HSC Chemistry Questions Had No Mistakes; Dhaka Education Board
The Dhaka Board of Secondary and Higher Education has rejected claims that the HSC and equivalent Chemistry Second Paper question paper contained errors. Board officials said the allegations circulating after the examination are not correct and confirmed that answer scripts will be evaluated according to the official marking guidelines.
The HSC Chemistry Second Paper examination was held on Wednesday, July 22. After the exam, some students and other concerned parties claimed that several questions in the creative section contained mistakes. They said the alleged problems created confusion and mental pressure during the examination.
According to the claims, the concerns were related to the stimulus materials used in Questions 1, 5, 6, and 8 of the question paper.
However, a senior official of the Dhaka Board dismissed those allegations. Speaking to the media on Sunday, July 26, the official, who requested anonymity, said there were no errors in the questions.
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The official explained that creative questions are designed to assess four areas: knowledge, comprehension, application, and higher-order thinking skills. While many students can answer the first three types of questions, higher-order questions are intentionally more challenging because they measure analytical and problem-solving abilities.
According to the official, these questions are not expected to be easy for every examinee. Difficulty alone should not be treated as evidence of an error in the question paper.
The board also rejected claims shared on social media. The official said the discussion has no factual basis and alleged that some coaching centre operators are creating unnecessary confusion. According to the official, they may be doing so because the examination questions did not match the topics they had prepared students for.
The official added that nearly 1.2 million students are taking this year's HSC and equivalent examinations, including about 800,000 students from the science group. Despite the large number of candidates, the board said it has not received any significant complaints from examinees regarding the Chemistry Second Paper.
The Dhaka Board said the quality of the question paper was satisfactory and maintained that there were no errors. It also confirmed that chief examiners and examiners will follow the published evaluation guidelines when assessing answer scripts, including the questions that became the subject of discussion.