Bowing to protests from students and parents, the state government on Thursday decided to allow Intermediate second year students to appear for an `Improvement Exam' in physics. Nearly 31 per cent students had failed in the paper and many others had secured low marks. They had blamed it on a change in the paper setting pattern.

It's not just the physics students who can sit the reexam. The Board of Intermediate Education has generously allowed all students to take the exam for any paper they want in order to improve their score.

This is the first time in the history of BIE that second year students are being allowed to appear for improvements, something allowed only for Intermediate first year students as part of the advanced supplementary exams. Secondary education minister K. Parthasarathy said the decision was taken in the interest of all students since only a few students would benefit if grace marks were awarded, as had been demanded for the physics paper. There will be no risk for Intermediate second year students in taking the improvement examination, since the better of the two performances will be taken into account.

Students appearing for the improvement exam will be considered as “regular students” and will not be treated as “compartmental candidates” in certificate issued by the BIE. It has been decided to advance the supplementary exams to May 16 from the earlier date of May 23. The physics exam will be held on the first day, May 16, to ensure that results are declared by May 24 so that students get their Eamcet rankings along with others and can appear for the Eamcet engineering and medical counselling in the first phase.

The revised schedule for advanced supplementary exams for both first and second year students is mentioned in the box.

First year students have to take the exams from 8 am to 11 am and second
year students from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm on the same day. Practical exams will be held from May 28 to May 31 and environmental education exam will be held on June 1. The dates are applicable to Inter vocational courses exams also. The timetable will be issued separately.

The Board has decided to conduct re-exam for 387 second year physics students in Nellore, whose answer scripts went missing, on May 3.
Dates for advanced supplementary May 16: Physics, classical language May 17: Second language May 18: English May 19: Maths-A, botany, civics, psychology May 21: Maths-B, zoology, history May 22: Chemistry, commerce, sociology, fine arts, music May 23: Economics May 24: Geology, home science, public administration, logic, geography, bridge course maths (for BiPC) May 25: Modern language