Internal assessment / oral and project work
Internal assessment covers oral work and project work: recitation, reading aloud, oral comprehension, simple Sanskrit conversation and a project file. Marks are awarded in school under board guidelines, so confirm the current split and rubric with your teacher.
Oral component
- Recitation (śloka-pāṭha): learn two or three prescribed verses with correct metre, syllable length and pause; the examiner listens for chandas, not speed.
- Reading aloud: read a prescribed or unseen passage with correct sandhi joins and visarga.
- Comprehension: answer short questions in Sanskrit; reuse the question's own words when unsure.
- Conversation: prepare a self-introduction (nāma, grāma/nagara, vidyālaya, priya-viṣaya) and a few daily sentences.
Project work
- Choose a defined topic - a poet, a text, a Sanskrit inscription, ślokas on one theme, or Sanskrit in signboards and inscriptions around you.
- Structure: title page, aim, method, content (2–4 pages), conclusion, bibliography listing what you actually used.
- Handwritten, illustrated, referenced work scores over downloaded printouts; process and originality are marked.
Worked example
If you recite an anuṣṭubh, mark the eight syllables in each quarter and the caesura before reciting. A verse read as prose breaks the metre and loses recitation marks even when every word is correct - practise aloud with a steady clap or beat.
Traps
- Reciting from memory with wrong vowel length (short sung for long).
- A project with no aim, conclusion or bibliography.
- Answering oral questions in English when Sanskrit is expected.
- Copying text verbatim without understanding - viva questions expose it immediately.