cbse has proposed to conduct the pre announced test pat for the 2014 board exams for all subjects in class x and selected subjects in class xii education times talks to teachers and students to find out if this move will make the system more studentfriendly the purpose of the new format is to bring about a change in the learning process inside a classroom and make students creative the idea is that four months before the board exam students will be familiarised with concepts that will come in the exams for instance if a passage has a line saying vasudha goes to work five times a week and makes new software applications and handles various projects the question would be why does vasudha go to work the expected answer would be vasudha goes to work to make a living under pat the same passage would be taught to students four months before the exam and students will be expected to analyse various relevant questions that could be asked on the day of the cbse exam pat will not produce the passage but there will be questions based on it students would only need to adapt themselves to the new approach as far as the new approach is concerned teachers should encourage students vineet joshi chairman cbse the indian education system has not yet identified homogeneous groups of students we still have heterogeneous groups of students in our system so even though cbse is trying to be experimental its not possible to have such a system of openbook or modified version pat in place however if the board makes some variations like say from 100 marks questions of total 20 to 30 marks will be of openbook type the high percentage achievers might be able to attempt it students who are prepared for the exams are going to perform well and those who are not will suffer either way ragini arora principal ramjas school there is nothing like having the test available in advance however i think it is going to be challenging and will require students to exercise their analytical skills i would personally want to explore this examination format because it would demand ones reasoning skills and precision neha kaura student dps mathura road if the exam were actually an openbook exam it would be even better i dont think the new format of pat is going to work its only going to add more pressure on students apoorva thakur student kv tughlakabadcourtesy myeducationtimescom