CBSE Question Bank Solicitation Format

Owned by Soma Dhavala
Last updated: Mar 20, 2019
2 min read

Context:

In an effort to seed the question and answer data, as a part of the EQB, CBSE is reaching out to its affiliate schools, asking them for data (questions, answers, marking scheme etc...).


Following was the schema that was shared by CBSE. 

Schema

Class ------         Subject ----------- Chapter --------- Topic -------------

S.NO

QuestionMarks

Level of Difficulty

(High,

Medium,

Low)

Question Type

MCQ

FTB

...

List of Images Used

Domain

(Remembering,

Understanding,

Applying,

Analysing,

Evaluating,

Creating)

Model

Answer

Exemplar

Answer

1







2







3







The following "Recommendations" were given to CBSE, but they were NOT incorporated in the Solicitation Letter, citing the reason that the suggestions are too technical in nature.

Recommended guidelines for submitting the questions and answers
1) Please use, CSV (comma separated value format) instead of Microsoft Word or a PDF.
2) Please use unicode fonts, particularly when dealing with symbols and questions written in Language other than English. Do not use any special fonts or embedded fonts.
3a) If the questions or answers use any graphics such as images or clips art for illustration, refer to file names in place enclosed in angled brackets. 
Example: In the figure <Congruent_Triangles.png>, show that the two triangles are congruent to each other.
3b) Include all the image as well (in png format) along with the question and answers. Make sure that those file names are unique.
4) If the answer or exemplar answer contain multiple steps, at the end of each step, place a new line token "\n"
Example:
Consider the triangles ABC and DEF \n. The included angle between AB and AC is same as the included angle between DE and EF.
Concerns
If a prescribed format and schema are not followed, it will be quite a difficult task to ingest data from multiple, disparate formats. However, as this is about crowdsourcing the creation of question bank, we expect non-conformance. The question is, how do we minimize it. We need to balance traction and friction.
Approach.
Here is a suggested schema and format, and protocol.
  1. Provide a reference curriculum (NCERT textbooks) or CBSE's curriculum and ask Schools to fill the topics only from the reference. This reduces the Taxonomy alignment problem.
    1. Example: 9th, 10th Maths Curriculum
  2. Provide the question level information in a Google Form or in Excel Sheet with the following column names
    1. S.No: Serial Number
    2. Marks: How many marks for the question
    3. Difficulty: Difficulty of the question. Choose one from High, Medium, Low.
    4. Blooms Level: Blooms level of the question. Choose one from
      1. Remembering,
      2. Understanding,
      3. Applying,
      4. Analysing,
      5. Evaluating,
      6. Creating
    5. Question Type: The type of the question. Choose one from MCQ (Multiple Choice Question), FTB (Fill in the Blank), Free form, or Other
    6. Model Answer:
      1. Filename: Name of the file that has the answer. The file can be WORD (preferred) or PDF
      2. In case the Model Answer is simple text, provide in spreadsheet itself. Use Unicode for non-English text.
    7. Exemplar Answer
      1. Filename: Name of the file that has the exemplar answer. It can be an image in the following formats: PNG (preferred), JPG, GIF. or it can be a Word or a PDF file also
    8. Question:
      1. Filename: Name of the file containing the question. It can be WORD or PDF file

Action Items:

  1. Create word document templates with required fonts
  2. May be create a spread sheet with column names in place, and pre-defined options
  3. Make attaching files for questions and answers, mandatory