CBSE’s TETRA Packs A Punch: Software Being Used To Ensure Level Playing Field For Students In Examinations

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is making use of technology to provide as much as of a level playing field as possible for students who feel penalised due to disproportionately difficult test papers or stray ambiguous questions, The Tribune has reported.

According to the report, the board had started using the Theory Evaluation Trend Analysis (TETRA) software, developed by CBSE’s own team, from last year to study the trend of marks being obtained by students across the regions, a senior official was cited in the report as saying. The software shows the live trend of average marks scored across centres.

"We analyse the trend of marks being obtained by students across the regions and centres. Whenever we spot any deviation from the norm, we call up that centre and probe if there were complaints about the question paper," a senior CBSE official was quoted in the report as saying to IANS.

"We look for complaints regarding any ambiguity or difficulty in the question paper. A team then sees if and how much moderation is needed to account for these difficulties," the official added.

The board had reportedly also used the TETRA software last year when it faced criticism over leak of Maths and Economics paper of class X and XII. The trends for both papers were seen by the board officials and it was found that Maths paper leak had not benefited the class X students as the graph of their scores matched the general trend. However, the case was different with the Economics paper, which was reset.