The examination is being held in 125 centres in Mumbai.

Sufiya Hassan, a candidate, said that the Hindi paper was not too bad. She added that she plans to take up the commerce stream and then do BMS (Bachelor of Management Studies).

Kiran Gokhale who appeared for the Marathi paper in Parle Tilak School said, “The Marathi paper was easy, although it was a bit long.” Another Marathi-medium student, Rishabh Nadkarny, said, “I do not like the time table. There are too many holidays in between.”

The examination will get over on March 31.

This year, there are two sets of exams — one for the old syllabus and the other for the new.

Vishwas Dumal, principal of Bhandup-based Marathi medium Shivaji Vidyamandir, said, “The pass percentage is likely to improve by 10- 20 per cent because of the introduction of the oral exams this year. This will help the students in scoring higher marks and subsequently increase their chances of getting into good colleges.”