CBSE Boards: Marking Scheme And Preparation Strategy For Class 10 Science Exam

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is all set to start the board exams 2024 for classes 10 and 12 from February 15. The class 10 boards will conclude on March 13, while that of class 12 will end on April 2, 2024. Students appearing in the boards can visit the official website of the CBSE to check question papers of the previous years.

Students appearing in the class 10 Science board exam can follow the below mentioned preparation strategy for excelling in the exam. 

As per Kalpana Gangaramani, Founder and Managing Director, Target Publications Pvt. Ltd the most recent sample papers released by CBSE suggest that competency based questions often rely on fundamental concepts. "To attempt these questions, the students must develop a solid understanding of fundamental concepts. However, some competency-based questions may require the students to think beyond the basic concepts. While dealing with questions involving charts and diagrams, the students are required to pay close attention to the details."

Unit wise preparation strategy

Unit 1 Chemical Substances-Nature and Behaviour has a weightage of 25 marks in the CBSE Board exam. Based on the analysis of past year's papers and sample papers, questions from chapter 1 are asked on identifying the type of reaction and products formed, says Ms Gangaramani. "In chapter 2, students must learn about properties of acids, important reactions of acids, neutralisation and concept of weak acids and weak bases, changes in value of pH and physical and chemical properties of metals, reactivity series particularly displacement reactions, formation of ionic compounds." Topics related to extraction of metals, important steps involved in extraction such as roasting and calcination are also important. Students must know about refining of certain compounds such as Al and Cu, she says.

Unit 2 World of Living also has a weightage of 25 marks, notes the expert. "Questions from chapter 5 Life Process are based on nutrition (plants), respiration and transportation in human beings. Students must also practice making diagrams from this chapter. The CBSE question paper places emphasis on topics such as Hormones and their functions, Nervous System in animals, including reflex actions, reproduction and heredity," adds Ms Gangaramani.

Unit 3 Natural Phenomena has a weightage of 12 marks. According to Ms Gangaramani, Chapter 9 from this unit has questions focusing on image formation and ray diagram. She advices the students to learn the formulae involved and their application. They must sincerely study the functioning of human eye, defects and their correction as questions posed from these concepts are theoretical as well as numeric.

"Unit 4 Effects of Current has a weightage of 13 marks. All the concepts from Electricity chapter must be given equal importance while revising since the students are most likely to have questions from all the parts of this chapter," says Ms Gangaramani. In chapter 12, it is essential to know how magnetic field and force acts on the conductor. These concepts are given more importance in Section A of the papers. 

Unit 5 Natural Resources with weightage of 5 marks has questions from the Environment chapter. Students must be prepared with the concepts of ecosystem, food chains, food webs and ozone layer. Typically, questions from this chapter are asked for 1 mark and 2 marks, highlights Ms Gangaramani.