CBSE Class 10 Compartment Exam 2027: Dates, Rules and 3 Years of Results

If your result says compartment, you have about four weeks, not two months, so revision starts the day the result comes out.

TL;DR

• Class 10 compartment candidates write in the May second board exam, under the compartment category of CBSE's notification of 14 February 2026.
• 2026: 1,49,822 appeared in the compartment category and 78,503 passed (52.40%). The pass rate was 48.68% in 2025 and 48.83% in 2024.
• The gap from the main result to the first compartment paper fell from 63 days in 2024 and 2025 to 30 days in 2026.
• A student absent in three or more subjects of the main exam cannot write in May and is placed in the Essential Repeat category.
• CBSE has not released the 2027 date sheet as of 3 November 2026.

What is the CBSE Class 10 compartment exam 2027?

Until 2025, Class 10 students who failed a subject wrote a supplementary exam in July. In 2026 CBSE started two board exams for Class 10. The first, in February and March, is compulsory. The second, in May, does two jobs: it lets passed students improve up to three subjects, and it is where compartment students clear the subject they failed.

This post deals only with the compartment side. For the improvement rules and the better-of-two score, read our guide to how the two CBSE Class 10 board exams work.

For 2027 the Class 10 compartment exam is the May board exam, and there is no separate July sitting.

Who can write the compartment exam in May?

CBSE's notification of 14 February 2026 lists who may appear in the second exam. Read against your main-exam result, it works out like this:

• Result says compartment: write the failed subject in May under the compartment category. The notice names first-chance and third-chance compartment candidates.
• Compartment in one subject and unhappy with marks in another: apply under compartment plus improvement and write both.
• Absent in three or more subjects of the main exam: you cannot write in May. CBSE places you in Essential Repeat, and you write the main exam the next February.

The notice has a fourth group, for improvement after a subject replacement. It is covered in the two-exam guide linked above.

How a subject is marked as failed, with theory and internal marks checked separately, is in our post on CBSE passing marks.

A compartment student who appeared in the main exam goes to May; a student who missed three or more papers waits until the next February.

How have Class 10 compartment results changed from 2024 to 2026?

I put the last three years side by side, because no single notice shows them together. The day count runs from the main result to the first compartment paper.

• 2024: main result 13 May, compartment exam from 15 July (63 days later), 1,30,818 appeared, 63,878 passed, 48.83%, result on 5 August.
• 2025: main result 13 May, compartment exam from 15 July (63 days later), 1,38,898 appeared, 67,620 passed, 48.68%, result on 5 August.
• 2026: main result 15 April, second board exam from 15 May (30 days later), 1,49,822 appeared in the compartment category, 78,503 passed, 52.40%, result on 18 July.

Source: CBSE press release of 18 July 2026 for the 2026 figures and the 2025 pass rate; Careers360 reports of CBSE's 2024 supplementary result and 2025 supplementary result; day counts by Gradehunt analysis.

What do these numbers tell a parent?

The prep window halved, yet the pass rate went up by 3.72 points. More students sat too: 10,924 more than in 2025. The result also came out on 18 July, 18 days earlier in the calendar than the 5 August result of 2025.

One year of the new system is a small sample, so I would not read the higher pass rate as a promise for 2027. Compartment candidates were also 22.6% of the 6,63,777 students who appeared in the May 2026 exam. The other 5,13,955 wrote for improvement.

One more detail. News reports of the 15 April result put the number placed in compartment at about 1.47 lakh, a little below the 1,49,822 who wrote in May. The May category also admits earlier-year candidates on their third chance, which fits that gap. Once the May results were added, the overall Class 10 pass rate for 2026 rose from 93.70% to 96.78%.

Under the May system, compartment students in 2026 had 30 days instead of 63, and 52.40% of them passed.

When will the 2027 compartment exam be held?

CBSE has not released the 2027 date sheet as of 3 November 2026. The 2026 calendar ran like this: main exam 17 February to 11 March, main result 15 April, second exam 15 to 21 May, second-exam result 18 July. If CBSE keeps the same pattern, the compartment papers will fall in mid-May 2027, but treat that as an expectation until the date sheet is out.

Students do not apply on their own. Your school submits your name in the list of candidates (LOC). In 2026 the first LOC window opened on 18 March, before the results, and a short window followed the results. Careers360's report of the LOC schedule put the fee at Rs 320 per subject for students in India.

Expect mid-May 2027 if CBSE repeats 2026, and give your school your subject the same week the result is out.

How should a compartment student use the 30 days?

This is how I would plan the four weeks for one failed subject:

1. Read the marksheet the day the result comes out and note whether the theory paper, the internal marks or both fell short.
2. Tell the class teacher the same week so the school includes you in the LOC.
3. Write one full past board paper in three hours every two or three days, about ten papers in all. For Maths, start with our CBSE Class 10 Maths past papers with solutions.
4. Mark each paper against the official solution, list the steps where marks were lost, and redo only those questions the next day.
5. Keep the last four days for revision of formulas, maps or diagrams, with no new chapters.

In the board copies I check, a student who has failed a subject usually loses marks through unfinished answers and skipped steps more than through chapters never read. Timed writing fixes that faster than rereading.

With four weeks, timed past papers marked step by step do more for a compartment student than another round of reading.

For the papers themselves, Gradehunt's CBSE Class 10 previous year question papers cover the board exams of 2016 to 2026 (the 2021 exams were cancelled), sorted chapter-wise with step-by-step solutions and the year on every question. They cost Rs 199 per subject, so a student with one compartment subject buys only that one.