A total of 35,563 candidates appeared for the Plus Two examinations, including 19,542 girls, which began today.

Of the total 35,867 candidates registered from Coimbatore and Pollachi there were 16,204 boys and 19,663 girls, while 331 candidates, including 211 girls, did not take the examinations, official sources said.

Out of the 1,271 private candidates (659 boys and 612 girls); 1,153 turned up for the examination, as 118 candidates, including 54 girls were absent.

A cross section of the students were of the opinion that Hindi and German were very easy and all questions were on expected lines, without any confusion..

Many students, particularly those from corporation schools expressed happiness since the question papers were easy.