This year's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams are likely to start on August 22 with curtailed syllabus and fewer marks than usual. Students will have two hours to write the exams – 20 minutes for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and 1 hour and 40 minutes for creative questions (CQs). This year's exams will kick off with the Bangla first paper followed by Bangla second paper. The schedule, signed by Professor SM Amirul Islam, convener of the board's Examination Regulatory Committee and controller of examinations of Dhaka Education Board, was released Sunday. Typically, students would take a 3-hour test for 100 marks. However, taking stock of the learning losses students suffered during the pandemic, the syllabi and exams have been shortened. However, even though students will sit for tests with fewer marks – 45 to 55 – their final mark will be converted out of 100 during the evaluation. Usually, HSC exams take place in April. The pandemic has forced the government to depart from the usual schedule. In 2021, following the resumption of in-person classes, HSC candidates sat for tests in December on only three optional subjects with a shortened syllabus and fewer marks than usual. HSC exams were not held in 2020 due to the pandemic; students were evaluated based on their results in previous public exams. Also read: Next year SSC in Apr, HSC in June: Dipu Moni