CBSE Class 12 Maths Syllabus 2026-27: Chapter-wise Topics, Marks and Changes

The Class 12 part of CBSE's 2026-27 Mathematics (041) curriculum PDF matches the 2025-26 version word for word. Only the session label has changed. If you began Class 12 with last year's syllabus, nothing has been added or dropped. You can open the official PDF from CBSE's 2026-27 curriculum page.

CBSE Class 12 Maths syllabus 2026-27: units, chapters and marks

• Unit I, Relations and Functions (8 marks): Relations and Functions, Inverse Trigonometric Functions.
• Unit II, Algebra (10 marks): Matrices, Determinants.
• Unit III, Calculus (35 marks): Continuity and Differentiability, Applications of Derivatives, Integrals, Application of the Integrals, Differential Equations.
• Unit IV, Vectors and Three-dimensional Geometry (14 marks): Vectors, Three-dimensional Geometry.
• Unit V, Linear Programming (5 marks): Linear Programming.
• Unit VI, Probability (8 marks): Probability.

The 2024-25 curriculum was the last one to print teaching periods. It gave Algebra 50 of the 240 periods for only 10 marks, and Calculus 80 periods for 35 marks. If your school spends weeks on matrices, put extra hours of your own into calculus.

This page covers Mathematics (041). Applied Mathematics is a separate subject with its own syllabus.

Chapter-wise marks in the CBSE 2026-27 sample paper

CBSE fixes marks only unit by unit. To see how a unit splits across its chapters, we matched all 38 questions of the 2026-27 sample paper to a chapter. For Q23, where the two options come from different chapters, we counted option (a). Q26 mixes a matrix product with an inverse, and we put it under Matrices.

• Integrals: 9 marks (Q12, 19, 21, 33)
• Three-dimensional Geometry: 9 marks (Q23, 30, 36)
• Continuity and Differentiability: 8 marks (Q7, 8, 10, 22, 28)
• Applications of Derivatives: 8 marks (Q9, 27, 37)
• Probability: 8 marks (Q16 to 18, 35)
• Relations and Functions, Matrices, Determinants, Application of the Integrals, Differential Equations, Vectors and Linear Programming: 5 marks each
• Inverse Trigonometric Functions: 3 marks (Q1 to 3)

Source: CBSE Class 12 Mathematics sample question paper and curriculum for 2026-27 (cbseacademic.nic.in), Gradehunt analysis.

What the count tells you:

• Integration in all its forms (Integrals plus Application of the Integrals) is worth 14 marks. Differentiation, both chapters together, is worth 16.
• Relations and Functions came as a single 5-mark question in Section D. Skip the chapter and those 5 marks go in one go.
• Inverse trigonometric functions were three one-mark MCQs, on a graph, a domain and a principal value. That is exactly where the syllabus stops for this chapter.
• All three case studies use core methods: shortest distance between lines (Q36), maxima by the second derivative test (Q37) and solving equations by matrix inverse (Q38).

CBSE's question paper design also says there is no chapter-wise weightage, so the board paper can move marks between chapters inside a unit. Use the count above to plan revision, not to drop chapters.

What changed in the Class 12 Maths syllabus for 2026-27

Nothing, compared with 2025-26. The last real change came in 2025-26, when three things changed against the 2024-25 curriculum:

• Probability lost "random variable and its probability distribution, mean of random variable". The chapter now ends at Bayes' theorem.
• Continuity and Differentiability gained the words "derivative of composite functions", alongside the chain rule.
• The curriculum stopped listing periods for each chapter.

Topics that are not in the CBSE Class 12 Maths syllabus

Many older guides still list topics that the 2026-27 curriculum text does not include. Do not spend revision time on these:

• Rolle's theorem and Lagrange's mean value theorem
• Tangents and normals, and approximations
• Binary operations, and composition and invertibility of functions
• Properties of inverse trigonometric functions (only definition, domain, range, principal value branch and graphs are listed)
• Equations of a plane, angle between planes and distance of a point from a plane
• Random variables, mean and variance, and the binomial distribution

One caution on area. The syllabus says "area under simple curves". Yet both options of the 2026-27 sample paper's Q34 ask for the area of a region bounded by a curve and a line. Practise those regions too.

How the 20 internal assessment marks are given

• Periodic tests, 10 marks: schools hold three pen-and-paper tests, suggested for July-August, November and December-January. The best two are averaged.
• Mathematics activities, 10 marks: any 10 activities from the NCERT Class 12 lab manual over the year. The year's activities and their record carry 5 marks, a year-end activity test 3 and the viva 2.

The theory paper sets 44 of its 80 marks on remembering and understanding, 20 on applying, and 16 on analysing, evaluating and creating. The curriculum promises 33% internal choice. In the sample paper, the choices sit in Sections B to E: 2 of the 5 questions in B, 3 of 6 in C, 2 of 4 in D and one sub-part in 2 of the 3 case studies. The 20 one-mark questions in Section A have none.

Using the syllabus with past papers

Tick off each chapter once you can solve its NCERT exercises and exemplar problems, then move to timed board papers. Our CBSE Class 12 Maths past papers post has the 2020 and 2022 to 2026 board papers with solutions, the paper pattern and the time to give each question.

To find out which chapters still cost you marks, take the Gradehunt CBSE Class 12 Maths test series. You write each paper by hand, upload it and get it back within 48 hours, checked step-wise by subject experts with remarks on every answer.