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Just a few months after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said it was planning to start its Class 10 and Class 12 examinations a month earlier than usual from 2018, the board on Tuesday said it has scrapped the plan and will hold the finals for both the classes from the first week of March.

Errors in CBSE results: Verification by students reveals huge discrepancies in marks

The CBSE had planned to start the board examinations a month earlier in order to carry out "error-free evaluation".

The board is now making efforts to reduce the duration of the examinations, which span more than 40 days. Currently, the exams begin on March 1 and end around April 20.

"We are hoping to start the exams by March first week. Due to Holi the exam might not start from March 1 but these things are being finalised. We are trying to conduct the exam in a shorter time period to give the evaluation process more time," a senior CBSE official was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

The CBSE had mulled advancing of the exam date in order to invest more time in the checking of the answer sheets, because huge discrepancies were found in the marks of a few students who had applied for verification.

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When these students ended up scoring more after what was initilly awarded to them, hundreds of students made a beeline for the board's divisional office to get their subject marks verified.

Though in June the board had said the examinations would conclude over just one month, it has now said it is yet to fix a reduced timeframe.

Meanwhile, the CBSE has made it is compulsory for all Class 10 students to answer the board exams.

Students earlier had the option to choose between the board exam or school assessment.