Restless before, at ease after: TN students share their experience of attempting offline Class XII exams 

Stress was writ large on G Aakash's face as he was waiting outside an exam centre in Velachery to write. The Class XII student was biting his nails and restlessly flipping through the pages of his book.

Not just Aakash, almost all students waiting outside the centre were in a similar state of mind as they are facing an offline board exam for the first time. They couldn't physically appear for their Class X exam owing to the pandemic. "Board exams are scary and I am more worried as I will be writing a board exam for the first time. I am so nervous that I cannot express it in words," said Aakash.

Students, who appeared for their Class XII examination at Presidency Girls' Higher Secondary School in Egmore said they attended physical classes for only three months so they were not confident about attempting the paper. "Though the portions of the syllabus were reduced, the revision tests were not done properly. Moreover, I am worried if I would be able to finish my paper in time," said C Lekha Sri, a student.

After the exams, however, the students were in better spirits as many said the language paper was easy. "It was language paper (Tamil) and the questions were really easy. I managed to write all the answers," said Shalini K, a student.

"After writing today's paper, I am confident that I will be able to perform well in other exams as well," said S Saravanan, another student. Some students were also happy to break the 'COVID batch' stereotype, often used to mock students who did not appear for physical classes and exams.

A total of 8,37, 311 students appeared for the exam in 3,119 centres across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

At least 63 inmates, including seven women from central prisons, Special Prisons for Women, and borstal school in Pudukkottai, appeared for the board examination across the state. The State examination department had set up examination centres across eight central prisons for the inmates to write the exams.

Chief Educational Officer of Chennai S Mars said, "The first day of examination was smooth. No untoward incident was reported from any part of the city. No case of malpractice was reported,".

(With inputs from Subashini Vijayakumar)