CBSE Class 10 Internal Assessment Marks 2026-27: Subject-wise Split

CBSE Class 10 internal assessment marks are 20 out of 100 in every main subject. Your school awards them, and they are added to your 80-mark board paper. In the 2026-27 syllabus, the 20 marks come in four parts of 5: a periodic test, multiple assessment, a portfolio and a subject enrichment activity. Maths is the one exception, where the test and multiple assessment are one 10-mark line.

Internal assessment is one-fifth of your Class 10 result, and you cannot improve it later, so the marks you earn in school this year are final.

TL;DR

• 20 internal marks plus 80 board marks in Maths, Science, Social Science and the languages.
• Four parts of 5 marks each; languages use the fourth part for listening and speaking.
• Schools hold three periodic tests and count the average of the best two.
• Eight Science and Social Science topics are tested only through internal assessment in 2026-27.
• The second board exam in May cannot change your internal marks.

How are the 20 internal marks split in each subject?

I went through the Class 10 syllabus file for each main subject on CBSE's 2026-27 curriculum page and wrote down the internal assessment lines. The order in each line is periodic test, multiple assessment, portfolio, then subject enrichment.

• English Language and Literature (184) and English Communicative (101): 5, 5, 5, and 5 for the assessment of listening and speaking.
• Hindi Course A (002) and Hindi Course B (085): 5, 5, 5, and 5 for shravan evam vachan, which is listening and speaking.
• Sanskrit (122): 5 for written periodic tests, 5, 5, and 5 for language activities in listening, speaking and writing.
• French (018): 5, 5, 5, and 5 for the assessment of speaking and listening.
• Mathematics Standard (041) and Basic (241): 10 for the pen-paper test and multiple assessment together, 5 for the portfolio and 5 for lab practicals.
• Science (086): 5, 5, 5, and 5 for practical work.
• Social Science (087): 5 for a pen-paper test, 5 for an interdisciplinary project, 5 for the portfolio, and 5 for a project on Consumer Rights, Social Issues or Sustainable Development.

Source: CBSE Class X syllabus files for 2026-27 (9 files, 10 subject codes), internal assessment lines compiled by Gradehunt. English refers to CBSE circular Acad-11/2019 for its split.

All six language files I checked use the fourth slot for listening and speaking. Every subject reaches 20 the same way, with Maths merging two lines.

What do the four parts of internal assessment mean?

Periodic tests

These are written tests in school. CBSE's 2026-27 curriculum asks schools to hold three in each subject and count the average of the best two, and at least one test has to be competency-based, with case studies or data questions.

Here is how that plays out. Say a student scores 28, 34 and 31 out of 40. The best two are 34 and 31, which average 32.5 out of 40, or 81.25%. If your school converts that in proportion to the 5-mark slot, it comes to about 4 marks. The weak first test drops out.

Multiple assessment

Quizzes, oral presentations, discussions, concept maps, debates, role play and exit cards. In Social Science this 5 is earned through an interdisciplinary project that joins a History, a Geography and an Economics chapter.

Portfolio

A file of your own classwork, assignments, reflections and achievements in the subject across the year. The curriculum says teachers should mark it on a rubric shared with students in advance, and that a few well-chosen pieces matter more than a thick file.

Subject enrichment

Practical work in Science, lab activities in Maths, a project in Social Science, and listening and speaking in the languages. The Science syllabus lists 14 experiments, five of them from Unit I, Chemical Substances.

Periodic tests are the only written part. The other 15 marks come from work you do across the year, and those marks are easy to lose through a missed deadline.

Which topics are tested only in internal assessment in 2026-27?

This part is easy to miss. The 2026-27 syllabus moves some topics out of the board paper and into school assessment. I counted eight across two subjects.

Science (3)

• Periodic Classification of Elements.
• Evolution, from acquired and inherited traits and speciation to fossils and human evolution.
• Electric motor, electromagnetic induction and electric generator.

Social Science (5)

• The Making of a Global World, subtopics 2 to 4.4, through the interdisciplinary project. Subtopics 1 to 1.3 stay in the board paper.
• The Age of Industrialisation, assessed in periodic tests only.
• Lifelines of National Economy, where the board paper tests only map pointing.
• Globalisation and the Indian Economy, except "What is Globalisation?" and the factors behind it, which stay in the board paper.
• Consumer Rights, as one of three project options.

Source: CBSE Science and Social Science syllabus files, Class X 2026-27, topics marked for formative, project or periodic assessment only, counted by Gradehunt.

My advice is to study these topics anyway. They come up in your school's tests and projects, and the Science ones help with the chapters around them.

Three Science topics and five Social Science topics are marked in school, not in the board paper.

Who sets and marks the internal assessment?

Your school does. Teachers set the periodic tests, run the activities, mark the portfolio and award the 20 marks. CBSE's curriculum says both parts are compulsory: no student is declared successful without completing the internal assessment and the board exam.

So a missed periodic test or an unsubmitted project is not a small thing. If you were ill on a test day, ask your teacher early how the school handles it, while there is still a third test to count.

Teachers award the internal marks, and CBSE will not declare a result without them.

How do internal marks combine with the board exam and the second exam?

Your internal score out of 20 is added to your board score out of 80 to give the subject total out of 100. How the 33% pass mark applies to that total is covered in our CBSE passing marks post.

The second board exam in May does not reopen the internal part. CBSE's circular of 17 March 2026, issued for the first second exam in May 2026, says there is no facility to improve internal assessment, because it is a yearlong exercise. A student who improves Maths from 52 to 64 out of 80 in May keeps the same internal marks, say 17, and the subject total moves from 69 to 81.

Who can sit the second exam, and which score counts, is in our post on the two board exams in 2027.

Board marks can be improved in May. Internal marks cannot.

How to make sure you get your full 20

1. Write every periodic test as if it counts, because two of the three will.
2. Keep your portfolio up to date each week, not in the last fortnight.
3. Do the Science practicals yourself and write the record on the same day.
4. Pick a Social Science project topic you can explain aloud, since viva and discussion are common in multiple assessment.
5. Practise speaking in English and your second language, out loud, for the listening and speaking marks.
6. Ask your teacher for the rubric before any project or portfolio is marked.

Treat the 15 non-test marks as homework you cannot skip.

Periodic tests and the board paper both reward answers written the way checkers mark them. Gradehunt's CBSE Class 10 test series gives you full board-pattern papers to write by hand and upload, and subject experts check them within 48 hours with step-wise marks and comments. Your first paper is checked free.