Central Board Of Secondary Education [CBSE] — wrongly worded question in maths board x exam cbse

1. There was a “Wrongly Worded” question in the X Board CBSE Exam conducted on 28 Mar 2018. The following question in the Maths paper is wrongly worded (Q 28 of Set 3):-

“The sum of four consecutive numbers is an AP is 32 and the ratio of the product of the first end the last term to the product of two middle terms is 7:15. Find the numbers”.

2. The question has been picked up from existing Class X Mathematics book but the language has been twisted which lends itself to wrong interpretation by virtue of the wrong wording. The language of the question is “Consecutive Numbers” in AP which means that the numbers are consecutive numbers with d=1 (with reference to an Arithmetic Progression where a is the first term and d is the common difference). Consecutive numbers such as 7, 8, 9, 10 are also terms of an AP with d=1. This interpretation by students is because of the use of “Consecutive Numbers” in the question rather than ‘Consecutive Terms’. As such in this case the answer comes in fractions.

3. The ‘intended interpretation’ of the question seems to have been “Consecutive Terms” in AP rather than “Consecutive Numbers”. The question is then solvable with 2, 6, 10, 14 as answer.

4. The ‘Question’ thus has wrong interpretation and has been “wrongly worded”. As such all students should be accordingly compensated.