ISC Class 12 English Literature Question Paper 2025 and Past Papers with Solutions

The 2026 and 2025 papers in the table are set on the texts you will write about in 2027: Macbeth, Prism and Rhapsody. Papers from 2020 to 2024 were set on older texts, mainly The Tempest, Echoes and Reverie, which are no longer prescribed.

Which ISC English Literature papers match the 2027 syllabus

CISCE's syllabus for the ISC 2027 exam keeps the same Class 12 texts that were examined in 2025 and 2026:

• Drama: Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Acts III, IV and V only.
• Prism (short stories): Atithi, The Cookie Lady, There Will Come Soft Rains, Indigo and The Medicine Bag.
• Rhapsody (poems): Telephone Conversation, Tithonus, Beethoven, Small Towns and the River, and Death be not Proud.

So use the 2026 and 2025 papers for content, and the older papers only to practise timing and answer length. The official list is in the ISC 2027 regulations and syllabus on cisce.org, and our ISC Class 12 English Literature syllabus guide covers the texts in detail.

One thing to check with your school: the ISC 2027 syllabus also lists Modern English (subject 891), which cannot be taken with English (801). It has different texts, including Pygmalion, so the papers on this page do not apply to it. Its 2027 specimen paper is on CISCE's ISC 2027 specimen page.

ISC Class 12 English Literature paper pattern

• Theory paper: 80 marks, 3 hours, plus 15 minutes of reading time. Project work adds 20 marks.
• Section A (20 marks): Question 1 has ten one-mark multiple-choice questions. Question 2 asks you to finish ten sentences with a reason, one mark each.
• Section B (60 marks): Question 3 on Macbeth, Question 4 on Prism and Question 5 on Rhapsody, 20 marks each.
• Each Section B question has two 5-mark answers of 100 to 150 words and one 10-mark answer of 200 to 250 words. Only the 10-mark answer gives you a choice.

The latest official specimen for English Paper 2 is the 2025 one, with its answer key, on CISCE's ISC 2025 specimen page. The 2027 specimens CISCE has posted do not include a new English Paper 2. The texts are unchanged, and the 2025 board paper followed the specimen format question for question.

Marks per text in ISC English Literature

Counting every mark in CISCE's 2025 specimen paper and in the actual 2025 board paper gives an identical split:

• Macbeth: 28 of 80 marks (8 in Section A, 20 in Section B).
• Prism short stories: 26 marks (6 in Section A, 20 in Section B).
• Rhapsody poems: 26 marks (6 in Section A, 20 in Section B).
• Marks with no choice at all: 50 of 80. That is all of Section A plus the six 5-mark answers.
• Marks tagged "Recall" in the specimen: only 9 of 80. The rest are tagged Understanding, Interpret, Analysis or Evaluate.
• Writing in Section B: about 1,200 to 1,650 words in total within the set limits.
• Time: 180 minutes for 80 marks is about 2 minutes 15 seconds a mark, so roughly 22 minutes for a 10-mark answer and 11 for a 5-mark one.

Source: CISCE ISC Specimen Question Paper 2025 (English Paper 2) and the ISC 2025 English Paper 2, Gradehunt analysis.

The takeaway: knowing the plot gets you very few marks. Most of the paper asks why a character acts, what an image does, or whether you agree with a view, and you have to back it up from the text.

Which texts came in the 2025 paper and the specimen

• Macbeth: 28 marks in both. The specimen's Section B asked about Malcolm, power, and Macbeth's "lost battle" or Lady Macbeth; the 2025 paper asked about Lady Macduff, the sleepwalking scene, and Malcolm's kingly qualities or the minor characters.
• Atithi: a 10-mark choice in both papers.
• The Medicine Bag: a 5-mark answer in the specimen, a 10-mark choice in 2025.
• There Will Come Soft Rains: a 10-mark choice in the specimen, a 5-mark answer in 2025.
• The Cookie Lady: a 5-mark answer in the specimen, only a one-mark item in 2025.
• Indigo and Small Towns and the River: one mark each in the specimen, then a 5-mark answer each in 2025.
• Telephone Conversation, Tithonus and Beethoven: a 5-mark or 10-mark question in both papers.
• Death be not Proud: a 10-mark choice in the specimen, not set at all in 2025.

Every one of the eleven texts carried marks in at least one of the two papers, and the weight of a text moved from one paper to the next. No text is safe to skip.

Where marks are lost in ISC Literature answers

• Going past the word limit. The paper tells you not to exceed it in Section B.
• Covering one of the two prompts in a 5-mark question and ignoring the other. Each 5-mark question lists two points to include.
• Writing more than one option in Question 1, or copying out the sentence in Question 2. Both are against the paper's instructions.
• Opinions with no support. CISCE's answer key accepts other interpretations only when they are supported by textual evidence.
• Macbeth answers that bring in Acts I and II. Class 12 questions refer to "the Acts studied", which are III to V.

How to practise with these papers

• Write the 2025 paper first, in one sitting of three hours, then mark it with the solution.
• Next, write the 2025 specimen from cisce.org. Together the two papers touch all eleven texts. The 2026 paper in the table is the next step; its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved PYQ set.
• Use the 2020 to 2024 papers only to time your 5-mark and 10-mark answers. The 2022 papers are shorter semester papers.
• Count your words after each long answer until you can stay inside 100 to 150 and 200 to 250 without counting.

Literature answers are hard to mark yourself, because the solution shows one good answer, not where yours fell short. Gradehunt's ISC Class 12 test series includes English Literature papers, checked by subject experts within 48 hours of upload.