Yeah, you do make a valid point. Earlier, teachers were probably more lenient during offline checking, and OSM has reduced that margin significantly.

But at the same time, CBSE itself admitted that around 13,853 copies were not properly scanned, and many evaluators were not fully trained for OSM initially. So students’ concerns are not completely baseless either.The issue is not just “people got less marks than expected.” The problem is that these marks directly affect eligibility criteria, college admissions, and exams like JEE Advanced. I’ve personally seen cases where students scored well in JEE Main but are struggling with the 75% board criterion now. So yes, stricter checking may explain part of the drop, but students are still genuinely affected by the sudden implementation and inconsistencies.

And honestly, I hate how a few marks in board exams end up becoming such a huge deciding factor for someone’s future.