, PREFACE
With a growing emphasis on competency-based education globally, the educational landscape
in India has also steered towards high-quality learning experiences that allow learners to
incorporate critical thinking and problem-solving approaches. This approach goes beyond rote
memorisation and focuses on developing the skills and knowledge that students need to apply
in their real-world scenarios.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), as a national-level
progressive examination board, has taken several steps to infuse competency-based education
in CISCE schools through teacher capacity-building on item development for competency-
based assessments and the incorporation of competency-focused questions at the ICSE and ISC
levels from the examination year 2024.
To further facilitate the adoption of competency-based assessment practices in schools and to
support teachers and students towards the preparation for attempting higher-order thinking
questions in future board examinations, Item Banks of Competency-Focused Practice
Questions for selected subjects at the ICSE and ISC levels have been developed. This Item
Bank consists of a rich variety of questions, both objective and subjective in categories, aimed
at enhancing the subject-specific critical and analytical thinking skills of the students.
In this Item Bank, each question is accompanied by the topic and cognitive learning domain/s
that it intends to capture. The cognitive domains reflected in these questions include
understanding, analysis, application, evaluation and creativity, along with some questions of
the higher-order recall domain. The Answer Key at the end presents the possible answers to a
given question, but it is neither limiting nor exhaustive.
These practice questions are also meant to serve as teacher resources for classroom assignments
and as samplers to develop their own repository of competency-focused questions. Apart from
offering a good practice of higher-order thinking skills, engaging with these questions would
allow students to gauge their own subject competencies and use these assessments for learning
to develop individual learning pathways.
During the development of this Item Bank, a large pool of questions was prepared by a team
of experienced CISCE teachers. The questions that were finalised by the internal and external
reviewers as being higher-order competency-focused questions have been collated in this item
bank.
I acknowledge and appreciate all the ICSE and the ISC subject matter experts who have
contributed to the development and review of these high-quality competency-focused questions
for CISCE students.
We are hopeful that teachers and students will utilise these questions to support their teaching-
learning processes.
July 2024 Dr. Joseph Emmanuel
Chief Executive & Secretary
CISCE
,Physics ICSE - Class X
Table of Contents
Type of Questions Pg. No
I. Multiple-Choice Questions 2-15
II. Very Short Answer Questions 15-22
III. Short Answer Questions 23-30
IV. Long Answer Questions 31-37
Answer Key 38-49
ICSE Competency-Focused Practice Questions 1
, Physics ICSE - Class X
COMPETENCY-FOCUSED PRACTICE QUESTIONS
ICSE - CLASS X
Physics
I: Multiple Choice Questions (1 Mark Each)
S.No. Questions
1. [Light]
When light enters from air to glass, it bends toward the normal. If red, blue, and yellow
colours are allowed to enter the same glass block at the same angle of incidence, then for
which colour, the value of ∠𝑖 − ∠𝑟, be greater?
(a) green
(b) red
(c) blue
(d) yellow [Understanding & Application]
2. [Light]
Assertion (A): When light passes through a triangular prism, it is observed that for two
angles of incidence, the angle of deviation is the same.
Reason (R): According to the principle of reversibility, the light retraces the path in
reversing the direction.
(a) A and R are true, and R is the reason for A.
(b) A and R are true, and R is not the reason for A.
(c) A is true, but R is false.
(d) A is false, but R is true. [Understanding & Analysis]
ICSE Competency-Focused Practice Questions 2
With a growing emphasis on competency-based education globally, the educational landscape
in India has also steered towards high-quality learning experiences that allow learners to
incorporate critical thinking and problem-solving approaches. This approach goes beyond rote
memorisation and focuses on developing the skills and knowledge that students need to apply
in their real-world scenarios.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), as a national-level
progressive examination board, has taken several steps to infuse competency-based education
in CISCE schools through teacher capacity-building on item development for competency-
based assessments and the incorporation of competency-focused questions at the ICSE and ISC
levels from the examination year 2024.
To further facilitate the adoption of competency-based assessment practices in schools and to
support teachers and students towards the preparation for attempting higher-order thinking
questions in future board examinations, Item Banks of Competency-Focused Practice
Questions for selected subjects at the ICSE and ISC levels have been developed. This Item
Bank consists of a rich variety of questions, both objective and subjective in categories, aimed
at enhancing the subject-specific critical and analytical thinking skills of the students.
In this Item Bank, each question is accompanied by the topic and cognitive learning domain/s
that it intends to capture. The cognitive domains reflected in these questions include
understanding, analysis, application, evaluation and creativity, along with some questions of
the higher-order recall domain. The Answer Key at the end presents the possible answers to a
given question, but it is neither limiting nor exhaustive.
These practice questions are also meant to serve as teacher resources for classroom assignments
and as samplers to develop their own repository of competency-focused questions. Apart from
offering a good practice of higher-order thinking skills, engaging with these questions would
allow students to gauge their own subject competencies and use these assessments for learning
to develop individual learning pathways.
During the development of this Item Bank, a large pool of questions was prepared by a team
of experienced CISCE teachers. The questions that were finalised by the internal and external
reviewers as being higher-order competency-focused questions have been collated in this item
bank.
I acknowledge and appreciate all the ICSE and the ISC subject matter experts who have
contributed to the development and review of these high-quality competency-focused questions
for CISCE students.
We are hopeful that teachers and students will utilise these questions to support their teaching-
learning processes.
July 2024 Dr. Joseph Emmanuel
Chief Executive & Secretary
CISCE
,Physics ICSE - Class X
Table of Contents
Type of Questions Pg. No
I. Multiple-Choice Questions 2-15
II. Very Short Answer Questions 15-22
III. Short Answer Questions 23-30
IV. Long Answer Questions 31-37
Answer Key 38-49
ICSE Competency-Focused Practice Questions 1
, Physics ICSE - Class X
COMPETENCY-FOCUSED PRACTICE QUESTIONS
ICSE - CLASS X
Physics
I: Multiple Choice Questions (1 Mark Each)
S.No. Questions
1. [Light]
When light enters from air to glass, it bends toward the normal. If red, blue, and yellow
colours are allowed to enter the same glass block at the same angle of incidence, then for
which colour, the value of ∠𝑖 − ∠𝑟, be greater?
(a) green
(b) red
(c) blue
(d) yellow [Understanding & Application]
2. [Light]
Assertion (A): When light passes through a triangular prism, it is observed that for two
angles of incidence, the angle of deviation is the same.
Reason (R): According to the principle of reversibility, the light retraces the path in
reversing the direction.
(a) A and R are true, and R is the reason for A.
(b) A and R are true, and R is not the reason for A.
(c) A is true, but R is false.
(d) A is false, but R is true. [Understanding & Analysis]
ICSE Competency-Focused Practice Questions 2
