Central Board Of Secondary Education [CBSE] — CBSE Term 1 Board Examination : English MCQ : Kerala region : Exam Date : Dec 11th, 2021 - Confusing Questions and Options

Respected panel of academicians,

I am the guardian of one of the students that attended the CBSE Term 1 Board Examination this year (November - December). I would like to bring to your kind attention some observations on the English Question Paper - in particular.

Exam Date : Dec 11th, 2021
Question Paper : JSK/1
Set No. 4
Code 002/1/4

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While we are also extremely appreciative of CBSE for conducting this Term 1 examination in a new format, I would also like to represent the students' view out here.
In our view, considering this as an examination for which students and their well wishers were putting in a lot of effort - especially during this uncertain period filled with lot of distractions related to Covid 19, Online-Offline classes and so on, some of the questions sounded vague and there were only thin lines between the right option and the rest - especially from the eyes of a 10th Standard student.

About 15 questions (out of 60) sounded vague, /ambiguous / very much subject to interpretation.
One common pattern was that - in many cases, more than one option sounded to be correct - depending on the perspective.
Such patterns can be upsetting for students while in the examination hall. Few questions were quite far off in concept in comparison with the model question papers published by CBSE itself.

Let me quote some examples.

Section A (A controversial passage - "Some teenagers live in a world of their own. Various causes can be found for this state of affairs")
Question 2 : The answer seems to be illogical
Question 7: Ambiguous
Question 8 : illogical answer as there is no such reference to arrive at the answer

Section C : Literature
Question 36 - Option b & c can be correct
Question 39 : It is an illogical /interpretable question

No mention in the story about Lencho's religion in the passage . It is stated that he has deep and unshaken faith in God. That's all.
Option B - Wrong (it is clear)
Option D - .Wrong because Lencho goes to post office on another Sunday also, to inquire about any letter from God and that day itself, he sends another letter to God after collecting paper and pen from the post office officials.
Option C - could be correct (from a view).

Question number 41 - Option B, C, D are close and three of them can be correct.
Question number 43 - Options A & C can be correct
Question number 46 - Option A appears to be most correct
Question number 56 - Options A and C can be correct. C lacks facts though.
Question number 60 - A&B can be correct.

Attaching couple of images for your reference

In short, Paper with so many ambiguous Or uncertain answers.
Maybe, in a descriptive examination it is fine - as students can write their answers and justify their reasoning.
But in multiple choice, with only 1 answer is perceived correct, this is a tough situation to be in.
In a sense, it comes across as not testing the knowledge of the students; but their ignorance & luck.

Such a way of testing is really sad - during this pandemic period and hope that the board authorities will consider our concern and do the needful before publishing the results. We hope - the differences in difficulty level among various question papers do not affect the whole results.
We would even suggest a re-examination if feasible.