OTBA (Open Text Based Assessment) Biology For Class-XI (CBSE)

The Central Board of Secondary Education recommends that multiple modes of assessment need to be provided to cater to the varied abilities of individual strengths of learners. It is, therefore, decided to introduce an element of Open Text-based Assessment in Summative Assessment II for class IX and in the Annual Examination for class XI for 2016. These are meant to incorporate analytical and theoretical skills, thus moving away from memorization.

1. It will be applicable to Economics, Biology and Geography only.

2. This will be a part of Annual Examination.

3. A textual material of OTBA may be in the form of an article, a case study, a diagram, a concept/mind map, a picture or a cartoon, problem/situation based on the concepts taught to the students during second term.

4. It will be to the extent of 15-20 per cent in all the main subjects and may also include the Value Based Questions.

5. The textual material will be related to chosen concepts taken from the syllabi.

6. The Open Text-based Assessment (OTBA) will have questions of higher order thinking skills and some of which may be subjective, creative and open ended.

7. The textual material supplied earlier will be printed again as part of the question paper and thus will be available while answering the questions.

8. The OTBA section will comprise of text material accompanied by 2-3 questions based on that text. The questions based on text will be of higher order thinking skills requiring students to apply learnings to the situations given in the article/ report/ case study and draw inferences/conclusions therefrom. The questions based on the text will be open ended, extrapolative, inferential and look at personal response justifying a point of view

1. CBSE Theme 1—Take Care

2. CBSE Theme 2—The Ambient Air