HSC examination takes off with English paper

The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination began on a smooth note with no major incidents reported across the state for the first language paper, English. Though there were 212 incidents of copying across the state, in Pune district the number of such incidents was zero, according to Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education sources.

Nearly 1,13,46,305 students appeared for the examination on Tuesday. The board’s Pune divisional secretary, Mahadeo Gosavi said, “There were no untoward incidents.”

Many of the students who appeared for the paper said it was lengthy but easy. For many, the English paper was important to keep abreast with the language, which is used as a medium of communication across the world.  Vinit Sawant, a student of Fergusson College (FC) said, “Although I aspire to become an engineer and science and mathematics papers are important for me, language too is on the priority list.”

Aditya Arana, who is preparing for common entrance tests too said, “The paper was easy, but there was confusion regarding note-making of a paragraph in D-section. Actually, the confusion was to give the answers to the paragraph in notes, in points or in one line.”

Sayyami Chippa found the paper easy, but lengthy. Aishwarya Bhide found the grammar section easy and solved it without any hitch.

However, Ravi Vaspate found writing essays a bit difficult compared to other sections. The themes for the essay were ‘A memorable day in my life’, ‘Health and happiness’ and ‘Modes of science.’

Aditya Pisal and Kelvin John were happy as the first paper, which they saw as extremely easy has put off exam pressure. “If the first paper is easy, then there is no tension for the entire examination; the pressure just goes off,” they said in unison.