ and Economics.