Hyderabad/Amaravati, Apr 3 (IANS): Over 11 lakh students appeared for the class 10 exams, which began in both the Telugu states on Monday.

Over 6 lakh students in Andhra Pradesh and nearly 5 lakh students in Telangana wrote the exam.

The exams started at 9.30 a.m. and continued till 12.30 p.m. in Telangana, while in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, students were allowed to write the exam till 12.45 p.m..

From this year, the Telangana Board of Secondary School Education reduced the number of exam papers from 11 to six.

A total of 4,94,620 students appeared for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams in Telangana.

Authorities arranged 2,652 exam centres. The exams will continue till April 13.

In Andhra Pradesh, as many as 6.64 lakh students appeared for the examination at 3,349 centres.

Road Transport Corporation provided free travel facility by its buses for students to enable them to reach the exam centres.

Students were allowed into the exam centres from 8.30 a.m. They were not allowed after 9.30 a.m.

Students are not permitted to carry any electronic gadgets into the exam centres. No one, including the chief superintendent of examinations, was allowed to carry mobile phones into the examination centres. Other gadgets, such as laptops, tablets, cameras, smart watches and Bluetooth devices, are also prohibited.

In Andhra Pradesh, officials made arrangements to detect any leak of question papers on social media platforms before and during the examination.

In view of similar irregularities reported last year, the authorities had warned that strong action will be taken against those indulging in malpractices.

The Class 10 examinations in Andhra Pradesh were being conducted in seven mediums -- Telugu, English, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu and Odia.