A large number of examinees of the ongoing 2005 Higher Secondary, who wrote their physics test on Friday, complained of ?extremely difficult? questions.

Soon after the examination started at 10 am, there was confusion among students at many venues when they found that several questions did not match what they were taught in class.

?The questions in today?s physics paper were the toughest of all Higher Secondary physics tests held in the past few years,? a senior teacher of physics of a south Calcutta school commented after the examinations.

Teachers of other schools claimed the questions on mechanics, carrying 20 marks, were the most difficult.

?Most of the questions on mechanics were of such a high standard that only B.Sc students will be able to answer them,? they said.

Students alleged that apart from the mechanics section, some more questions, carrying about 55 marks, were also ?extremely difficult? for average students.

?It is going to be difficult for many brilliant performers to score more than 50 per cent marks in the physics paper this time,? complained Arindam Mukherjee, a student who wrote the examination in a school in the Ballygunge area.

Students also complained that some short-answer questions were ?out of syllabus?.

For instance, they said, they were taught only the theories of certain topics. But they were asked to solve sums based on those topics in Friday?s question paper.

Earlier last week, Higher Secondary examinees had complained of difficult questions in the mathematics and chemistry papers as well.

Prithwis Basu, president, Headmasters? Association of West Bengal, urged the authorities of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education to be more careful about setting questions papers.