CBSE Open Book Assessment: CBSE will conduct open book exam in class 9, what is this? Know the whole matter..

CBSE Open Book Exam: CBSE is preparing to start the board Open Book Assessment (OBA) from session 2026-27. In this, students will be able to see books, class notes, and library books during the exam. The purpose behind this is that students should understand, analyze, and apply critical thinking instead of rote learning. This decision has been taken after the results of the pilot study started in December 2023 and the positive attitude of the teachers. Main subjects like language, mathematics, science, and social science will be included in it. Earlier, such an experiment was done in 2014, but it was stopped in 2017.

Open book examination is a method that focuses on analyzing, understanding, and using students instead of rote learning. According to NCFSE, in the open-book test, students are allowed to use course books, class notes, and library books while answering.

Decision taken after pilot study

In December 2023, CBSE started a pilot study of open book assessment for classes 9th to 12th. The performance of the students in this showed that their marks were between 12 percent and 47 percent, which showed that the students were facing challenges in using course books, class notes, and library books.

Teachers showed a positive attitude towards this initiative. Teachers hope that this method will promote critical thinking among students.

Despite some challenges in the pilot study, seeing the positive attitude of the teachers, the governing body has approved this proposal. Now, CBSE will work on preparing sample papers for open-book examination.

OTBA was discontinued in 2017
This is not the first time CBSE has used an open-book examination. Earlier in 2014, the board had introduced Open Text-Based Assessment (OTBA) to reduce the habit of rote learning. It was implemented for Hindi, English, Mathematics, Science, and Social Science in class IX, but then it was discontinued in 2017-18, saying that it was not successful in developing critical thinking skills in students.

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