Coping With Board Practical Exam

An essential part of the final examination of any board is the Practical exam of the respective subjects. Practical exams are often overlooked and ignored by the students. Students are engrossed in preparing for the theoretical subject and in the process; they completely ignore preparing for the practicals. In order to assure reliability of the results, combinations of quantitative and qualitative methods are used in the study. Moving out of the traditional forms of teaching, practical classes for Science subjects are a must in all schools nowadays. In CBSE Board, practical exams are worth 30 marks and it is mandatory for all the students to undertake it. But, students often are distraught when they are unable to find the desired result of the experiments. There are some experiments where we need to verify the theory using the result obtained, and if you don’t get the results right, all efforts go in vain.
Syllabus for Physics practical and its weightage:

• For the final examinations, two experiments are asked (each of 8 marks) one from each section given in the syllabus.

• Practical record book carries 6 marks. Make sure that you write all the experiments and activities sincerely and neatly in you record book.

• A project undertaken by the students carries 3 marks.

• Viva on experiments and projects carried 5 marks.

Here we give you some tips on how to master yourselves to perform Physics practical:

  1. For performing every experiment without error, thoroughly read the complete theory of that topic and make your concepts strong. The NCERT offers lab manual for the respective subjects and you can find the theories of all experiments in these books. In case there are any questions that remain unsolved, one can refer to the various online portals that provide NCERT solutions for Class 12 Physics.

  2. Before performing the practicals, you should make sure to be well versed with the name of the apparatus. Some of the commonly used apparatus in Physics practicals are ammeters, voltmeters, electrometers, oscilloscope, thermometers, calorimeter, glass prisms, spherical mirrors and lenses, wires and springs and pendulums. Have a fair idea of all the apparatus and their diagrams, working and principle. Each experiment is based on a principle of Physics. The student must know which experiment is based on which principle.Take a reference of cbse previous year question papers class 12 physics 2016.

  3. Formula and procedure of the experiment performed carries 5 marks. The formulae must be written and the terms involved should be explained with their respective units. In approximately 15 to 20 lines, explain the procedure of the experiment that has to be done. The procedure need not be written elaborately, but in brief. At the end of the result, write a minimum of 2 precautions that has to be observed while carrying out the experiment. And after taking 2 or 3 readings get it checked by the examiner. This will ensure that you carry out your further readings without any error.

  4. Study the graphs that would be obtained for each experiment. One of the most important parts of Physics practical examination is graphs. Understand and practice the graphs that are required for any given experiment.

  5. Prepare well for the viva. Browse through the conceptual questions related to the experiment. Be confident when you will answer the questions. There is no reason to get nervous or worry if you are unable to answer some of the questions. Maintain your confidence.

Finally, read the questions carefully. And never take your practical exams easy. If prepared and performed well, you can grab marks through them.