Every teacher who sets papers across more than one board eventually builds the same mental spreadsheet: how many MCQs, how many shorts, how many longs, and in what ratio. The trouble is that the ratio is not one number — it shifts by board, and again between term and final papers. Hand-balancing it for every paper is where the Sunday evenings go.
The ratios, board by board
These are the working ratios we see most often for a standard science subject. Treat them as a starting blueprint, then nudge per subject — languages and humanities skew away from MCQs.
- Federal (FBISE): MCQs ~15%, short questions ~50%, long questions ~35%.
- Punjab: MCQs ~20%, shorts ~45%, longs ~35%.
- Sindh: MCQs ~17%, shorts ~48%, longs ~35%.
- KPK & Balochistan: MCQs ~18%, shorts ~47%, longs ~35%, with more chapter-spread on shorts.
Term vs final
Term papers almost always lean lighter on long questions and heavier on shorts — the board is sampling, not certifying. Lock the board ratio first, then apply a term-vs-final adjustment on top. Once the ratio is a setting rather than a calculation, the paper assembles itself.
Stop balancing MCQs by hand. Encode the ratio once, and every paper after that is a click.
Imran Ashraf
Imran sets papers across the Federal, Punjab, and Sindh boards. He focuses on the mechanics of fair, board-accurate question selection.
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