Officials of the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) claim that the exam stress has reduced significantly this year due to the new paper style which will have 50 per cent objective type questions. This is shown by the fact that the helpline launched by the board to help students combat stress has rung far lower this year than the past couple of years.

Officials say that instead of the average 100 exam stress related calls received by the helpline in the year 2009 and 2010, this year only 19 students have called daily.

“The total number of calls from students has gone down drastically this year. Instead of the average 30,000 calls received in the past two years during the one month that the helpline was functional. This year, only 5,000-odd students have called seeking help on these phone lines specially dedicated to class X and XII students”, said chairman of the GSHSEB Hasmukh Adhia.
Adhia gave the credit of less number of students experiencing exam related stress to the new paper style which is being introduced from this year. Here, 50 per cent questions will be objective type making it easier for students to score marks. Also, in a bid to reduce exam pressure on students, the board has decided that the students who score less than 35 per cent in two subjects will be allowed to appear in the supplementary exams held in July so that they can save one academic year.

Vice chairman of GSHSEB HK Patel said that in 2009, 31,239 students had called the helpline of which 3,068 calls were related to exam stress experienced by the students. In 2010, the 35,111 students had called the helpline of which 2,974 were experiencing exam stress. In 2011, from February 14 to March 7, just two days before exams are scheduled to begin from March 10, only 5,683 students have called the board helpline launched all over the state of which only 453 complained of exam stress. Source by Times Of India