Why do you have to sit a test exam?

The test exam is the institution’s own check, and its outcome decides who may fill in the board examination form. The marks do not add to the board result, true — but failing it can keep you out of the board exam altogether. Its importance is not in the score; it is in the gate.

The reasoning behind it is worth understanding. The institution wants to see whether a student has covered the syllabus and is ready to sit the board exam. Catching a lack of preparation early is better for the student than discovering it by failing the real thing.

Attendance is bound up with it too. Many institutions weigh class attendance alongside the test result when deciding eligibility, so a year of irregular attendance turns into a problem at exactly the wrong moment.

In practice the most useful way to take it is as a rehearsal — same time limit, same kind of paper, similar pressure. Where you run out of time and which chapters are weak show up here, while there is still time to fix them.