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Math and Stats for Commerce? It’s intense. Linear programming, probability, matrices. It’s a lot to handle. Want to ace it? Past year papers are your best bet. They show the exam’s flow. Cost analysis, statistics. You’ll spot the pattern. No surprises on test day. Practice makes it stick. You’ll see what’s key. Regression, time series. It’s all there. Plus, you’ll get time management down. That’s huge.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board HSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam. Planning a commerce career after Class 12? Many students start with CA: see our CA Foundation test series and the CA course guide for after 12th.

Math and Stats for Science? It’s a beast. Calculus, vectors, probability. It’s a brain workout. Want to crush it? Past year papers are your go-to. They show the exam’s vibe. Integration, matrices, distributions. You’ll spot the pattern. No shocks on test day. Practice makes it click. You’ll see what’s important. Differentiation, binomial theorem. It’s all there. Plus, you’ll master time management. That’s key.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board HSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

Chemistry’s intense. Reactions, equations, organic stuff. It’s a lot to juggle. Want to ace it? Past year papers are your secret weapon. They show the exam’s flow. Mole concept, polymers, acids. You’ll spot the pattern. No surprises on test day. Practice makes it stick. You’ll see what’s key. Organic reactions, physical chemistry. It’s all there. Plus, you’ll get better at time management. That’s crucial.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board HSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

Physics is a beast. Mechanics, optics, electricity. It’s like sci-fi come to life. But those numericals? They can mess you up. Want to score big? Past year papers are your go-to. They show the exam’s vibe. Waves, circuits, magnetism. You’ll spot the hot topics. No shocks on test day. Practice makes it click. You’ll see what’s important. Kinematics, electrostatics, optics. It’s all there. Plus, you’ll master time management. That’s a big deal.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board HSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

English can be a wild card. Essays, comprehension, and grammar. It looks easy, but sneaks up on you. Want to nail it? Past year papers are your best friend. They show the exam’s flow. You’ll spot the key questions. Letters, poems, stories. No surprises when you sit down. Practice makes it smooth. You’ll see what the examiners want. Grammar rules, writing formats, literature bits. It’s all there. Plus, you’ll get a grip on time management. That’s huge.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board HSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

Social Sciences is like a time machine. History, geography, civics. It’s a lot to take in. Want to crush it? Past year papers are your go-to. They show the exam’s flow. Wars, maps, government systems. You’ll spot the big topics. No shocks when you start the test. Practice makes it all stick. You’ll see what’s important. Indian independence, climate zones, and democracy. It’s all there. Plus, you’ll get better at managing time. That’s a big deal.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board SSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

Science and Technology is awesome. Physics, chemistry, biology. It’s like exploring the universe. But those questions? They can trip you up. Want to score big? Past year papers are a lifesaver. They show the exam’s vibe. Circuits, reactions, ecosystems. You’ll spot the pattern. No surprises on test day. Practice makes it all stick. You’ll see what’s important. Optics, periodic table, genetics. It’s all there. Plus, you’ll get better at time management. That’s key.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board SSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

Math can be a wild ride. Some days it’s smooth. Others? Chaos. Want to ace it? Past year papers are your secret weapon. They show the exam’s flow. Algebra, geometry, and arithmetic. You’ll spot the big topics. No shocks when you open the paper. Practice makes those sums feel easier. You’ll see what’s tricky. Quadratic equations, coordinate geometry, and probability. It’s all there. Plus, you’ll learn to manage time. That’s a game-changer.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board SSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

English can be a sneaky one. Reading, writing, grammar. It sounds simple but piles up quick. Want to crush it? Past year papers are your best buddy. They show you how the exam rolls. Comprehension, essays, poems. You’ll spot the pattern. No curveballs when you sit down to write. Practice makes it all click. You’ll see what the examiners love. Grammar rules, letter formats, story questions. It’s all there. Plus, you’ll get a feel for time management. That’s huge.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board SSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

The table on this page has ISC Class 12 Physical Education (subject code 875) theory papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2020 and 2019. CISCE's own archive has no ISC papers for 2021 or 2022 either.

The 2026 row is Physical Education Paper 1 (code 875A) from the ISC 2026 main exam, taken from CISCE's official question paper archive. Its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved PYQ set. Every other year in the table comes with a solution.

For 2027, the syllabus sets a 3-hour theory paper of 70 marks, with 30 for practical work. Recent papers add 15 minutes of reading time.

Is there an ISC Physical Education specimen paper for 2026 or 2027?

No. CISCE released specimen papers for 2026 and for 2027 in selected subjects only, and Physical Education is not on either list (checked on 3 November 2026). The latest official Physical Education specimen, with its answer key, is the one marked ISC 2025.

Use it with the 2026 board paper. Both follow the same layout, and the ISC 2027 syllabus keeps the same nine games.

ISC Class 12 Physical Education paper pattern

• Section A, 15 marks: one question with 15 one-mark parts. MCQs, an assertion-reason item, fill in the blanks and one-line definitions.
• Section B, 25 marks: five questions of 5 marks each on the theory units. Questions 3 and 6 had an internal choice in both the specimen and the 2026 paper.
• Section C, 30 marks: nine questions of 15 marks, one for each game. You answer the questions on any two games.

The nine games are Cricket, Football, Hockey, Basketball, Volleyball, Badminton, Tennis, Swimming and Athletics.

Where the theory marks went: 2025 specimen vs 2026 paper

We tagged every question in Sections A and B (40 marks) of both papers to its syllabus unit. Marks inside an OR choice depend on the option you pick.

• Training Methods: 14 sure marks in the specimen (19 if you take the conditioning option in Question 6). In 2026 it was 9: four one-markers and a 5-mark question on a set of exercises shown in pictures.
• Competitions and Tournaments: 7 in the specimen, 5 of them for drawing a fixture of eight teams by the tabular method. In 2026 it was 8: one-markers on a fixture, byes and seeding, and a 5-mark question on tournaments with their merits and demerits.
• Health Education and Health Problems: 3 sure marks in the specimen, plus up to 10 from the options in Questions 3 and 6. In 2026 it rose to 9 sure marks, including a 5-mark case on a postural deformity, plus part of Question 3 whichever option you pick.
• Sports Injuries and First Aid: 4 in the specimen, plus part of one option in Question 3. In 2026 only 2, plus 5 if you pick the first aid in drowning option in Question 6.
• Career and Sociological Aspects: 1 mark each in the specimen. In 2026, Career had 2 one-markers plus part of Question 3, and Sociological Aspects came only as a Question 6 option.
• Skill mix, specimen only (the 2026 paper does not print skill labels): 22 of the 40 marks in Sections A and B are Recall. Application is worth 14 of the full 70 whatever games you choose: the 5-mark case in Question 4, the fixture in Question 5 and four 1-mark items in Section C.

Source: CISCE ISC Specimen Question Paper 2025 (Physical Education Paper 1), CISCE ISC 2026 Physical Education Paper 1 (875A) from the official archive, and the ISC 2027 Physical Education syllabus; Gradehunt analysis.

What to do with this: training methods and tournaments gave 21 of the 40 marks in the specimen and 17 in 2026, so revise those two units first. For each training method, know its meaning, procedure, merits and one sport it suits. Practise knock-out fixtures with byes and seeding, and league fixtures by the staircase and tabular methods. Then give Health Education real time, as its sure marks went from 3 to 9: posture, pollution, hygiene, disability and rehabilitation.

Every game question in Section C has the same shape

In the specimen, all nine game questions share one build. Part (i) is a 3-mark question and two 1-mark questions, mostly on what the referee or umpire will decide. Part (ii) is a 5-mark question with an OR choice. Part (iii) asks you to explain two terms for 5 marks. The 2026 Football and Cricket questions follow the same 3, 1, 1, 5 and 5 split.

For each of your two games, keep three lists: terms with a two-line meaning (sledging, held ball, alley, photo finish), officials' decisions for common fouls, and the duties of each official. Learn the field diagrams with measurements too: the specimen offered a discus sector option and the 2026 Cricket question a pitch diagram.

How to practise with these past papers

• Start with the 2026 paper, then 2025, 2024 and 2023, all in the table. Use 2020 and 2019 for extra questions on your two games.
• Write each paper in one sitting: 15 minutes of reading, then 3 hours of writing, answering only your two games in Section C.
• Check against the solution point by point. If a question asks for any four merits, write four clear points, not six thin ones.

Before you mark an answer as done, check for these gaps: fewer points than asked, a fixture with no byes or round numbers, a diagram with no measurements, and a term explained in one vague line.

How the 30 practical marks are split

• Teacher's continuous evaluation, 10 marks: file work on two games or activities (4), participation and performance through the year (3) and physical efficiency tests (3).
• Visiting examiner, 20 marks: physical efficiency tests (12), specialisation tests on two basic skills of your games or activities (6) and a viva on them (2).

CISCE sets no question paper for the practical. Physical efficiency tests carry 15 of the 30 marks. The six tests are a 50 m run, a standing long jump, a 1000 m run for boys or 600 m for girls, push-ups, a shuttle run and 60-second sit-ups, so train for them through the year.

ISC 2027 Physical Education exam date

As of 3 November 2026, CISCE has not published the ISC 2027 timetable, which will carry the Physical Education date.

Gradehunt's ISC Class 12 test series includes Physical Education, with chapter tests and full-syllabus mocks on the board pattern. Every answer sheet is checked step-wise by subject experts within 48 hours of upload.

For the unit-wise topic list, see our ISC Class 12 Physical Education syllabus page.

The ISC Class 12 Business Studies 2026 board paper is now the first row of the download table, taken from the CISCE archive library. Its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ). The rows below it, 2025, 2024, 2023, both 2022 semester papers and 2020, each come with a solution you can download free. There is no 2021 paper, because CISCE cancelled the ISC exams that year.

If you only have time for one paper before the 2027 exam, make it 2026. CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 lists the ISC subjects with new 2027 specimen papers, and Class 12 Business Studies is not on it. For subjects left off the list, the circular says the 2026 assessment structure continues.

ISC Business Studies 2026 question paper: pattern and marks

The theory paper is 80 marks in 3 hours, with 15 minutes of reading time before you start writing. Project work carries the other 20 marks. All 13 questions are compulsory:

• Section A, 16 marks: Question 1 has 16 one-mark parts. In 2026 that meant two direct questions, four fill in the blanks, two analogies, two MCQs, one pick-the-correct-statements item, one assertion-reason item and four true-or-false lines.
• Section B, 32 marks: eight questions of 4 marks each (Questions 2 to 9).
• Section C, 32 marks: four questions of 8 marks each (Questions 10 to 13).
• Internal choice: Questions 2 and 5 in Section B, and Question 11 in Section C. That puts 16 marks under choice and 64 marks with no choice at all.

Three hours for 80 marks works out to 2¼ minutes a mark: about 9 minutes for a 4-mark question and 18 for an 8-mark one. At that rate Section A is worth about 36 minutes, though one-word answers rarely need that long.

Unit-wise marks in the ISC 2026 Business Studies paper

We matched every part of the 2026 paper to the five Class 12 units in CISCE's Business Studies syllabus. Where a question had an internal choice, the range shows the lowest and highest marks a unit could carry, depending on what you pick:

• Human Resource Management: 35 fixed marks, 39 to 47 with choices
• Business Communication and Correspondence: 16 fixed marks, 16 to 24 with choices
• Globalisation and recent trends in business: 7 marks
• Business Regulators and Intermediaries: 5 marks
• Business Size and Finance: 1 fixed mark, 1 to 9 with choices

Source: CISCE ISC 2026 Business Studies (859) question paper and ISC Business Studies syllabus, Gradehunt analysis.

Human Resource Management carries 39 to 47 of the 80 marks, so roughly half the paper or more, whatever you pick. Four compulsory questions came from it alone: staff separation (suspension and exit interviews), hindrances to training, e-recruitment through internet and intranet, and an 8-mark question built on Maslow's pyramid. Three of the four parts of the pie-chart question on emerging HR trends did too.

Business Size and Finance is the odd one out. Without the optional parts it had a single mark, on crowdfunding. Partnership, and equity versus preference shares, appeared only as one side of a choice.

What else stood out in the 2026 paper

• An 8-mark drafting task. Question 12 asked for an email from a dance academy telling a selected choreographer that management has given final approval. Offer letters, enquiry, quotation and complaint letters are all on the syllabus, so practise the format of each.
• Visual questions. Question 8 gave a pie chart splitting a workforce into core working period (45%), permanent part-time (30%), work from home (20%) and retainership (5%). Question 13 showed Maslow's pyramid with the base level left blank.
• Short cases everywhere. A partnership formed on a verbal understanding, a switch from time rate to piece rate wages that upset the trade union, and a company raising capital under the securities market regulator's rules.
• Exact terms earn the one-mark answers: hygiene factors, situational leadership, refresher training, 360-degree appraisal.

Is there an ISC Business Studies specimen paper for 2027?

Not for Class 12. The 2027 specimen paper CISCE released in this subject is for ISC Class 11 Business Studies, and that is the one Class 11 students should practise. Class 12 students should treat the 2026 board paper as their model, because its structure is the one that applies in 2027.

How to practise with these papers

• Write the 2026 paper in three hours, by hand, at a single sitting. Mark it against the solution and note which unit each lost mark came from.
• Then do 2025, 2024 and 2023 the same way. Compare them with 2026 to see which HR chapters return year after year.
• Use the two 2022 semester papers for chapter practice. That year CISCE split the exam into two shorter papers, so do not use them for timing.
• Draft one letter or email each week. An 8-mark correspondence question is easy to lose on format alone.

The board questions from 2016 to 2026, the 2026 paper included, are worked out step by step and sorted chapter by chapter in Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ISC Class 12.

Taking other commerce subjects too? See the ISC Class 12 Accounts and Economics past papers.

The table below has ISC Class 12 Economics board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, both 2022 semesters and 2020. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy from the CISCE archive library, and its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved PYQ set; every other year comes with a solution. There is no 2021 paper: CISCE cancelled the ISC Class 12 exams on 1 June 2021 because of COVID-19.

CISCE's 2027 specimen paper for Economics, with its answer key, is on cisce.org. Do it and the 2026 paper before the board exam, because the 2027 specimen asks noticeably different questions from the older papers.

What changed in the ISC Economics 2027 specimen paper

CISCE tags every question in its specimen papers with the skill it tests, such as recall, understanding or evaluation. Adding up the marks behind those tags in the 2025 and 2027 Economics specimens shows where the paper is heading:

• Recall: 7 marks in 2025, 15 marks in 2027
• Understanding: 53 marks in 2025, 25 marks in 2027
• Application: 10 marks in 2025, 7 marks in 2027
• Analysis (including interpretation): 5 marks in 2025, 19 marks in 2027
• Evaluation: 5 marks in 2025, 10 marks in 2027
• Creation: 0 marks in 2025, 4 marks in 2027

Source: CISCE ISC Specimen Question Papers 2025 and 2027, Economics (856), Gradehunt analysis. Out of 80 marks; for internal choices, the first option is counted.

Put simply, questions that ask you to apply, analyse, evaluate or create were 20 of 80 marks in the 2025 specimen and 40 of 80 in 2027. Many of these give you a news extract, an RBI chart or a business case and ask you to judge it, defend a view or suggest a step.

The "explain" question has not disappeared, but it has shrunk to about a third of the paper. Recall has grown too, mostly through short definitions and an 8-mark question on the factors affecting elasticity and the slope of the supply curve, which are easy marks if you learn them word for word.

Which past papers match the 2027 format

• Theory paper: 80 marks, 3 hours, plus 15 minutes of reading time. Project work: 20 marks.
• Section A: 16 one-mark questions (MCQs, assertion-reason and very short answers), 16 marks.
• Section B: 8 short-answer questions of 4 marks each, 32 marks.
• Section C: 4 long-answer questions of 8 marks each, 32 marks.
• Internal choice in three Section B questions and two Section C questions. The 2025 specimen had choice in two and one.

The CISCE specimen papers for 2023 and 2025 use the same three sections and the same marks, and CISCE says the board paper follows the specimen format, so the 2023, 2024 and 2025 papers in the table are your best timed practice. The 2022 papers were written in two semesters and the 2020 paper is older, so use those three for topic practice.

When you sort past questions by unit, keep the 2027 syllabus split in mind: 40 marks for micro and 40 for macro, with National Income the biggest macro unit at 12 marks. Our ISC Class 12 Economics weightage post has the full unit-wise marks.

National Income also holds the main numerical. In the 2027 specimen it is a 4-mark calculation of GNP at market price and national income by the expenditure method, or income from entrepreneurship in the other option. The 2023 and 2025 specimens also have a national income sum, so practise this type in every past paper you solve.

How long to spend on each section

Three hours for 80 marks gives you about 2 minutes 15 seconds per mark.

• Section A (16 marks): about 35 minutes, or two minutes a question.
• Section B (32 marks): about 70 minutes, roughly 9 minutes for each 4-mark question.
• Section C (32 marks): about 70 minutes, roughly 18 minutes for each 8-mark question.

That leaves around five minutes to check. Use the reading time to pick your internal choices before you write, so you don't switch halfway through a question.

Diagrams and real data in the 2027 paper

Depending on the choices you make, 14 to 16 of the 80 marks need a diagram you draw yourself. In the specimen they include a shift versus a movement along the supply curve, supernormal profit, deficient demand or AD-AS equilibrium, and the law of variable proportions or the profit-maximising output.

Nine questions and sub-parts quote a named real source: the RBI repo rate cut of December 2025, the Union Budget 2026-27 fiscal deficit, an Economic Survey 2025-26 chart of deficits, PIB figures on UPI payments and the rupee-dollar rate from August 2025 to January 2026. The paper gives you the numbers. The marks come from reading the chart correctly and tying it to the right concept.

Common reasons marks are cut in ISC Economics

• "Defend or refute" answers that state a side with no reason. In the specimen answer key, some of these accept either side, so the mark is for the reason.
• Writing two options for an MCQ. The answer key says only one answer should be written.
• National income sums with only numbers. Write the formula with the item labels first, as the answer key does, and then put in the figures.
• Diagrams without labelled axes and curves, or with the shift drawn but the old and new equilibrium not marked.
• Case questions answered from memory of the chapter instead of the data in the extract.

Gradehunt's ISC Class 12 test series includes Economics papers you write by hand and upload, checked step by step by subject experts within 48 hours of upload, so you can see which of these is costing you marks.

Past papers for other ISC Class 12 commerce subjects

We also have solved past papers for Accounts and Business Studies.

The table below has ISC Class 12 Accounts (subject code 858) board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2020, plus both 2022 semester papers. The 2026 and 2024 papers are CISCE's official copies from its archive library, and their worked solutions are in our 10 Years Solved PYQ set; the other years come with solutions. There is no 2021 paper, because CISCE cancelled the ISC board exams that year.

If you are writing in 2027, recent papers are a close guide. Put side by side, the 2026 and 2027 Class 12 Accounts syllabus documents match word for word, and the marks for each unit have not changed since the 2025 syllabus.

How long to spend on each unit when you write a past paper

The theory paper is 80 marks in 3 hours, with 15 minutes of extra reading time. That works out to about 2 minutes 15 seconds per mark. Applied to the 2027 unit marks, it gives a time budget for each part of a past paper:

• Fundamentals of Partnership: 11 marks, about 25 minutes
• Goodwill, Admission, and Retirement or Death of a Partner: 15 marks, about 34 minutes
• Dissolution of a Partnership Firm: 8 marks, about 18 minutes
• Issue of Shares: 11 marks, about 25 minutes
• Issue and Redemption of Debentures: 8 marks, about 18 minutes
• Final Accounts of Companies: 7 marks, about 16 minutes
• Section B, Management Accounting (Financial Statement Analysis 4, Cash Flow Statement 8, Ratio Analysis 8): 20 marks, about 45 minutes
• or Section C, Computerised Accounting (Spreadsheet 10, DBMS 10): 20 marks, about 45 minutes

Source: CISCE ISC 2027 Accountancy syllabus and ISC 2026 specimen paper, Gradehunt analysis.

By this budget, partnership questions should take about 1 hour 17 minutes of your 3 hours (34 marks) and company accounts about 59 minutes (26 marks). For the full unit-wise split and project marks, see our ISC Class 12 Accounts weightage post.

ISC Accounts paper pattern: what the specimen paper shows

CISCE has not released a 2027 specimen paper for Accounts. On 3 November 2026, its 2027 specimen page lists other subjects but not Accounts. Since the syllabus is unchanged, the ISC 2026 Accounts specimen paper with answer key is still the official model to follow.

• 18 questions in all. Section A (60 marks, 10 questions) is compulsory. You then answer either Section B or Section C, with 4 questions each.
• Section A runs as ten 1-mark parts in Question 1, four 3-mark questions, three 6-mark questions and two 10-mark questions.
• The two 10-mark questions alone are a third of Section A. In the specimen, one is partners' capital accounts with a loan from a partner, the other is journal entries for a share issue.
• Internal choice is given in five Section A questions and in two questions each in Sections B and C.

Each question in the specimen is tagged with the skill it tests. In Section A, 56 of the 60 marks are tagged Application if you take the first option in every internal choice, and never fewer than 54 whichever options you pick. Recall gets 1 mark there, or 3 if you take the second option in Question 10. Section B has no Recall-tagged parts at all, while 13 of the 16 tagged parts in Section C are Recall: definitions, SQL data types, database keys and spreadsheet formulas.

That makes the B or C choice a real decision. Time yourself on Section B and Section C of the specimen paper, a few weeks before the exam, and pick the one where you scored more per minute.

Syllabus changes that affect older ISC Accounts papers

Two notes were added to the syllabus for 2026 and kept for 2027. Keep them in mind when you use papers from 2020 to 2025:

• Redemption of debentures in annual instalments by draw of lots is now marked as theoretical concepts only. Give older numerical questions on it a lower priority than the rest of the paper.
• Capital losses are written off first from Securities Premium, then from the Statement of Profit and Loss, and last from Capital Reserve. Check that any solution you study follows this order.

Use the 2022 semester papers for extra questions only, since that year's syllabus was split across two exams.

Rules to check when you mark a past paper

Older solutions do not always follow the current syllabus notes. When you mark your answers, check them against these points from the 2027 syllabus and the specimen paper's instructions:

• Show every calculation, with rough work on the same page next to the answer. The specimen paper's instructions ask for this.
• Interest on a partner's loan to the firm is a charge against profit. It goes to the Profit and Loss Account, not the Appropriation Account.
• A partner's commission is worked out on the correct trading profit, not on divisible profit.
• After admission, retirement or death, draw the Balance Sheet in horizontal format.
• In dissolution, if the question is silent, pay liabilities in full, take tangible assets and investments at book value, and take intangible assets at nil. A bank overdraft goes to the Cash or Bank Account; a bank loan goes to the Realisation Account.
• For goodwill, capital employed leaves out purchased goodwill, non-trade investments and fictitious assets.
• Ex-interest and cum-interest calculations are not required for debentures.

Gradehunt's ISC Class 12 test series covers Accounts. Your handwritten answer sheets are checked within 48 hours of upload, so you can see which of these rules is costing you marks before the board exam.

How to practise with ISC Accounts past papers

• Start with the 2026 specimen paper, then the 2026, 2025, 2024 and 2023 board papers from the table.
• Write each paper in 3 hours. Try to finish Section A in about 2 hours 15 minutes, leaving 45 minutes for Section B or C.
• After marking, list every lost mark against the units above. A gap in a 15-mark unit costs more than one in a 4-mark unit.
• Keep the 2020 and 2022 papers for extra questions once the recent ones are done.

Past papers for other ISC Class 12 subjects

Solved past papers are also available for Economics, Business Studies and Mathematics.

The table on this page has ISC Class 12 Maths board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2020, plus the Semester 1 and Semester 2 papers of 2022. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy from its archive library, and our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) set has its questions worked out chapter by chapter, matched to the 2027 syllabus. Every other year has a free solution in the same row.

There was no ISC board exam in 2021, because CISCE cancelled it during COVID-19, so the table goes from 2022 back to 2020.

Know this before you plan your practice: 2026 was the last ISC Maths paper with a choice between Section B and Section C. The 2027 paper has a new layout, explained further down.

ISC Maths 2026 question paper: chapter-wise marks

We added up the marks in the 2026 paper chapter by chapter. Section A carried 65 marks and was compulsory. After that, candidates answered either Section B or Section C, worth 15 marks each.

• Relations and functions, with inverse trigonometry: 10 marks
• Matrices and determinants: 10 marks
• Calculus: 32 marks (continuity and differentiability 7, applications of derivatives 9, integrals 9, differential equations 7)
• Probability: 13 marks
• Section B: vectors 5, three-dimensional geometry 6, area using integration 4
• Section C: calculus in commerce and economics 5, linear regression 6, linear programming 4
• Question types in Section A: 15 one-mark parts (11 MCQs, two of them assertion-reason and two built on a pair of statements), five 2-mark, four 4-mark and four 6-mark questions. Six Section A questions had an internal choice, and so did two questions in each of Sections B and C.

Source: CISCE ISC 2026 Mathematics question paper (860) and the ISC Mathematics syllabus, Gradehunt analysis. Each sub-part is counted under one chapter.

Our totals match the unit marks in CISCE's Section A/B/C syllabus to the mark, so the board followed its own weightage table exactly. Calculus alone took almost half of Section A.

Four Section A questions were word problems worth 20 marks between them: a bakery's prices found by the matrix method, a ball-transfer game (or a probability table in the other option), a cash van's route to two ATMs on a hill, and a gardener deciding when to plant from a rain forecast. Expect long questions to come wrapped in a story like these.

How much time per question in the ISC Maths paper

Three hours for 80 marks works out to 2 minutes 15 seconds a mark. On the 2026 layout that is about 34 minutes for the fifteen 1-mark parts, 4 to 5 minutes for a 2-mark question, 9 minutes for a 4-mark one and 13 to 14 minutes for a 6-mark one.

Use the 15 minutes of reading time to choose between the OR options and to decide which long question you will do first.

ISC Maths 2027: what changes from the 2026 paper

• No more Section B or C choice. The 2027 syllabus makes every unit compulsory: relations and functions 10, algebra 10, calculus 35, vectors 5, three-dimensional geometry 6, linear programming 5 and probability 9.
• Linear regression and the commerce uses of calculus are not in the 2027 unit list. Students who used to pick Section C now have to prepare vectors and 3D geometry.
• The 2027 specimen paper has 20 questions in four sections: twenty 1-mark parts (17 of them MCQs), seven 2-mark, seven 3-mark and five 5-mark questions. Three questions in each of Sections B, C and D have an internal choice.
• Each specimen question is tagged with the skill it tests, such as Understand, Apply or Analyse. CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 says questions testing apply, analyse, evaluate and create will carry about 50% of the marks in 2027.

So how do the older papers fit in? Section A of every paper in the table still covers most of the 2027 syllabus. Do Section B and the linear programming question from Section C in every year, whatever your stream, and skip the regression and cost-function questions. Finish with the 2027 specimen paper, since it is the only one written in the new format.

Where ISC Maths students lost marks in 2025

CISCE's Analysis of Pupil Performance for 2025 reports 49,630 ISC Maths candidates, an average of 66 out of 100, a highest score of 100 and a lowest of 11. Its examiners listed these as topics candidates found difficult or mixed up:

• Probability problems, Bayes' theorem in particular
• Linear programming, and finding an area using integration
• Symmetric versus skew-symmetric matrices, and the basic properties of determinants
• Increasing versus strictly increasing functions
• Picking the right type of integral or differential equation before solving it
• Regression coefficient versus the equation of the regression line

Several of these came back in 2026: a two-statement MCQ on where a graph increases or decreases (Q1 viii), a conditional probability part in Q13, the area under a semicircle in Q18 and a linear programming problem in Q22. The same report asks candidates to practise assertion-reason and Statement I/Statement II items and to sketch graphs often.

How to use these ISC Maths papers

• Write the 2026 paper first, in one sitting of three hours, and mark it against the solution.
• Then do 2025, 2024 and 2023 as timed papers. Their layout is the same as 2026.
• Use the two 2022 semester papers for chapter practice. Each semester covered only part of the syllabus, so they are not full-length mocks. The 2020 paper is a full board paper, so use it as one more timed mock.
• Keep a list of every mark you drop, sorted by chapter, and revise those chapters before the next paper.

If you want the board questions from 2016 to 2026 worked out step by step and sorted chapter by chapter, get Gradehunt's ISC Class 12 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ).

Need the full topic list? Read our ISC Class 12 Maths syllabus guide. We also have solved past papers for ISC Physics and ISC Chemistry.

The table on this page has ISC Class 12 Biology (Paper 1, Theory) board papers for 2026, 2024, 2023 and 2020, plus the Semester 1 and Semester 2 papers of 2022. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy from the CISCE archive library, and its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) set. The other years have free solutions in the table.

Looking for the 2025 paper? CISCE's Analysis of Pupil Performance for ISC Biology 2025 reprints the full 2025 paper with the marking scheme and examiners' comments on each question. It is a free PDF on cisce.org. There is no 2021 paper, because CISCE cancelled that year's ISC board exams during COVID-19.

ISC Class 12 Biology PYQ 2026: chapter-wise marks

The 2026 paper had 18 compulsory questions for 70 marks, in the same four-section layout as 2025. We sorted every sub-part by unit:

• Reproduction (flowering plants, human reproduction and reproductive health): 16 marks
• Genetics and the molecular basis of inheritance: 15 marks
• Ecology, populations and biodiversity: 15 marks
• Human health, disease and immunity, including drugs: 13 marks
• Biotechnology and its uses: 10 marks
• One mark, on an eco-friendly way to control aphids, fits either human welfare or ecology. Evolution: no question at all.
• Layout: Section A had 20 one-mark items, only four of them MCQs (two assertion-reason). Sections B, C and D had seven 2-mark, seven 3-mark and three 5-mark questions. Each of B, C and D had one internal choice.

Source: CISCE ISC 2026 Biology Paper 1 (Theory) and ISC 2025 paper as reprinted in CISCE's Analysis of Pupil Performance, Gradehunt analysis.

Look at Section A again: 16 of its 20 marks were short written answers, not options to tick. You had to name a pathogen from symptoms, name a restriction enzyme, count chromosomes in the endosperm and work out a death rate. Spelling the scientific name right matters here.

At least 24 marks began with something to read first: a gel with DNA bands, a table of bird numbers against wetland area, island areas against species counts, the structure of a drug, a sperm diagram, locust counts to plot as a growth curve and a transcription diagram. Practise reading data before writing.

What repeats in ISC Biology papers

Put the 2025 and 2026 papers side by side and several one-mark formats come back almost unchanged: naming a restriction enzyme from its source strain, endosperm ploidy or chromosome count, a population growth or death rate sum, and a word analogy (Lipase is to Candida lipolytica in 2025, Dengue is to Aedes in 2026). These are quick marks once you know the rule behind each.

Evolution is the gap. In 2025 it carried an assertion-reason item on convergent evolution and a 3-mark Hardy-Weinberg question (Q10). In 2026 it had nothing. One paper is not a pattern, and CISCE's examiners listed Hardy-Weinberg numericals among the topics students struggled with in 2025, so keep revising it.

Where ISC Biology students lost marks in 2025

CISCE's 2025 report covers 23,202 ISC Biology candidates, with an average of 74 out of 100, a highest score of 100 and a lowest of 3. Examiners listed these as difficult:

• Population growth rate numericals, NPP calculations and the number of primary oocytes
• Endosperm ploidy, restriction enzyme naming and blue-white selection of recombinants
• Drawing and reading pedigree charts, and Hardy-Weinberg numericals
• A labelled flow chart of the HIV life cycle

They also found students mixing up logistic and exponential growth, transcription and replication, coding and non-coding DNA strands, and apomixis, polyembryony and parthenocarpy. In 2026, Q16 asked for a growth curve and its equation and Q17 was on transcription. The report's advice: draw neat, labelled diagrams, write differences as a table, and use the exact key terms in definitions.

ISC Biology 2027: what CISCE has said

• Biology Paper 1 is on the list of ISC subjects with a 2027 specimen paper and answer key, in CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026.
• The circular says apply, analyse, evaluate and create questions will carry about 50% of the marks in 2027, and the topic weightage in the syllabus will be strictly kept.
• With that weightage, more data, graph and case questions like the ones in 2026 are likely. Check the specimen's layout against 2026 before your pre-boards.

How to practise with these papers

• Write the 2026 paper first as a three-hour test, then the 2025 paper from CISCE's report.
• Use 2024 and 2023 next. The 2022 semester papers each covered part of the syllabus, so use them for chapter revision, and 2020 for extra long answers.
• Keep a one-page list of scientific names, enzymes and scientists asked so far, and test yourself on it weekly.

For the board questions from 2016 to 2026 worked out step by step and sorted chapter by chapter, get Gradehunt's ISC Class 12 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ).

The unit list is in our ISC Class 12 Biology syllabus outline. We also have solved past papers for ISC Chemistry and ISC Physics.

This page has ISC Class 12 Chemistry (Paper 1, Theory) board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2020, plus both 2022 semester papers. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy from the CISCE archive library, and its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) set. Every other year has a free solution in the table.

CISCE cancelled the 2021 ISC board exams during COVID-19, so there is no 2021 board paper and the table goes from 2022 back to 2020.

ISC Chemistry 2026 question paper: chapter-wise marks

The 2026 theory paper had 21 questions for 70 marks, all compulsory, in four sections. Here is how the marks split by chapter when you count every sub-part:

• Physical chemistry, 25 marks: solutions 9, chemical kinetics 8, electrochemistry 8
• Inorganic chemistry, 14 marks: d- and f-block elements 6, coordination compounds 8
• Aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids: 9 marks
• Biomolecules: 4 marks
• Haloalkanes and haloarenes, alcohols, phenols, ethers and amines: 18 marks together. Many of these questions mix two chapters in one conversion, so we have not split them.
• Section A (14 marks): four fill-in-the-blanks, seven MCQs (two of them assertion-reason) and a three-part case on Kohlrausch's law. Section B: ten 2-mark questions. Section C: seven 3-mark questions. Section D: three 5-mark questions. One question in each of Sections B, C and D had an internal choice.

Source: CISCE ISC 2026 Chemistry Paper 1 (Theory), Gradehunt analysis. Q9 is counted under carbonyl compounds, although its OR option starts from an alcohol.

Organic chemistry carried 31 of the 70 marks, close to half the paper. Twelve of those marks came from questions that asked for nothing but equations: two conversions in Q5, diazotisation and Sandmeyer's reaction in Q7, two more conversions in Q11, three in Q12 and three reactions in Q15. If you can write those reactions from memory, with reagents and conditions, they are the quickest marks on the paper.

Numericals were spread across the physical chapters. They included freezing point depression in Q3 and Q19, osmotic pressure in Q19, the time for 90% completion of a first-order reaction in Q8, activation energy in Q16, Gibbs energy of a cell in Q6 and molar conductivity in Q1(C) and Q17.

How long to spend on each ISC Chemistry section

Three hours for 70 marks gives you about 2 minutes 35 seconds a mark. That is roughly 36 minutes for Section A, 51 minutes for Section B, 54 minutes for Section C and 39 minutes for Section D, which leaves no spare time. Most students gain a few minutes on the one-mark questions and on equation-only questions, so bank that time for the 5-mark numericals.

Where ISC Chemistry students lost marks in 2025

CISCE's Analysis of Pupil Performance for 2025 reports 51,505 ISC Chemistry candidates, an average of 68 out of 100, a highest score of 100 and a lowest of 2. The examiners listed these among the topics candidates found difficult or confused:

• Chemical tests to tell two organic compounds apart, and identifying an unknown organic compound
• Balancing reactions of KMnO4 and K2Cr2O7
• Numericals on the van't Hoff factor, osmotic pressure, molecular mass and vapour pressure
• Rate constant and order of reaction numericals, and Nernst equation numericals
• Gibbs energy and cell emf in terms of spontaneity
• Naming, isomerism and hybridisation of coordination compounds

The 2026 paper went straight back to most of them. Q9 asked for tests to distinguish acetaldehyde from acetone, Q13 asked you to complete and balance the KMnO4 and K2Cr2O7 reactions, Q19 had an osmotic pressure sum and Q21 tested hybridisation, magnetic behaviour and isomerism of complexes.

The same report gives advice that matches how marks are awarded. For numericals, write the formula, then the substitution, then the answer with its unit. Write organic equations complete and balanced, with reagents, conditions and catalysts. Use the key word the question is looking for in reasoning answers, and write IUPAC names carefully.

ISC Chemistry 2027: what we know so far

• CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 lists Chemistry Paper 1 among the ISC subjects with a 2027 specimen paper and answer key, published on cisce.org.
• The same circular says questions that test apply, analyse, evaluate and create will carry about 50% of the marks in the 2027 exams, and that the topic weightage in the syllabus will be strictly followed.
• Compare the 2027 specimen's sections with the 2026 layout above before you start full mocks, and expect apply-and-analyse questions to take a bigger share than in the older papers.

How to practise with these papers

• Write the 2026 paper first as a timed three-hour test and check it against the solution.
• Do 2025, 2024 and 2023 next. Keep a running list of every reaction and named reaction you got wrong.
• Use the two 2022 semester papers for chapter practice, since each covered only part of the syllabus. The 2020 paper is a full board paper for one more timed test.
• Before the exam, rewrite your reaction list from memory until you can do it without gaps.

For the board questions from 2016 to 2026 worked out step by step and sorted chapter by chapter, get Gradehunt's ISC Class 12 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ).

The chapter list is in our ISC Class 12 Chemistry syllabus guide. Solved past papers are also up for ISC Physics and ISC Biology.

The table on this page has ISC Class 12 Physics (Paper 1, Theory) board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2020. Each one is CISCE's official copy from the CISCE archive library, and the worked solutions are in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) set.

There was no ISC board exam in 2021, because CISCE cancelled it during COVID-19, and CISCE's archive library has no ISC papers for 2022.

Good news for 2027: CISCE's 2027 specimen paper for Physics uses exactly the same layout as the 2026 board paper, so the 2026 paper is the closest real practice you can get.

ISC Physics 2026 question paper: chapter-wise marks

We counted every sub-part of the 2026 paper and put it under its chapter. The paper had 20 questions for 70 marks, and all of them had to be answered.

• Electrostatics and current electricity: 14 marks (6 each, plus a 2-mark question that was Gauss's law in one option and Kirchhoff's junction rule in the other)
• Magnetic effects of current and magnetism: 10 marks
• Electromagnetic induction and alternating current: 6 marks
• Electromagnetic waves: 2 marks
• Optics: 18 marks (ray optics and optical instruments 11, wave optics 7)
• Dual nature of radiation and matter 7, atoms and nuclei 6, semiconductor devices 7: 20 marks for modern physics
• Layout: Section A had 14 one-mark parts (7 MCQs, one of them assertion-reason, and 7 very short answers). Section B had seven 2-mark questions, Section C nine 3-mark questions and Section D three 5-mark questions. Two questions in each of Sections B, C and D had an internal choice.

Source: CISCE ISC 2026 Physics Paper 1 (Theory), Gradehunt analysis. Each sub-part is counted under one chapter.

Optics and modern physics together made up 38 of the 70 marks. Section C, with 27 marks, is where the paper is won or lost: it held two compulsory derivations (the axial field of a dipole in Q9 and reflection by Huygens' principle in Q16), a third derivation in one option of Q11 and the telescope ray diagram in Q14.

Drawing showed up all over the paper. Apart from the telescope, candidates had to draw a Zener diode symbol, a binding energy per nucleon graph (in one option of Q19) and a half-wave rectifier circuit in Q20. Eight of the 20 questions came with a figure, a photo or a graph that you had to read before answering.

How much time per question in ISC Physics

With three hours for 70 marks, you have about 2 minutes 35 seconds a mark. A sensible split is 35 minutes for Section A, 35 for Section B, 70 for Section C and 40 for Section D. Use the 15 minutes of reading time to pick your internal choices, so you do not start one option and switch.

Where ISC Physics students lost marks in 2025

CISCE's Analysis of Pupil Performance for 2025 reports 51,557 ISC Physics candidates, an average of 70 out of 100, a highest score of 100 and a lowest of 1. Its examiners listed these among the topics candidates found difficult or confused:

• Combination of cells, Kirchhoff's laws and the link between current density and electric field
• Magnetic field between two parallel conductors, radial magnetic fields and magnetic properties of substances
• Motional emf, transformers and AC numericals, including power factor
• Sign convention in lenses, prism and lens maker numericals, and telescope numericals
• Applications of Huygens' wave theory
• Threshold frequency and work function, de Broglie wavelength, and rectifier circuit diagrams

The 2026 paper tested a long run of these again: a battery of three cells in Q10, force between parallel wires in Q12, the radial field of a galvanometer in Q11, motional emf in Q1, power factor in Q18, a Huygens' derivation in Q16, work functions in Q8 and a rectifier in Q20. The report's advice is to practise derivations with complete labelled diagrams, solve plenty of numericals for each concept and get comfortable with assertion-reason questions.

ISC Physics 2027: the specimen paper and the new weightage

• The 2027 specimen has the same instructions as the 2026 paper: 20 questions, 14, 14, 27 and 15 marks in Sections A to D, and choice in two questions per section from B to D.
• Every specimen question is tagged with the skill it tests, such as Recall, Understand, Apply or Analyse. CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 says apply, analyse, evaluate and create questions will carry about 50% of the marks in the 2027 exams.
• The specimen sets questions in real situations, such as a thundercloud treated as a parallel plate capacitor and a charged bird diving towards a charged plate. Expect more questions where you first have to spot the physics in the story.

How to practise with these papers

• Write the 2026 paper in three hours without notes, then mark it against the solution.
• Do the 2027 specimen next, and then 2025, 2024 and 2023 as timed papers.
• Use the 2020 paper for extra topic practice once the recent papers are done.
• Redraw every diagram you lost marks on until the labels come without thinking.

For the board questions from 2016 to 2026 worked out step by step and sorted chapter by chapter, get Gradehunt's ISC Class 12 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ).

See the full chapter list in our ISC Class 12 Physics syllabus guide. Solved past papers are also available for ISC Maths and ISC Chemistry.

The table on this page has ISC Class 12 English Literature (English Paper 2) question papers from 2026 back to 2020. The 2026 and 2024 papers are CISCE's official copies from its archive library, and their worked solutions are in our 10 Years Solved PYQ set; the other years come with solutions. There is no 2021 paper: CISCE cancelled the ISC Class 12 exams on 1 June 2021 because of Covid.

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.

The table below has ISC Class 12 English Language (English Paper 1) question papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2020, plus the two 2022 semester papers. The 2026 board paper is CISCE's official copy from its archive, and its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved PYQ set; every other year comes with a solution. There is no 2021 paper; CISCE's own archive of past ISC papers has none for that year either.

The 2026 papers for other ISC subjects are on CISCE's archive page. The latest official English Language specimen paper, with its answer key, is the ISC 2025 specimen. CISCE did not release a separate 2027 specimen for this paper.

ISC English Language paper pattern: marks and time per question

Paper 1 is a 3-hour, 80-mark theory paper with four compulsory questions. Project work (listening, speaking and writing) adds 20 marks. The 2025 specimen paper also suggests how long to spend on each question, and when you divide those minutes by the marks, comprehension gets the most time per mark and grammar the least:

• Question 1, composition (400 to 450 words): 20 marks, 45 minutes, about 2.3 minutes a mark.
• Question 2, directed writing (250 to 300 words, 15 marks) and proposal (about 150 words, 10 marks): 25 marks, 55 minutes, 2.2 minutes a mark.
• Question 3, grammar (three sets of 5): 15 marks, 30 minutes, 2 minutes a mark.
• Question 4, comprehension (vocabulary 6, short answers 6, summary 8): 20 marks, 50 minutes, 2.5 minutes a mark.

Source: CISCE ISC 2025 Specimen Paper (suggested minutes), ISC English syllabus for 2027 (marks and word limits), ISC 2024 and 2025 board papers; minutes per mark worked out by Gradehunt.

Add the word limits together and you are writing roughly 900 to 1,000 words of continuous English in three hours. The composition, directed writing, proposal and summary carry 53 of the 80 marks. Grammar answers are short and either right or wrong, so finish them inside 30 minutes and give any time saved to the summary.

What changes in the ISC 2027 English Language paper

• One paper for English and Modern English. A CISCE circular dated 27 October 2026 says the Language paper will be the same for English (801) and Modern English (891), on the same date and at the same time.
• Blog writing is new. From 2027, directed writing can be a feature article, book review, newspaper report, statement of purpose or blog. CISCE's handbook, Unpacking Directed Writing, has a model answer for each. The full topic list is in our ISC Class 12 English Language syllabus guide.
• The four-question structure stays. CISCE's 9 October 2026 circular listed the subjects with new 2027 specimen papers; English Language was not one of them, and the circular says the 2026 structure applies to the rest.
• Exam date: CISCE had not published the ISC 2027 timetable as of 3 November 2026.

What the last three ISC English Language papers asked

• 2023: one-word essay topic "Humour"; an article on noise pollution; a proposal to start a Food Club; a 6-mark summary with four 2-mark questions.
• 2024: one-word topic "Music"; a film review; a proposal to start a Laughter Club; summary raised to 8 marks, with three 2-mark questions.
• 2025: one-word topic "Friendship"; a feature article on the importance of sports; a proposal for Tree Plantation Day; 8-mark summary.

Each year the six essay choices covered the same types: descriptive, narrative, argumentative, a one-word topic, reflective and a short story. The proposal has been a school club or school event plan three years running. If you have practised that frame, Question 2(ii) should not surprise you.

Where ISC examiners cut marks in English Language

CISCE's Analysis of Pupil Performance for 2025 has a statistics page headed English: 99,382 candidates, average 82 out of 100 (girls 84.5, boys 79.3), highest 100 and lowest 14. The examiners' comments on the Language paper point to the same few problems:

• Composition: key words from the topic left out (in the 2025 library topic, "neglected condition" and "reopening"), or one part of the question ignored. Argumentative essays need a clear stance and at least four distinct arguments.
• Directed writing: writing in general about the topic instead of expanding every point given. CISCE's directed writing handbook gives content 12 of the 15 marks, format 1 and expression 2.
• Proposal: Objectives and List of Measures swapped, only one point from the question in the introduction, or single words where full sentences were needed. The marking scheme asks for at least four measures.
• Grammar: transformations such as "No other ..." and "so ... that" got wrong, and answers to the fill-in passage written out of order.
• Summary: grid format not followed, points taken from outside the given paragraphs, the 100-word limit missed, or the summary written in the first person.

How to practise with these papers

• Write the 2026 paper first, since CISCE says the 2026 structure carries into 2027. Then write 2025 and 2024, whose marks split matches the current paper, including the 8-mark summary.
• Use 2023 and 2020 for extra compositions and passages. The 2022 papers follow that year's two-semester format, so treat them as grammar and comprehension practice.
• No past paper has a blog task yet. Practise one from the model in CISCE's directed writing handbook.
• Time each paper against the specimen split above, then mark your directed writing and proposal point by point against the solutions.

Gradehunt's ISC Class 12 test series includes English Language. You write each paper by hand and subject experts check it step-wise within 48 hours of upload, with marks and remarks on every answer.

Preparing for Paper 2 as well? See the ISC Class 12 English Literature past papers.

The table below has ICSE Class 10 Computer Applications board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy from its archive, released with its circular of 9 October 2026, and its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved PYQ set. Every other year has a worked solution. There is no 2021 paper, as CISCE cancelled the ICSE board exams that year.

Start with the three most recent papers: 2026, 2025 and 2024. Their Section B programs came from the same six types in all three years, and CISCE has said the 2027 Computer Applications paper keeps the 2026 structure.

Which programs came in ICSE Computer Applications Section B in 2024, 2025 and 2026?

Section B has six programs and you answer any four. Here is what each year asked:

• Class with accept(), calculate() and a display or print method: courier charges by parcel weight slab (2024, Q3); cloud storage bill by slab (2025, Q3); calories and distance from a step count (2026, Q3).
• Method overloading: perform() for a cone's curved surface area, a number pattern and a quotient or remainder (2024, Q4); print() for a symbol pattern, a decimal series and a character comparison (2025, Q7); format() for a number pattern, the ASCII sum of a string and the sum of natural numbers (2026, Q7). Each year one of the three methods was a nested-loop pattern.
• Digits of a number: EvenPal number check (2024, Q5); sum of the largest and smallest digit, even or odd (2025, Q8); Mark number check (2026, Q6).
• Double dimensional array: 4 x 4 diagonal array check (2024, Q6); norm of a 4 x 4 array (2025, Q4); 4 x 5 sparse matrix check (2026, Q5).
• Single dimensional array, sort or search: selection sort of pin codes (2024, Q7); binary search on a character array (2025, Q6); counting matching designations in an array of 100 (2026, Q4).
• String handling: Gmail id validation (2024, Q8); 'Super string' with equal capitals and small letters (2025, Q5); 'Symbolic' word built from the first consonant (2026, Q8).

Source: ICSE 2026 Computer Applications question paper (CISCE); CISCE Analysis of Pupil Performance for ICSE 2024 and ICSE 2025, Computer Applications; Gradehunt analysis.

What to do with this: prepare all six types, then choose your four in the exam hall. If you drop one type, say 2D arrays, a hard question in any other type leaves you with no spare. Note that 2026 broke two habits: the class program used a flat formula instead of slab rates, and the 2D array was 4 x 5, not 4 x 4. Practise loops that work for any order.

ICSE Class 10 Computer Applications paper pattern for 2027

• Theory paper: 100 marks in two hours, plus 15 minutes of reading time. Internal assessment adds 100 marks, from at least 20 lab assignments done in Class 10.
• Section A, 40 marks, all compulsory: Question 1 has 20 one-mark MCQs, including assertion-reason; Question 2 has ten 2-mark parts on outputs, Java expressions, errors and arrays.
• Section B, 60 marks: any four of six programs, 15 marks each.

At 1.2 minutes a mark, Section A is worth about 48 minutes and each Section B program about 18 minutes. Time each program when you practise; if one takes 30 minutes, the fourth one gets squeezed.

CISCE's 9 October 2026 circular lists no 2027 specimen paper for Class 10 Computer Applications; Computer Applications appears only in the Class 9 list. For subjects without a new specimen, the circular says the 2026 rubrics and assessment structure apply. The same circular gives questions that test apply, analyse, evaluate and create an approximate weightage of 50% in the 2027 exams.

Do 2D array programs from past papers still matter for 2027?

Yes. The ICSE 2027 syllabus has eight Class 10 units: revision of Class 9, class as the basis of all computation, user-defined methods, constructors, library classes, encapsulation, arrays (single and double dimensional) and string handling.

The ICSE 2028 syllabus, for students now in Class 9, drops double dimensional arrays and the encapsulation (access specifiers) unit, and adds disruptive technologies such as AI and cloud computing. That change does not apply to the 2027 exam. If you are in Class 10 now, keep practising 2D array programs; one came in Section B in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Our Computer Applications syllabus post covers each unit.

Where students lost marks in the ICSE 2025 Computer Applications paper

CISCE's examiners listed these errors in the 2025 report:

• Bill program: most candidates did not apply the slab rates tier by tier, and some declared the member variables inside accept().
• 2D array norm: loops run from 1 to 4 instead of 0 to 3, and Math.pow(s, 2) written where Math.sqrt(s) was needed.
• Binary search: some wrote a linear search, and some wrote length() for an array, where length is correct.
• Overloading: separate programs written instead of one class with three print() methods.
• Loop conversion in Question 2: the semicolon after while in the do-while loop was missed, and some missed the update step.
• Output question in Question 1: the semicolon at the end of a for statement was ignored, which changes the output.

In 2024, many candidates wrote insertion sort when the question asked for selection sort. Creating an object, constructor overloading, assertion-reason questions and loop types appear in the difficult or confusing topics lists of both reports.

How to use these ICSE Computer Applications past papers

• Start with 2026, 2025 and 2024 from the table, then 2023. Use 2022 for extra questions only: that year's exam was split into two semesters, so the paper is shorter.
• Write each paper by hand in two hours. The board paper is handwritten, and syntax slips that a computer would catch cost marks on paper.
• Use the exact class, variable and method names given in the question. CISCE's report asks for this directly.
• Add a variable description table to each Section B program, and show your working in output questions.
• Dry-run every program with two or three inputs before you check the solution.

Gradehunt's ICSE Class 10 test series includes Computer Applications. You write the paper by hand and upload it, and it is checked within 48 hours of upload, with step-wise remarks on where the marks went.

The table below now has three ICSE Class 10 Commercial Studies board papers: 2026, 2025 and 2024. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy from the CISCE archive library, and its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ). The 2025 and 2024 papers come with free solutions.

Searching for a 2027 specimen paper? CISCE did not publish one for Commercial Studies. Its circular of 9 October 2026 names the ICSE subjects that got new 2027 specimens, and for every other subject it says the 2026 rubrics and assessment structure will apply. So the 2026 board paper is the closest model of what you will write in 2027.

ICSE Commercial Studies 2026 paper pattern

• 80 marks, 2 hours of writing, plus 15 minutes of reading time at the start. Internal assessment (a project) adds 20 marks.
• Section A, 40 marks, all compulsory: Question 1 has 16 one-mark MCQs, then Questions 2 to 4 have twelve 2-mark short answers.
• Section B, 40 marks: answer any four of the six 10-mark questions (5 to 10). Questions 5 to 9 each have two 5-mark parts. Question 10 is one 10-mark final accounts sum.
• The MCQs were not all plain recall. Two were assertion-reason, one was based on a picture of a sales promotion, one asked which two of four statements about budgets were true, and one was a single true-or-false line on gratuity.

Two hours for 80 marks gives you 1½ minutes a mark. That is about 24 minutes for the MCQs, 36 for the twelve short answers and 15 for each Section B question.

Chapter-wise marks in the ICSE 2026 Commercial Studies paper

We matched each question to the seven Class 10 units in CISCE's syllabus. Section A is compulsory, so its marks are fixed. Section B offers 60 marks and you answer 40 of them:

• Finance and Accounting: 15 of 40 in Section A; 15 of 60 in Section B, plus half of one mixed part
• Marketing and Sales (including consumer protection and ERP): 8 in Section A; 15 in Section B
• Human Resources: 6 in Section A; 10 in Section B
• Logistics (transport, warehousing, insurance): 4 in Section A; 5 in Section B, plus half of one mixed part
• Banking: 3 in Section A; 5 in Section B
• Environment protection: 3 in Section A; none in Section B
• Stakeholders: 1 in Section A; 5 in Section B

Source: CISCE ICSE 2026 Commercial Studies question paper and ICSE Commercial Studies syllabus for 2027, Gradehunt analysis. The mixed part is Question 6(ii): a principle of insurance plus a note on preference shares.

Finance and Accounting carried more than a third of Section A by itself: capital and revenue items, costs, budgets, shares and debentures, and the trading account. Students who treat accounts as optional because of the Section B choice still meet 15 compulsory marks of it.

Should you attempt Question 10, the final accounts sum?

Question 10 gave the trial balance of XYZ & Co. Ltd, 19 items in all, and asked for a Trading Account, a Profit and Loss Account and a Balance Sheet. The only adjustment was closing stock, exactly as the syllabus limits it. That makes it the one Section B question where every mark depends on getting the numbers right.

If your accounts are tidy, it is 10 marks with no long writing. If not, Questions 5 to 9 give you five theory options and you need only four. Decide before the exam, not in the reading time, and practise the format from the 2026, 2025 and 2024 papers either way.

Case-based questions in the 2026 paper

• Mrs Basu's car is damaged, the insurer pays ₹60,000, and she also recovers ₹30,000 from the driver. You had to name the principle of insurance and judge whether she was right.
• Mrs Pandit's chilli powder changes the colour of her food. Name the type of consumer exploitation and what she can do.
• Rahul thinks advertising wastes money; his partner Aman disagrees. Pick a side and give four points.
• Infosys recruits from IIT Kanpur. Name the source of external recruitment and one advantage.

Each one tests a definition you already know, set inside a story. Read the case twice, name the concept first, then explain it in the words of the syllabus.

How to use these papers

• Write the 2026 paper first, under a 2-hour timer, and mark it against the solution.
• Then do 2025 and 2024 the same way. Note which units cost you marks in all three.
• Revise environment protection from the syllabus even though it had no Section B question in 2026. A unit missing one year can still return as a 10-mark question.

Board questions from the ICSE exams of 2016 to 2026, solved step by step and sorted chapter by chapter, are in Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ICSE Class 10.

Also taking Economics? See the ICSE Class 10 Economics past papers.

The table below has ICSE Class 10 Economics board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy from the CISCE archive library; its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ). Every other year has a free solution in the same row.

Note the name: this is Economics, a Group II subject. Economic Applications is a separate Group III subject with its own paper, and CISCE's regulations do not let you take both.

Is there an ICSE Economics specimen paper for 2027?

No new one. CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 lists the ICSE subjects that received 2027 specimen papers, and Economics is not among them. For the remaining subjects the circular says the 2026 rubrics and assessment structure will apply. In practice that makes the 2026 board paper on this page the best specimen you can get.

ICSE Economics 2026 question paper pattern

• 80 marks in 2 hours, with 15 minutes of reading time first. Internal assessment adds 20 marks.
• Section A, 40 marks, compulsory: 16 one-mark MCQs (Question 1) and twelve 2-mark questions (Questions 2 to 4).
• Section B, 40 marks: any four of six questions (5 to 10). Each has two 5-mark parts.
• Five questions came with a picture to read: a heap of salt (what is its elasticity of demand?), a supply curve shifting, price and quantity arrows, a machine, a computer and a hammer (which type of capital?), and a market with one dominant supplier.
• Three Section B parts needed a graph or a schedule: contraction of demand, two elasticity of supply diagrams, and a market demand schedule with three blanks.

At 1½ minutes a mark, a 5-mark part gets about 7 minutes. A labelled diagram eats into that, so draw it quickly with a pencil and ruler and keep the labels short.

Topic-wise marks in the ICSE 2026 Economics paper

We matched every question to the topics in CISCE's Class 10 Economics syllabus. Section A marks are fixed. Section B offers 60 marks, of which you write 40:

• Demand and supply, including elasticity: 10 of 40 in Section A; 15 of 60 in Section B
• Factors of production (land, labour, capital, entrepreneur): 8; 10
• Money and banking: 8; 10
• Public finance (taxes, public expenditure, public debt): 6; 10
• Inflation: 3; 5
• Consumer awareness: 3; 5
• Market forms: 2; 5

Source: CISCE ICSE 2026 Economics question paper and ICSE Economics syllabus for 2027, Gradehunt analysis. CISCE's syllabus places public finance inside its banking unit; it is shown separately here.

Demand and supply led both sections. In Section A it came up through elasticity, normal goods, complementary goods, a supply shift and the Veblen effect. In Section B it took three of the twelve parts, all of them graph or schedule questions.

Every topic also had Section A marks, which nobody can skip. The Section B choice lets you drop two questions, not two topics.

Question types to practise from the 2026 paper

• Case lines. A farmer who grows wheat and needs shoes meets a shoemaker who wants rice (barter). A nurse cannot carry her unused hours into the next day (labour is perishable).
• Statement and assertion items. A pair of statements on what counts as tax revenue (escheat and forfeiture included), and an assertion-reason pair on bank deposits.
• Analogy. Right to be informed is to product information as right to seek redressal is to what?
• Extract-based. A short passage on rising incomes and prices asked you to name the type of inflation and three of its causes.
• Justify or agree. Is risk bearing the backbone of entrepreneurship? Is demand more elastic in the long run?

Short answers in Section A are 2 marks each, so two or three lines with a definition and one example or reason will do. Save the longer writing for Section B.

How to practise with these papers

• Write the 2026 paper first under a 2-hour timer, choosing your four Section B questions in the reading time.
• Then 2025, 2024 and 2023. List the topics that appeared in all of them.
• Use 2022 and 2020 for extra practice once the newer papers are done. The 2022 exam was split into two semesters, so that paper is shorter than a full one.
• Redraw every diagram from the papers until you can label it without looking.

Board questions from the ICSE exams of 2016 to 2026, solved step by step and sorted chapter by chapter, are in Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ICSE Class 10.

Also taking Commercial Studies? See the ICSE Class 10 Commercial Studies past papers.

The table on this page has ICSE Class 10 Biology (Science Paper 3) question papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, both 2022 semesters and 2020, with free solutions for the older years. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy of the 2026 board paper, and its questions are solved in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) set.

There is no 2021 paper because CISCE cancelled the ICSE Class 10 exams in April 2021 during Covid. The 2020 Biology paper was never sat either: Biology was one of the papers not yet held when the 2020 lockdown began, and CISCE cancelled those papers in June 2020. Treat the 2020 paper as extra practice rather than a board paper.

CISCE has also put up a 2027 specimen paper for Biology, with its answer key, on its specimen papers page. Its layout matches the 2026 board paper, which makes 2026 the closest real paper to practise before your own exam.

ICSE Class 10 Biology 2026 paper: topic-wise marks

We tagged every mark in the 2026 paper to a topic group. Section A is compulsory, so its 40 marks are the split every candidate faced. Section B prints six questions of 10 marks and you answer four, so its 60 printed marks are listed separately.

• Human body systems (heart and blood, kidneys, nerves and sense organs, hormones, reproduction): 27 of 40 in Section A, 28 of 60 in Section B
• Plant physiology (osmosis, transpiration, photosynthesis, plant hormones and tropisms): 5 in Section A, 12 in Section B
• Cell division, chromosomes and genetics: 3 in Section A, 8 in Section B
• Population, evolution, pollution and food chains: 5 in Section A, 12 in Section B

Source: CISCE ICSE 2026 Biology (Science Paper 3) question paper, Gradehunt analysis. A few one-mark items, such as the salted pickle MCQ (osmosis) and the term tubectomy (population control), could sit in another group and would move a total by one mark.

So two of every three compulsory marks came from the human body. Three of the five 5-mark blocks in Question 2 were body topics from start to finish: a labelled sperm diagram, a diabetes case and a kidney diagram to match with functions.

What the 2026 Biology question paper asked

• Question 1 had 15 MCQs. Three were assertion-reason, and two were small genetics sums: the number of thymine bases in a DNA stretch of 300 base pairs with 75 guanine, and the chance of a colour-blind son when the mother is a carrier.
• Question 2 had five 5-mark blocks: biological terms, a fill-in on the sperm diagram, odd one out with the category named, the diabetes case and the kidney match.
• All six Section B questions were split the same way: 1, 2, 2, 2 and 3 marks.
• The last 3-mark part was a drawing in two questions (prophase with four chromosomes, and a spinal cord section with grey and white matter labelled). In the other four it was a short case: prostate surgery, an elderly woman who cannot thread a needle, shrinking city greenery, and hearing loss in a stone quarry.
• Drawing or copying a diagram and labelling it carried 8 of the 60 Section B marks, counting the turgid plant cell in Question 8.
• Eight question parts are built around a named person, from Bharat missing the school bus to Mohit's high blood sugar at a routine check-up.

Two hours for 80 marks works out to 1½ minutes a mark: about 60 minutes for Section A and 15 for each Section B question. Use the 15 minutes of reading time to choose your four Section B questions.

Which Biology chapters to revise first

Start with the body systems. In 2026 they decided 27 compulsory marks, and Question 5 was body topics except for a 2-mark food chain. If physiology is weak, you lose choice in Section B as well, because every Section B question had at least one body-systems part.

Learn the labelled diagrams well enough to read them back: heart, kidney and nephron, eye, ear, brain and spinal cord, and the sperm. Question 2 gave a diagram and asked you to fill in or match from it, which is faster if you already know every label.

Plant physiology came as experiments. One question compared two plants kept at 15°C and 38°C; another asked why a plant is kept in the dark for 48 hours before a starch test, and why the leaf is boiled in alcohol. For every textbook experiment, learn why each step is done as well as what it shows.

Cell division had no question in Section A, but in Section B it came as a 3-mark drawing, a plant-versus-animal cytokinesis difference and a one-mark question on interphase. Practise drawing each stage of mitosis with a set number of chromosomes.

Is the ICSE Biology 2027 paper pattern the same?

Yes, the layout is the same. The 2027 specimen keeps 15 MCQs in Question 1, five 5-mark parts in Question 2 and six 10-mark Section B questions split 1, 2, 2, 2 and 3, of which you answer four. The theory paper stays at 80 marks in two hours, and practical work assessed in school carries the other 20.

The type of question is what changes. CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 gives questions that test apply, analyse, evaluate and create about 50% of the weightage in the 2027 exams. The specimen also notes that board questions can come from any part of the syllabus, so do not treat it as a list of likely questions.

How to practise with these Biology papers

• Write the 2026 and 2025 papers first, in two hours each, then 2024 and 2023.
• The 2022 papers were set in two semesters on half the syllabus each, so use them topic by topic. Use the 2020 paper the same way.
• Question 1 says not to copy the questions; write only the option. Copying the question costs minutes and earns nothing.
• Mark your answers against the solution, and give yourself a diagram mark only if every label asked for is there.

Our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ICSE Class 10 has the Biology board questions from 2016 to 2026 sorted chapter-wise, with answers, updated to the latest CISCE syllabus. The 2026 questions are solved there too.

For the full chapter list, see our ICSE Class 10 Biology syllabus. Past papers for Chemistry and Physics are also on Gradehunt.

This page has ICSE Class 10 Chemistry (Science Paper 2) question papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, the two 2022 semesters and 2020, in the table below, with free solutions for the older years. The 2026 board paper is CISCE's official copy, and its questions are solved in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) set.

There is no 2021 paper, because CISCE cancelled the ICSE Class 10 exams in April that year during Covid. The oldest paper in the table is the 2020 board paper.

For 2027, CISCE has published a Chemistry specimen paper with its answer key on its specimen papers page. It follows the same plan as the 2026 paper, with two changes covered further down.

ICSE Chemistry 2026 paper analysis

Here is how the marks in the 2026 Chemistry paper fell. Section A, 40 marks, was compulsory. Section B printed six 10-mark questions, of which you answered four.

• Organic chemistry: 10 of the 40 Section A marks (three MCQs, two name-the-compound items and a full 5-mark block of IUPAC names and structures), plus 8 marks spread over four Section B questions.
• Mole concept sums: 2 marks in Section A and 7 in Section B, in Questions 4, 6 and 8. You skip only two Section B questions, so at least one of these sums is in any set of four you choose.
• Electrolysis: 5 marks in Section A (four MCQs and a fill-in on the anode reaction for molten lead bromide), and a 4-mark electroplating part in Question 5.
• Equations: Section A did not ask you to write one. Four of the six Section B questions (3, 4, 5 and 7) did.
• Question 1: 15 MCQs, two of them assertion-reason.
• Section B split: five questions came as 2, 2, 3 and 3 marks; Question 5 came as 3, 3 and 4.

Source: CISCE ICSE 2026 Chemistry (Science Paper 2) question paper, Gradehunt analysis.

What came in the 2026 Chemistry question paper

Question 2 had five 5-mark blocks: a diagram of the Haber process (name the process and catalyst, how ammonia is separated, and what the fountain experiment shows), name the compound or term, match reactions with oxidation, reduction, ionisation and electrolytic dissociation, fill in the blanks, and organic names and structures. The structures asked for were butanal, pent-2-yne and the isomer of n-butane.

Section B leaned on reactions you can describe and test. A student called Alex identified a salt from a white precipitate with silver nitrate and a pale blue one with sodium hydroxide. A laboratory assistant stored nitric acid in a clear bottle in sunlight and found brown fumes. One question gave a box of chemicals and asked for balanced equations to make lead carbonate, copper(II) chloride and iron(II) chloride.

The numericals were short. Find the number of chlorine molecules in a container holding the same volume as 34 g of ammonia; work out the moles, nitric acid mass and NO2 volume for 32.5 g of zinc; and get the molecular weight and vapour density of a gas when 5.6 litres weighs 32 g.

Two hours for 80 marks gives 1½ minutes a mark. Plan on about an hour for Section A and 15 minutes for each Section B question, and pick your four questions during the 15 minutes of reading time.

How the 2027 Chemistry specimen differs from the 2026 paper

• Section A gets a 5-mark block of balanced equations to write (Question 2(ii) in the specimen). In 2026, Section A had none.
• Three specimen Section B questions (4, 6 and 8) are split 3, 3 and 4 marks. In 2026 only one was.
• The rest is unchanged: 15 MCQs, five 5-mark blocks in Question 2, six 10-mark Section B questions with any four to answer, 80 marks in two hours.
• The match-the-column set in the specimen uses almost the same five reactions as 2026: CuO with carbon, Al³⁺ gaining electrons, lead bromide splitting into ions, oxide ions forming oxygen and HCl dissociating.

CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 says questions that test apply, analyse, evaluate and create will carry about 50% of the weightage in 2027. The specimen itself warns that board questions can come from any part of the syllabus, so practise the whole syllabus, not just the specimen's topics.

How to practise with ICSE Chemistry past papers

• Do 2026 and 2025 first, timed at two hours, then 2024 and 2023. After each one, write out every equation in the paper from memory.
• The 2022 semester papers each covered half the syllabus, so use them for chapter practice. The 2020 paper is a full paper, so time it like the recent ones.
• Keep a list of the mole sums you get wrong. In 2026 they were in three Section B questions, so avoiding them by choice did not work.
• In Question 1, write only the option. The paper says not to copy the questions.
• Draw organic structures with every bond and hydrogen shown, then check the IUPAC name you would give it.

For more years than the table holds, our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ICSE Class 10 has ten years of Chemistry board papers arranged chapter-wise, with answers and updated to the latest CISCE syllabus, including the 2026 questions.

See our ICSE Class 10 Chemistry syllabus for the chapter list, and the Physics and Biology past papers for the other two science papers.

The table below has ICSE Class 10 Physics (Science Paper 1) board papers for 2020, 2022 (Semester 1 and Semester 2), 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. All except 2026 come with solutions. There is no 2021 paper, because CISCE cancelled the Class 10 exams that year during Covid.

The 2026 board paper is CISCE's official copy from its archive, released with a notice posted on 13 October 2026, and its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved PYQ set. The official archive library also has the 2017 to 2020 and 2023 to 2025 papers, so look there for 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Before you pick a year, see how the last two papers split their marks. We tagged every question in the 2025 and 2026 papers to the six Class 10 units of the syllabus. The split hardly moved.

Chapter-wise marks in ICSE Physics 2025 and 2026

Each paper prints 100 marks of questions. Section A is 40 compulsory marks. Section B has six questions of 10 marks each, and you answer any four. For each unit, the first figure is its share of Section A and the second is its share of all 100 printed marks.

• Force, Work, Power and Energy (with machines): 7 and 20 in 2025; 9 and 22 in 2026
• Light: 7 and 27 in 2025; 10 and 23 in 2026
• Sound: 3 and 10 in 2025; 4 and 11 in 2026
• Electricity and Magnetism: 13 and 24 in 2025; 8 and 24 in 2026
• Heat: 5 and 11 in 2025; 5 and 12 in 2026
• Modern Physics: 5 and 8 in 2025; 4 and 8 in 2026

Source: CISCE ICSE 2025 and 2026 Physics question papers and ICSE 2027 Physics syllabus, Gradehunt analysis.

What the last two papers tell you

• The 15 MCQs in Question 1 had the same unit mix both years: 4 on force and energy, 4 on light, 3 on electricity and magnetism, 2 on heat, 1 on sound and 1 on modern physics.
• Question 4 was all Light and Question 6 was all Force, Work, Power and Energy, in both papers. Be strong in those two units and half of your Section B is already planned.
• Question 7 paired a 3-mark pulley question with 7 marks of sound both times: an echo numerical and a resonance or vibration question.
• Light plus Electricity and Magnetism came to 51 of the 100 printed marks in 2025 and 47 in 2026.
• Heat is small in Section A, only 5 marks, but it took 6 marks of Question 9 in 2025 and 7 marks of Question 5 in 2026. Skipping calorimetry is a gamble.

Do old papers still match the 2027 exam?

Yes, on structure. CISCE's 2027 specimen paper for Physics keeps the same layout as the 2025 and 2026 papers: 15 MCQs in Question 1, then Questions 2 and 3 to make up the 40 compulsory marks, and six 10-mark Section B questions split 3, 3 and 4, of which you answer any four. The theory paper is still 80 marks in two hours, and practical work is assessed in school for the other 20.

What changes is the kind of question. CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 says questions testing higher-order skills such as apply, analyse, evaluate and create carry about 50% weightage in the 2027 exam. It also warns that board questions may not match the specimen one for one. For the time split and how the marking scheme awards step marks, see our Physics paper pattern guide.

Where students lost marks in ICSE Physics 2025

CISCE's Analysis of Pupil Performance for 2025 Physics covers 225,672 candidates. The average was 62 out of 100, the highest 100 and the lowest 8. These are the topics the examiners listed as the ones candidates found hardest:

• Centre of gravity of an irregular lamina, and moment of force numericals
• Conservation of energy used inside a numerical
• Lenz's law and the direction of magnetic field lines
• Total internal reflection: where it is used and how to draw it
• Diagram of a block and tackle
• How resistivity changes with temperature, and circuit resistance after one bulb is removed
• Current rating of a pole fuse, and resonance
• Graphs of alpha and beta emission

One MCQ sums up the problem. Candidates were told a 5 g metal piece has thermal capacity 2.5 J/K and asked what happens to its specific heat capacity if the mass is tripled. The most common wrong answer simply multiplied by three. Specific heat capacity does not depend on mass, so the answer stays 0.5 J/g K.

The report's advice to candidates is plain: write units for every quantity, put arrows on every ray in a ray diagram, and recheck each calculation before moving on.

How to use these papers for the 2027 exam

• Write the 2025 paper first, then the 2026 paper from the table, then the 2027 specimen, which comes with a draft marking scheme. Time each at two hours.
• Keep the 2022 semester papers for extra questions, not full timed practice, since that exam was split in two.
• After checking, list every lost mark by unit using the chapter-wise figures above. Revise the unit with the biggest gap first.
• For topic-wise practice, CISCE's free Competency Focused Practice Questions for Physics Class X are on its item banks page.
• When you check the specimen, note the skill tag CISCE prints beside each question, such as recall, understanding, application or analysis. If most of your lost marks sit on application and analysis questions, give those question types more practice than recall.

Solving a paper is half the work. The other half is having it marked strictly. In Gradehunt's ICSE Class 10 test series you write Physics papers by hand, upload them, and get them back checked within 48 hours with step-wise remarks.

Other ICSE Class 10 past papers

We also have solved past papers for Chemistry, Biology and Maths.

You can download ICSE Class 10 Maths question papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, both 2022 semesters and 2020 from the table on this page. Each of them up to 2025 has a full solution. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy of the board paper, and its questions are solved in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) set.

You will not find a 2021 paper. CISCE cancelled the ICSE Class 10 board exams in April 2021 because of Covid, so no paper was written that year.

CISCE has also released a 2027 Maths specimen paper with a draft marking scheme on its specimen papers page. Section for section, it follows the 2026 board paper.

ICSE Class 10 Maths 2026 paper: chapter-wise marks

Every part of the 2026 paper is tagged to its chapter group below. The first figure is that group's share of the 40 compulsory marks in Section A. The second is its share of the 70 marks printed in Section B, where you answer four of the seven 10-mark questions.

• Algebra (quadratics, factorisation, matrices, AP and GP, ratio and proportion, inequations): 17 and 17
• Geometry (similarity, circles, ruler-and-compass construction): 11 and 8
• Commercial maths (GST, recurring deposits, shares and dividend): 3 and 9
• Coordinate geometry (equation of a line, mid-point and section formula, reflection): 2 and 10
• Statistics (mode, histogram, mean by step deviation, ogive): 1 and 11
• Mensuration: 5 and 4
• Trigonometry: 0 and 8
• Probability: 1 and 3

Source: CISCE ICSE 2026 Mathematics question paper, Gradehunt analysis.

What the 2026 Maths paper tells you

• Trigonometry got no marks in Section A. Both of its questions, a 3-mark identity and a 5-mark heights-and-distances sum with a flagpole on a building, sat in Section B.
• Statistics was the reverse: one MCQ on the mode of a mobile number in Section A, then 11 printed marks in Section B. The ogive alone was 5 marks.
• Quadratic equations came three times: nature of roots as an MCQ, solving to three significant figures, and a word problem where two numbers differ by 5 and their reciprocals add up to 3/10.
• Circles were the biggest single chapter in geometry: an MCQ on a cyclic quadrilateral and two 4-mark angle questions built on tangents.
• Section B needed graph paper twice (the ogive and a reflection of parallelogram OABC) and maths tables twice (the quadratic and the flagpole). Question 7 was the only question split 5 and 5.
• Question 1 had 15 MCQs, two of them assertion-reason.

The real pressure was in Section A. Algebra and geometry took 28 of its 40 marks, including a 5-mark construction of an equilateral triangle, its circumcircle and a locus. Skip either chapter group and the compulsory half of the paper starts with a gap.

Is the ICSE Maths 2027 paper the same as 2026?

Mostly. The 2027 specimen keeps the 80-mark, three-hour paper, 15 MCQs in Question 1, Questions 2 and 3 worth 12 and 13 marks, and any four of seven 10-mark questions in Section B. Two details move: in the specimen the 5-mark part of Question 3 is a graph question rather than a construction, and the 5-and-5 question is Question 9, not Question 7.

CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 says questions that test apply, analyse, evaluate and create will carry about 50% of the weightage in 2027. For the time split and how the draft marking scheme awards step marks, see our Maths paper pattern and marking scheme guide.

How to practise with ICSE Maths previous year papers

• Write 2026 and 2025 first, in three hours each, with graph paper and maths tables on the desk. Then do 2024 and 2023.
• The two 2022 semester papers each covered half the syllabus, and 2020 is older, so use those three for chapter practice.
• Show every step. The paper's own instructions say that leaving out essential working loses marks, and rough work goes on the same sheet.
• Round as the question asks. The 2026 paper wanted three significant figures in one sum and the nearest metre or whole number in others.
• Choose your four Section B questions in the 15 minutes of reading time. Trigonometry and statistics live mostly in Section B, so decide early whether you are taking them on.

When you have finished these years, our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ICSE Class 10 gives you ten years of Maths board papers sorted chapter-wise, with answers, updated to the latest CISCE syllabus. The 2026 questions are solved there too.

For the full chapter list, see our ICSE Class 10 Maths syllabus. Physics past papers are here too.

The table on this page has ICSE Class 10 Geography (H.C.G. Paper 2) question papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, both 2022 semesters and 2020. Every year up to 2025 has a free solution beside it. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy from its archive library, and its questions are solved in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ). There is no 2021 paper because the 2021 ICSE exams were cancelled. The 2020 paper was never sat either: Geography was one of the ICSE papers not yet held when the 2020 lockdown began, and CISCE cancelled those papers in June 2020, so use it as practice.

Solve 2026 first. It is the newest real paper, and CISCE's 2027 specimen for Geography keeps the same two-part layout. Our post on the ICSE specimen paper 2027 explains what changed in the specimens.

ICSE Geography 2026 question paper: where the 80 marks went

The paper gives you 2 hours to write, after 15 minutes of reading time. Part I is compulsory. In Part II you pick five of nine questions.

• Question 1, topographical map (Survey of India sheet G43S7): 10 marks in five 2-mark parts.
• Question 2, outline map of India: 10 marks for ten items to mark, shade or label.
• Question 3, objective questions: 10 one-mark MCQs, including one assertion-reason, one analogy and one photo.
• Part II, Questions 4 to 12: nine questions of 10 marks each, split 2 + 2 + 3 + 3. You answer any five, for 50 marks.

Source: ICSE 2026 Geography question paper (CISCE, paper code T26 502), Gradehunt analysis.

Map work alone was 20 of the 80 marks, and all of it sat in the compulsory part. At 1.5 minutes a mark, Part I is worth about 45 minutes and each Part II question about 15.

Every Part II question stayed inside one chapter. Question 4 was climate, 5 soil, 6 natural vegetation, 7 water resources, 8 minerals and energy, 9 agriculture, 10 manufacturing industries, 11 transport and 12 waste management.

You can leave four of those chapters out of your long answers on the day, but not out of your revision. The ten MCQs in Question 3 touched all nine chapters, and agriculture got two of them: groundnut residue as cattle feed, and mustard as a rabi crop.

What kind of questions came in the 2026 Geography paper

• Short stories with a name in them. Six question parts are built around a named person: Sahil crossing causeways on the map extract, Shyam comparing winter in Nainital and Ooty, Raghu choosing an irrigation method that spreads water evenly, Umesh and Sagar working in Odisha's iron ore mines, Mr Kumar's family picking transport for three trips, and Udit's advice to his sister on waste.
• Data and pictures. A twelve-month temperature and rainfall table for "station X", a map of the areas that get winter rain, a sketch of soils on a floodplain and a river terrace, a photo of forest in a marshy area, a waterway photo, a waste-management picture and a short extract from the Journal of Hydrology on groundwater.
• Reasons, not just definitions. Six of the eighteen 3-mark parts ask for a geographical reason behind three statements, such as why black soil does not get leached or why trees at high altitudes are conical.

The climate table rewards students who can read it without help: why June is cooler than May, adding up the rainy-season rainfall, and deciding from the range of temperature whether the station is near the sea.

Topographical map and India map questions

The 2026 topo questions tested the usual skills on a new sheet: reading a six-figure grid reference, naming a relief feature and a drainage pattern in a grid square, working out a height difference from contours, and explaining why causeways and a perennial water source appear in a mostly seasonal-stream area.

The India map list mixed physical and economic items: an old fold mountain range, the river called the Sorrow of Bihar, the Gulf of Kutch, the Karakoram Pass, the Western Ghats, the Krishna, an offshore oil field, the laterite soil area in the northeast, an area of dense population and the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana.

Older papers use different Survey of India sheets, which makes them useful practice. Each sheet tests the same skills on unfamiliar ground.

How to practise with these ICSE Geography papers

• Write 2026 and 2025 under exam conditions: 15 minutes of reading, then 2 hours. Use the reading time to choose your five Part II questions.
• Do 2024 and 2023 next, with a fresh outline map of India each time. Mark with arrows where places are crowded, as the paper itself tells you to.
• Use the two 2022 semester papers and the 2020 practice paper for chapter practice. 2022 was a two-semester year, so those papers are shorter.
• Answer every sub-part in serial order. The 2026 instructions ask for this, and it makes your answer easy to check against the solution.

For more practice, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ICSE Class 10 has the Geography board questions from the 2016 to 2026 exams sorted chapter by chapter, with the year printed on each question and the mark for each step shown in the solution.

Taking History and Civics too? It is H.C.G. Paper 1, and its papers are on our ICSE Class 10 History and Civics past papers page.

The table on this page has ICSE Class 10 History and Civics (H.C.G. Paper 1) board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020. Each year up to 2025 has a free solution next to it. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy from the CISCE archive library, and its questions are solved in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ). The 2021 ICSE exams were cancelled, so there is no 2021 paper.

If you only have time for one full paper, make it 2026. CISCE's 2027 specimen keeps the same Part I and Part II structure, which our post on the ICSE specimen paper 2027 covers.

ICSE History and Civics 2026 paper: how the marks were split

It is an 80-mark paper: 2 hours of writing after 15 minutes of reading time.

• Part I, Question 1: 16 MCQs of 1 mark each, compulsory.
• Part I, Question 2: seven short answers of 2 marks each (14 marks), compulsory.
• Part II, Section A (Civics): three 10-mark questions, answer any two, 20 marks.
• Part II, Section B (History): five 10-mark questions, answer any three, 30 marks.

Source: ICSE 2026 History and Civics question paper (CISCE, paper code T26 501), Gradehunt analysis.

Sort the compulsory questions by subject as well and History carried 50 of the 80 marks: 20 in Part I and 30 in Section B. Civics carried 30. Its 10 marks in Part I came from six MCQs and two short answers, and both short answers were about the President: why the election is indirect, and when an Ordinance can be issued and when it lapses.

At 1.5 minutes a mark, Part I needs about 45 minutes and each Part II question about 15.

Chapters behind the 2026 long questions

Section A had one question each on the Union Parliament (Question 3), the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (Question 4) and the Supreme Court (Question 5).

Section B covered the 1857 revolt from the soldiers' side (General Service Enlistment Act, the Enfield rifle, army changes after the revolt), the Gandhian movements up to the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, the Mountbatten Plan and the Indian Independence Act 1947, the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles, and the United Nations with the Non-Aligned Movement.

Each long question was split 3 + 3 + 4. In five of the eight, the 4-mark part asked for "any four" points: ways Parliament controls the executive, the Prime Minister's powers in the Cabinet, army changes after 1857, clauses of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and provisions of the Independence Act. Those lists are worth learning as numbered points.

Question styles in the 2026 History and Civics paper

• Varied MCQs. The 16 included an assertion-reason on Hitler and Poland, a chronology question on the Lucknow Pact, the Surat Split and the founding of the Muslim League, an odd one out on the Triple Entente, a policy-and-Governor-General pairing, and a table of four citizens where you pick who can become Vice President.
• Pictures, maps and news. Eight questions or parts started from a picture, a map, a headline or a newspaper extract, including a 2020 Times of India report on an Ordinance and a 2021 Hindustan Times piece on the Mountbatten Plan.
• Real-life situations. A man illegally detained (which writ?), students in a town protesting tree-cutting the way the Early Nationalists would, and "imagine you were part of the Indian National Army".

Knowing the textbook is not enough for these. You have to spot the concept inside an unfamiliar picture or story, which is why timed practice on real papers helps.

How to practise with these ICSE History and Civics papers

• Write 2026 and 2025 in two hours each, after 15 minutes of reading. Choose your two Civics and three History questions during the reading time.
• Then do 2024 and 2023, and use 2022 and 2020 for chapter-wise practice.
• Keep a one-page timeline from 1857 to 1947 and add events as they come up in past papers. It helps with chronology MCQs and with dates in long answers.
• Mark your answers against the solutions point by point. For an "any four" part, count how many separate, correct points you actually wrote.

For more board questions, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ICSE Class 10 has the History and Civics board questions from the 2016 to 2026 exams, arranged chapter-wise with the year on each question and a step-by-step mark split in the solutions.

Geography is H.C.G. Paper 2; its papers are on our ICSE Class 10 Geography past papers page.

The ICSE Class 10 English Literature 2026 board paper is now the top row of the table, from the CISCE archive library. Its worked solution is in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ). Below it are the 2025, 2024 and 2023 papers, both 2022 semester papers and the 2020 paper, each with a free solution.

For 2027 there is also an official specimen paper with a draft marking scheme. Literature in English is one of the ICSE subjects CISCE named in its 9 October 2026 circular on new specimen papers. The same circular gives questions on higher-order skills (apply, analyse, evaluate, create) a weightage of about 50% in the 2027 exams.

ICSE English Literature 2026 paper pattern

• 80 marks, 2 hours of writing and 15 minutes of reading time. Internal assessment adds 20 marks.
• Section A, 16 marks, compulsory: 16 MCQs.
• Sections B (drama), C (short stories) and D (poetry): two extract-based questions each, 16 marks per question, split 3, 3, 3, 3 and 4.
• You answer four of these six: one from each section and a fourth from any section.

At 1½ minutes a mark, each 16-mark question gets 24 minutes, and the MCQs another 24. Part (v) carries 4 marks and often packs three or four small questions into one, so keep about 6 minutes for it.

Which texts came in the 2026 paper, and which came in the 2027 specimen

• MCQs in 2026: 6 on Julius Caesar, 5 on the short stories and 5 on the poems. All 11 prescribed texts got at least one.
• Long questions in 2026: Julius Caesar Act 3 Scene 1 and Act 5 Scene 3; The Girl Who Can and The Pedestrian; When Great Trees Fall and The Power of Music.
• Long questions in the 2027 specimen: Julius Caesar Act 3 Scene 2 and Act 5 Scene 1; The Elevator and The Last Lesson; The Glove and the Lions and A Considerable Speck.
• With the Photographer and Haunted Houses had MCQs in both, but no long question in either.
• Skills tagged on the 16 specimen MCQs: understanding 10, analysis 4, recall 1, application 1.
• Personal response: the specimen's marking scheme marks 10 of the 30 long-question parts as personal response, spread across five of the six questions.

Source: CISCE ICSE 2026 Literature in English paper, ICSE 2027 Specimen Question Paper and draft marking scheme, ICSE English syllabus for 2027, Gradehunt analysis.

The specimen is a sample, not a forecast, so do not skip a text because it appeared in 2026. The CISCE note on the specimen itself says board questions can come from any part of the syllabus. The 2027 text list is the same one the 2026 paper used. Older papers may include texts that are no longer prescribed; skip those questions.

What changes in the 2027 English Literature paper

The format does not change. The 2027 specimen keeps 16 MCQs and the same four-section, 3-3-3-3-4 layout, and CISCE says the board paper will follow the specimen's format. The difference is in what the questions ask.

In the 2026 paper, questions asking for your opinion sat mostly in part (v): an alternative title for The Pedestrian, what appeals to you in When Great Trees Fall, and whether you sympathise with Bhisma Lochan Sharma or his listeners. In the specimen they also turn up in parts (i) to (iv). Which of M. Hamel's traits do you find most appealing? Which of Antony's arguments had the greatest impact? Why do you think de Lorge behaved as he did?

The draft marking scheme shows how such answers are marked. Any plausible view is accepted, but the reason must fit the view. In the Antony question, 1 mark is for choosing an argument and 2 for the reasons, and the scheme notes that justifications must match reasons.

MCQ types to expect

• Order four events from a story (With the Photographer in 2026, The Last Lesson in the specimen).
• Match a figure of speech from a poem to another line using the same device.
• Judge the link between two statements about a poem.
• Identify a character's tone or mood from a quoted line.

These reward close reading of the text itself. Summaries will not tell you the order of events or the exact words a character used.

How to practise with these papers

• Write the 2026 paper and the 2027 specimen in full, each in 2 hours. Check your answers against the 2026 solution and the specimen's marking scheme.
• Then 2025, 2024 and 2023 for more extracts on the same texts.
• For every text, prepare one opinion with two reasons from the text: a character you admire, a better title, a line that stays with you.

Board questions from the ICSE exams of 2016 to 2026, solved step by step and sorted chapter by chapter, are in Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ICSE Class 10.

Preparing for English Paper 1 as well? See the ICSE Class 10 English Language past papers.

The download table on this page has ICSE Class 10 English Language (English Paper 1) question papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, both 2022 semesters and 2020. Papers up to 2025 come with solutions. The 2026 paper is CISCE's official copy of the board paper, and its questions are solved in our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) set.

Many students search for the ICSE 2021 English Language paper. CISCE cancelled the 2021 Class 10 board exams in April that year because of Covid, so no board paper was written. The oldest paper in our table is the 2020 board paper, with its solution.

CISCE's 2027 English Language specimen paper, with its answer key, is on the CISCE specimen papers page. It has the same five questions and the same marks as the 2026 paper.

ICSE English Language 2026 paper: question-wise marks

• Question 1, composition, 20 marks: 300 to 350 words on one of five topics. In 2026 they were a story opening with a midnight doorbell, changing one period in your timetable, your favourite restaurant or food stall, for or against "Homework is a necessary evil", and a picture.
• Question 2, letter, 10 marks: an informal letter inviting a classmate to a study group, or a formal letter to the Municipal Commissioner about broken drainage.
• Question 3, notice and email, 5 + 5 marks: both on an Inter House Non-Flame Cooking Competition; the email invited a famous chef to judge.
• Question 4, comprehension, 20 marks: 3 marks of vocabulary MCQs, 9 marks of short answers and an 8-mark summary in 50 words. The passage was adapted from Totto-chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.
• Question 5, grammar, 20 marks: eight verb forms (4), eight prepositions (4), four sentence-joining MCQs (4) and eight transformation MCQs (8).

Source: CISCE ICSE 2026 English Language (English Paper 1) question paper, Gradehunt analysis.

Put the marks together and the paper splits four ways. Extended writing (composition, letter, notice, email and summary) is 48 of the 80 marks. Choose-the-option items are 15, one-word blanks 8 and short comprehension answers 9.

How long to spend on each question

The paper is two hours, and its instructions advise no more than 30 minutes on the composition and 20 on the letter. That leaves 70 minutes for the other 50 marks, a little under 1½ minutes a mark. The composition gets 1½ minutes a mark and the letter 2, a little more than the rest of the paper gets. Plan the composition during the 15 minutes of reading time and you start writing with the outline already in your head.

Grammar in the 2026 paper, item by item

Question 5 is the most predictable 20 marks in the paper: the 2026 paper and the 2027 specimen use the same four parts. Here is what each tested in 2026:

• Transformations: "No other king is as great as", active to passive ("Promises should be kept"), reported speech, "Having finished", unless to if, too to so...that, a noun changed to an adjective (difference to different), and "Not only... but also".
• Joining without and, but or so: a participle ("Picking up the bundle"), neither...nor, because and although.
• Prepositions: according to, by means of, a passion for, on the back, since last May, through the night, beyond her means, and before he was born.
• Verb forms: a cobra on a road in Tanganyika, with past tenses, a to-infinitive (not to run over it) and a past participle (so frightened).

All twelve joining and transformation items were multiple choice, and so are they in the 2027 specimen. Each wrong option is close to the right one, often a small tense or word-order slip, so read every option to the end before you pick.

What the 2027 English Language specimen shows

• Same layout: composition 20, letter 10, notice and email 10, comprehension 20 and grammar 20, all compulsory.
• The notice and email are again about one school event: a poster designing competition, with the email inviting an artist to judge.
• The comprehension passage is adapted from Ernest Hemingway's "A Day's Wait" and again ends with an 8-mark summary in 50 words.
• Each question carries a skill tag. The compositions are tagged Creativity or Evaluation, and grammar is tagged Application.

CISCE's circular of 9 October 2026 says apply, analyse, evaluate and create questions will carry about 50% of the weightage in 2027 exams across subjects.

How to practise with these English Language papers

• Write 2026 and 2025 as full two-hour papers, keeping to the 30 and 20 minute limits for Questions 1 and 2.
• Pick a different composition type each time: story, description, argument, picture. On exam day you choose only one, but you should not depend on a single type.
• For the verb-form passage, write the answers in serial order against each number, as the paper asks, without copying the passage.
• Count the words in your summary. The 2026 summary limit was 50 words for 8 marks.
• Use the 2022 semester papers and the 2020 paper for extra grammar and comprehension sets.

Our 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for ICSE Class 10 brings ten years of English Language board papers together, arranged chapter-wise with answers and updated to the latest CISCE syllabus, including the 2026 questions.

See our ICSE Class 10 English Language syllabus for the full topic list, and the English Literature past papers for Paper 2.

The table below has CBSE Class 12 Physical Education board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020, each with a solution. For 2026 the solution is CBSE's official marking scheme. There is no 2021 paper because CBSE cancelled the Class 12 board exams that year.

CBSE's own copies of the 2026 board paper and its marking scheme are on its website, under Physical Education in the Class 12 lists. For the 2027 exam, the 2026-27 sample paper and its marking scheme are on the CBSE academic site.

What three recent papers show about Section D and Section E

Every case study and long answer in the 2025 and 2026 board papers and the 2026-27 sample paper was matched to its unit in the CBSE curriculum. This is what came up.

• All nine case studies (Section D, 4 marks each) came from just three units: Unit 1 Management of Sporting Events, Unit 4 Sports for CWSN and Unit 7 Physiology and Injuries in Sport.
• In all three, the Unit 1 case study was a fixture: a knockout fixture of 11 teams in 2025, a league fixture in 2026 and a knockout fixture in the sample paper.
• Unit 6 Test and Measurement and Unit 10 Training in Sports set a 5-mark long answer in all three papers.
• Each paper asked for the procedure and scoring of a fitness test: SAI Khelo India tests in 2025, the Rikli and Jones Senior Citizen Fitness Test in 2026 and the Johnson-Metheny test in the sample paper.
• The other long answers rotated: Yoga for lifestyle diseases (2025, sample paper), Biomechanics (equilibrium in 2025, projectile in the sample paper), postural deformities and motivation (2026).

What to do with this: prepare Units 1, 4 and 7 well enough to handle a case study, and learn the fitness test procedures with their scoring. In each of the three papers, the case studies (12 marks) and the test and training long answers (10 marks) could cover 22 of the 70 marks you answer, if you pick both of those long answers.

Source: CBSE Class 12 Physical Education board papers 2025 and 2026 (cbse.gov.in), 2026-27 sample paper and curriculum (cbseacademic.nic.in), Gradehunt analysis.

CBSE Class 12 Physical Education paper pattern 2026-27

The 2026-27 sample paper carries a note that the question paper design has not changed for this session. The 2025 and 2026 board papers used the same layout: 37 questions, 70 marks, 3 hours.

• Section A, Q1 to 18: 18 MCQs of 1 mark, all compulsory (18 marks).
• Section B, Q19 to 24: six 2-mark questions, answer any 5, 60 to 90 words each (10 marks).
• Section C, Q25 to 30: six 3-mark questions, answer any 5, 100 to 150 words each (15 marks).
• Section D, Q31 to 33: three 4-mark case studies with internal choice (12 marks).
• Section E, Q34 to 37: four 5-mark questions, answer any 3, 200 to 300 words each (15 marks).

So you answer 34 of the 37 questions. The paper prints 80 marks of questions and 70 count. The word limits add up to 1,400 to 2,100 words across Sections B, C and E. With 180 minutes for 70 marks you get about 2.6 minutes a mark, which means roughly 39 minutes for the three long answers. Practicals carry another 30 marks.

Unit-wise marks for Class 12 Physical Education

CBSE's 2026-27 curriculum gives this weightage. The units add up to 80 because the spare questions in Sections B, C and E are counted.

• Unit 1, Management of Sporting Events: 9 (5 + 4 concept-based)
• Unit 2, Children and Women in Sports: 7
• Unit 3, Yoga as Preventive Measure for Lifestyle Disease: 7 (6 + 1 concept-based)
• Unit 4, Physical Education and Sports for CWSN: 8 (4 + 4 concept-based)
• Unit 5, Sports and Nutrition: 7
• Unit 6, Test and Measurement in Sports: 8
• Unit 7, Physiology and Injuries in Sport: 8 (4 + 4 concept-based)
• Unit 8, Biomechanics and Sports: 10
• Unit 9, Psychology and Sports: 7
• Unit 10, Training in Sports: 9

The curriculum describes the concept-based marks as tactile diagram, data interpretation or case-study questions, set in a separate version for visually impaired candidates. The 4-mark ones sit in Units 1, 4 and 7, the same three units the case studies came from. For topic lists under each unit, see our Class 12 Physical Education syllabus page.

How to practise with these past papers

• Write the 2025 paper first, in three hours. It uses the current pattern.
• Then do the official 2026 paper and the 2026-27 sample paper, and check both against their marking schemes.
• Use 2024 and 2023 next. The 2022 paper is from the Term II exam of the term-wise 2021-22 session and covers only part of the syllabus, and 2020 is older still, so use those two for topic practice rather than timing.
• There is no chapter-wise set here. Instead, sort the questions you get wrong by the units listed above, so you can see which unit keeps costing you.
• Keep a fixtures page. With 11 teams in a knockout, the next power of 2 is 16, so there are 5 byes and 10 matches (N - 1). A single league of N teams has N(N - 1)/2 matches. Write the formula in the answer, then the working.

One point to check in the sample paper: the marking scheme gives (c) Reaction for Q13, but the question describes friction, which is option (b). Confirm it with your teacher before you learn it.

Common reasons marks are cut in Physical Education answers

• Answering half a split question. Marks are shown as 1 + 2 or 2 + 3; a definition with no causes or functions can earn only the 1 mark.
• Covering one test out of two. The 2025 question on the Flamingo Balance and Plate Tapping tests gave 2½ marks to each, procedure and scoring included.
• Skipping the stick diagram when an asana question asks for one, as the sample paper's Gomukhasana question does.
• Long answers with no structure. Short points or headings make the separate parts of a 5-mark answer easy to find.

Gradehunt's CBSE Class 12 Physical Education test series lets you write full papers by hand, upload them and get them checked within 48 hours of upload.

More CBSE Class 12 past papers

Solved papers are also up for Physics, Accountancy and English.

The table on this page has CBSE Class 12 Business Studies board papers with solutions for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2022, three sets each, and two sets from 2020. The 2026 papers are CBSE's own March 2026 sets with CBSE's official marking scheme as the solution. There is no 2021 paper because CBSE cancelled the Class 12 board exams that year.

Looking for the 2026-27 sample paper with solutions? CBSE publishes it with its marking scheme, and both links are in the next section. CBSE has also put the March 2026 Business Studies paper, the 2026 supplementary paper and their marking schemes on its own question paper page and marking scheme page, as ZIP files. Sets 1 to 3 of the March 2026 paper are also in our table.

CBSE Class 12 Business Studies sample paper 2026-27 with solutions

The 2026-27 sample question paper for Business Studies (code 054) and its marking scheme are free PDFs on CBSE's academic website. Each page of the paper repeats one line: there is no change in the question paper design or assessment pattern for 2026-27. CBSE's Business Studies sample papers have kept the same 34-question, 80-mark, 3-hour layout since 2022-23, so the 2023 to 2025 papers in our table and the March 2026 paper are the closest practice for the 2027 exam.

BST Class 12 paper pattern

• Theory paper: 80 marks, 3 hours. The project carries the other 20 marks.
• 34 questions: 20 one-mark MCQs (Q1 to 20), four 3-mark questions (Q21 to 24), six 4-mark questions (Q25 to 30) and four 6-mark questions (Q31 to 34).
• The MCQs come in several forms: assertion-reason, two statements to judge, match the columns, one picture-based question and one small numerical on earnings per share (Q19).
• Six questions have an internal OR choice: 21, 23, 25, 28, 31 and 34.
• Suggested length: 50 to 75 words for 3 marks, about 150 for 4 marks and about 200 for 6 marks.

Three hours for 80 marks is 2¼ minutes a mark. That is roughly 7 minutes for a 3-mark answer, 9 for a 4-mark answer and 13 to 14 for a 6-mark answer.

Unit-wise marks in the 2026-27 sample paper

We matched each of the 34 sample-paper questions to its unit in the 2026-27 syllabus. The totals agree exactly with CBSE's unit weightage:

• Nature and Significance of Management, Principles of Management, Business Environment: 16 marks (Q1, 2, 5, 9, 25, 29, 30)
• Planning and Organising: 14 marks (Q3, 14, 33, 34)
• Staffing, Directing and Controlling: 20 marks (Q4, 6, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28)
• Financial Management and Financial Markets: 15 marks (Q7, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 23, 32)
• Marketing and Consumer Protection: 15 marks (Q8, 11, 13, 16, 18, 26, 31)

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

What the mapping shows:

• 18 of the 34 questions, worth 41 of the 80 marks, are built on a short case about a business, a person or a news event. You have to spot the concept inside the story before you can answer.
• Planning and Organising take 12 of their 14 marks from two 6-mark questions: types of plans or benefits of planning (Q34), and decentralisation (Q33). Learn both chapters for long answers, not just for MCQs.
• Consumer Protection shows up only as four one-mark MCQs: who counts as a consumer, the Central Consumer Protection Authority, where an appeal goes, and rights and responsibilities.
• Six of the 20 MCQs come from the two finance units, including the EPS sum. Working capital factors and the debt-or-equity choice need quick recall.

A single sample paper can't tell you which chapter inside a unit group will get the long question in the board exam. The group totals are fixed by the syllabus, though, so a weak group costs you a predictable number of marks.

How the BST marking scheme gives marks

The 2026-27 marking scheme splits most long answers into a small mark for the heading and a bigger one for the explanation. Some examples from it:

• Q31, 6 marks for three points: ½ mark per heading and 1½ per explanation. Headings alone earn 1½ out of 6.
• Q33, 6 marks for four benefits of decentralisation: ½ per heading and 1 per explanation.
• Q22, 3 marks: 1 for naming the barrier from the case, then ½ for the heading and ½ for the explanation of two more barriers.
• Q32, 6 marks: 1 for naming the stock exchange, 1 for its definition and 4 for the functions described in the case.

So the split tells you where marks go. A list of headings with no explanation gets a fraction of the marks. So does a concept named correctly from the case but never explained. And a 3-mark answer stretched to a full page eats the minutes you need for the last 6-mark question.

Which BST previous year papers to practise first

• 2025, 2024 and 2023 first. They come from the years when the sample papers used today's 34-question, 80-mark design.
• 2022 next. CBSE ran that exam in two terms, and its Term 2 sample paper was a 40-mark, 2-hour paper of 12 written questions. Use it for chapter practice.
• 2020 for extra practice, chapter by chapter, once the newer papers are done.
• Keep the 2026 paper and the 2026-27 sample paper for timed full papers in the last month.

Write each paper by hand in three hours, then mark it against the solution point by point. Give yourself the heading mark only if the heading is right, and the explanation marks only if your explanation says what the solution says.

If you want someone else to mark your full papers, Gradehunt's CBSE Class 12 Business Studies test series has a test for every chapter and two full-syllabus mock tests. You write them by hand, upload them and get them back checked within 48 hours, with step-wise marks and comments.

More CBSE Class 12 commerce past papers

Solved past papers for Accountancy and Economics are also on Gradehunt.

The table below has CBSE Class 12 Economics question papers for 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, three sets for each year, with solutions, free to download as PDFs. There is no 2021 paper, because CBSE cancelled the Class 12 board exams that year.

The 2026 rows in the table are Sets 1 to 3 (58/1/1 to 58/1/3) with CBSE's official marking scheme as the solution. CBSE has posted all 15 sets (codes 58/1/1 to 58/5/3) on its official question paper page, and the matching marking scheme on its marking scheme page. The 2026 compartment paper is on both pages too.

One point before you start: the Class 12 Economics board paper has no Microeconomics. Every paper in the table, 2020 included, covers only Macroeconomics (Section A) and Indian Economic Development (Section B), and in the full 80-mark papers each section carries 40 marks. Microeconomics is examined in Class 11.

CBSE Class 12 Economics paper pattern and time per mark (2026-27)

CBSE's 2026-27 sample paper says the question paper design has not changed this session. So the 2023, 2024 and 2025 papers in the table, and the 2026 paper on CBSE's site, are set the same way as the paper you will write in 2027: 34 questions, 80 marks, 3 hours.

• 20 MCQs of 1 mark: 20 marks, 2 minutes 15 seconds each, 45 minutes in all
• 4 short answers of 3 marks (60 to 80 words): 12 marks, about 7 minutes each
• 6 short answers of 4 marks (80 to 100 words): 24 marks, 9 minutes each
• 4 long answers of 6 marks (100 to 150 words): 24 marks, 13 to 14 minutes each

Source: CBSE Sample Question Paper 2026-27, Economics (030), Gradehunt analysis. Time is 180 minutes divided by 80 marks, which is 2.25 minutes a mark.

If you finish the MCQs in less than 45 minutes, put the time you save into the four 6-mark answers. You also get 15 minutes to read the paper before writing (10:15 to 10:30 am in 2026). Use them to pick your internal choices, so you never start one option and switch halfway.

Does the sample paper follow the unit-wise marks?

Yes, exactly. We mapped every question in the 2026-27 sample paper to its syllabus unit (taking option B in Q17), and each unit came out at its official weight:

• National Income and Related Aggregates: 10
• Money and Banking: 6
• Determination of Income and Employment: 12
• Government Budget and the Economy: 6
• Balance of Payments: 6
• Development Experience (1947-90) and Economic Reforms since 1991: 12
• Current Challenges facing Indian Economy: 20
• Development Experience of India, a comparison with neighbours: 8

Source: CBSE Economics curriculum and Sample Question Paper 2026-27, Gradehunt analysis.

Current Challenges and Income Determination together carry 32 marks, 40% of the paper. When you sort old questions by unit, start with those two. Our Class 12 Economics syllabus guide has the chapter list.

Which Economics past papers to practise first

• 2025 and 2024: same pattern as 2027. Write these first, in 3 hours, by hand.
• 2026, from CBSE's site: the newest paper. Check yourself against the official marking scheme.
• 2023: same pattern again, a good third full paper.
• 2022: that session was split into two terms, so the paper is shorter and laid out differently. Use it for extra questions only.
• 2020: same 34-question layout, but Current Challenges then carried 22 marks and the comparison with neighbours 6, against 20 and 8 now (CBSE 2019-20 sample paper blueprint).

Current-affairs passages in recent Economics papers

Recent papers build several long questions around real government data. The question still tests a textbook concept; the passage only sets the scene.

• 2026-27 sample paper, Q16 (6 marks): PIB data on real GDP growth of 8.2% in Q2 of 2025-26, used to ask real versus nominal GDP.
• Sample paper, Q34 (6 marks): non-fossil sources at 51.93% of India's installed power capacity at the end of December 2025, used for sustainable development.
• Sample paper, Q13 and Q17 (internal choices): the RBI's 100 basis point CRR cut of 6 June 2025 and its Rs 2,00,000 crore open market purchase announced on 23 December 2025.
• 2026 board paper, set 58/1/1, Q17 (6 marks): Economic Survey 2024-25 projections of 12.7% growth in direct tax and 8.3% in indirect tax for 2025-26, used to ask how the two taxes differ.
• Same paper, Q34 (6 marks): the RTE Act 2009, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Digital India, used for human capital and education.

You do not have to memorise the news. Read the Union Budget and Economic Survey summaries once so these passages feel familiar, then practise linking each one to the concept it hides.

How CBSE examiners award marks in Economics

The instructions to examiners at the start of CBSE's 2026 Economics marking scheme are worth knowing:

• The value points are guidelines. Your own wording gets the marks if it is correct.
• Answers based on the latest information can be given due marks.
• An error carried into later steps is penalised once, not again in every step.
• If you answer both options of an internal choice, the better one is kept, but you lose the time.
• Examiners work 8 hours a day and check 20 answer books a day in main subjects (25 in other subjects), so a copy gets 24 minutes or less (Gradehunt analysis). Make every point easy to find.

The sample paper's marking scheme also shows how small the units of marks are. In the GDP numerical (Q11), the formula, the working and the final figure carry half a mark each for both methods. In Q13, naming the RBI function (banker's bank) is worth 1 mark and explaining it 3. True-or-false parts (Q17, option B) ask for valid reasons, so never write only "True" or "False".

To find out where your own answers drop these half marks, write a full paper and have it checked. Gradehunt's CBSE Class 12 test series includes full-syllabus mock tests, and every handwritten answer sheet is checked step-wise within 48 hours of upload.

Past papers for other Class 12 commerce subjects

We also have solved past papers for Accountancy, Business Studies and Maths.

You can download CBSE Class 12 Accountancy board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020 from the table on this page, three sets for each year, each with its solution. The 2026 rows are CBSE's March 2026 papers, and the solutions are CBSE's official 2026 marking scheme. There is no 2021 paper; CBSE cancelled the Class 12 board exams that year.

The same March 2026 Accountancy paper and marking scheme are on CBSE's question paper page and marking scheme page as ZIP files.

CBSE Class 12 Accountancy 2026 question paper: topic-wise marks

Taken question by question, with CBSE's marking scheme used to confirm each topic, Part A of the March 2026 Set 1 paper (code 67/1/1) matches the 2026-27 syllabus split of 36 and 24 marks exactly:

• Partnership firms: 36 marks. Eleven MCQs (Q1, 2, 4, 5, 7 to 10, 14 to 16), three 3-mark questions on goodwill, past adjustments or a guaranteed profit, and partner's commission (Q17, 18, 20), a 4-mark question on goodwill and a partner's share of profit (Q22), dissolution with a Realisation Account (Q23, 6 marks) and admission or retirement (Q25, 6 marks).
• Company accounts: 24 marks. Five MCQs (Q3, 6, 11 to 13), paying a vendor in shares, or paying for a business taken over in debentures (Q19, 3 marks), issue of debentures (Q21, 4 marks), issue or forfeiture and reissue of shares (Q24, 6 marks) and share capital in the balance sheet (Q26, 6 marks).
• Part B, Analysis of Financial Statements option: 20 marks. Four MCQs (Q27 to 30), balance sheet heads and sub-heads (Q31, 3), a comparative balance sheet (Q32, 3), ratios (Q33, 4) and cash flow from operating activities (Q34, 6).

Source: CBSE Class 12 Accountancy question paper 67/1/1 and marking scheme (March 2026), 2026-27 curriculum, Gradehunt analysis.

Three details are easy to miss:

• Q26 was a 6-mark question made of six 1-mark MCQs on one company's share capital. Add the 16 MCQs in Part A and the four in Part B, and 26 of the 80 marks were multiple choice.
• Twelve questions had an internal choice: seven MCQs (Q3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 27, 29) and five written questions (Q18, 19, 24, 25, 33). The 2026-27 sample paper's instructions mention choices only in written questions: two each of 3, 4 and 6 marks.
• The sets overlap heavily. In Set 2, 21 of the 26 Part A questions open with the same case as Set 1, in a different order. Six of the eight Part B questions on financial statements are the same; only the items to classify (Q31) and the company in the comparative balance sheet (Q32) change.

Accountancy paper pattern and time per mark

The paper has 34 questions, 80 marks and 3 hours. Part A (Accounting for Partnership Firms and Companies, 60 marks) is compulsory. Part B (20 marks) has two options, Analysis of Financial Statements or Computerised Accounting, and you answer only one. The project, or the practical work for the Computerised Accounting option, carries the other 20 marks.

At 2¼ minutes a mark, give a 3-mark question about 7 minutes, a 4-mark question 9, and a 6-mark question 13 to 14. Questions that need several accounts, such as dissolution and admission, take the longest, so move through the MCQs quickly and save the time for them.

For 2027, CBSE's 2026-27 sample paper and marking scheme carry a note that the question paper design and assessment pattern have not changed.

How the 2026 Accountancy marking scheme gives marks

• Q17, goodwill by two methods (3 marks): ½ each for the formula, normal profit, super profit and goodwill under capitalisation, then ½ for the formula and ½ for goodwill under the super profit method.
• Q18(b), guarantee of profit (3 marks): ½ for each correct line in the Profit and Loss Appropriation Account. The scheme notes that the net profit figure itself earns nothing.
• Q31, classification (3 marks): ½ for the major head and ½ for the sub-head of each item, for example stores and spare parts under Current Assets, then Inventories.
• Q33(a), ratios (4 marks): working figures such as current assets and current liabilities earn ½ each before the ratio does.

So the working is where the marks are. For Q18(a) the scheme even tells examiners to give full credit when the correct working is shown in another form. If you attempt both alternatives in Part A, or both Part B options, both are marked and the higher score counts.

Which Accountancy previous year papers to practise first

• Write 2026 Set 1 as a full paper in three hours. From Sets 2 and 3, solve only the questions that differ.
• Then write 2025 and 2024, the two most recent papers before 2026.
• Use 2023 and 2020 for extra practice by topic. The 2022 papers come from a term-wise exam, so use them for single chapters.
• Mark your journal entries and accounts against the solution line by line, and redo every question where a wrong ratio or a missed adjustment carried through the whole answer.

The full topic list for 2026-27 is in our CBSE Class 12 Accountancy syllabus guide.

If you would rather revise one chapter at a time, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 12 Accountancy puts the board questions from 2016 to 2026 under each chapter of the 2026-27 syllabus, marks the year on every question and shows the marks for each step of the solution.

More CBSE Class 12 commerce past papers

Solved past papers for Business Studies and Economics are also on Gradehunt.

Download CBSE Class 12 English Core board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020 from the table below, three sets for each year, with solutions. The 2026 rows are CBSE's own March 2026 papers (Sets 1, 2 and 3, code 1/1), and the solution for each set is CBSE's official marking scheme. There is no 2021 paper, because CBSE cancelled the Class 12 exams that year.

CBSE has the same 2026 paper, the 2026 compartment paper and their marking schemes on its question paper page and marking scheme page. The 2026-27 sample paper and its marking scheme are on CBSE's academic website, and the sample paper says there is no change in the question paper design or assessment pattern for 2026-27.

CBSE Class 12 English 2026 paper: marks, questions and choices

Here is how Set 1 (1/1/1) was built, question by question:

• Reading, 22 marks, no choice. A 365-word passage from Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull (12 marks over 10 questions), then a factual passage on road safety with a table of accident causes (10 marks over 8 questions).
• Creative writing, 18 marks, every task with an OR: a notice (4), an invitation or a formal reply (4), a letter to the editor or a job application with bio-data (5), and an article or a report (5).
• Literature, 40 marks: a poetry extract (6), a Vistas extract (4), a Flamingo prose extract (6), any five of six short answers (10), any two of three Vistas short answers (4) and two long answers of 5 marks each.
• One-mark questions: 30 of the 80 marks, 14 in reading and 16 across the three extracts.
• Expression marks: 17 of the 80 go to grammar, spelling, punctuation and organisation, and the writing tasks carry 4 more for format.
• Written length: add up the word limits and you write roughly 860 to 1,050 words, besides the one-line extract answers.
• Syllabus spread: counting both options of every choice, Set 1 asked about all 19 prescribed texts, the 8 Flamingo prose chapters, 5 Flamingo poems and 6 Vistas chapters.

Source: CBSE Class 12 English Core papers 1/1/1 and 1/1/2 (March 2026), their marking schemes and the 2026-27 curriculum, Gradehunt analysis.

That last point matters for revision. You get a choice in every literature question, but the choices are spread over the whole book. Skipping two or three chapters can leave you with no real choice at all.

What the 2026 writing tasks were

Set 1's notice was either a career counselling session for Classes 11 and 12 or a call for school magazine contributions. The invitation went to the local MLA for a felicitation function, and the reply option accepted an invitation to run an art therapy seminar. The letter was either to the editor, urging young people to take up yoga, or a job application for an AI engineer's post. The article was titled 'The Vanishing Art of Slowing Down', and the report covered a 'Tastes of India' food week.

The 2026-27 curriculum keeps the same menu for Section B: a notice, an invitation or reply, a letter to the editor or job application, and an article or report. Practise one of each type from every past paper rather than all the notices first.

How the 2026 English marking scheme gave marks

The scheme spells out the split for each kind of answer:

• Notice, invitation and reply: format 1, content 2, expression 1.
• Letter, article and report: format 1, content 2, expression 2.
• Short literature answers of 40 to 50 words: content 1, expression 1.
• Long literature answers of 120 to 150 words: content 3, expression 2. Where a question links two texts, the answer has to refer to both.

A few rules from the same scheme change how you should write:

• Format earns nothing if the content is missing or irrelevant. A boxed notice with the wrong details scores zero for format too.
• In reading answers, grammar, spelling and word count are not marked, and lifting a relevant line from the passage is not penalised. The examiner checks whether you found the idea.
• No marks are cut for going over a word limit. The real cost of a long answer is the time it takes from the next question.
• If you answer both options of a choice, both are marked and only the higher score counts. That rarely helps, since the second answer eats ten minutes.
• Class 12 answer books were marked on screen (On Screen Marking) from 2026, so write each question and part number clearly.

At 2¼ minutes a mark, a three-hour paper splits into about 50 minutes for reading, 40 for writing and 90 for literature.

Which English previous year papers to practise first

• 2026 Sets 1 to 3 and the 2026-27 sample paper, because CBSE has kept the same design for 2027.
• 2025, 2024 and 2023 next, each written in one three-hour sitting.
• 2022 and 2020 for extra passages and literature questions. The 2022 exam was held in two terms, so those papers are shorter.

Mark your writing tasks against the solution in three passes: format, content, then expression. Format is the easiest of the three to fix, because it follows a set layout.

When you want more questions chapter by chapter, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 12 collects the board questions from 2016 to 2026 for each subject, with the year and marks shown on each question and solutions amended to the 2026-27 syllabus.

Solved past papers for Physics, Chemistry and Maths are also on Gradehunt.

This page has CBSE Class 12 Biology board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020, three sets a year, with a solution for every set. The 2026 papers are the ones CBSE set in March 2026, and their solutions are CBSE's official 2026 marking scheme. There is no 2021 paper because CBSE cancelled the Class 12 board exams that year.

CBSE also lists the March 2026 Biology paper and its marking scheme, as ZIP files, on its question paper page and marking scheme page.

CBSE Class 12 Biology 2026 question paper: unit-wise marks

Here are the 33 questions of the March 2026 Set 1 paper (code 57/1/1), each placed under its unit in the 2026-27 syllabus:

• Reproduction: 16 marks (Q1, 3, 12, 18, 22, 25, 31)
• Genetics and Evolution: 20 marks (Q8, 10, 13, 20, 23, 24, 30, 32)
• Biology and Human Welfare: 12 marks (Q2, 15, 17, 26, 33)
• Biotechnology and its Applications: 11 marks (Q9, 11, 14, 19, 27, 28)
• Ecology and Environment: 10 marks (Q4, 6, 7, 16, 21, 29)
• Not assigned: 1 mark (Q5, on how the pomato was made by fusing protoplasts, a topic the current syllabus does not name)

Source: CBSE Class 12 Biology question paper 57/1/1 (March 2026) and the 2026-27 curriculum, Gradehunt analysis.

If you count the pomato question under Biotechnology, each unit lands exactly on CBSE's weightage of 16, 20, 12, 12 and 10 marks. Genetics and Evolution is the largest unit and had a question in every section, including a 5-mark answer on the DNA double helix or transcription.

What else the 2026 Biology paper shows

• Seven questions were built around a picture, a chart or a drawing: chromosome pairing (Q8), an ecological pyramid (Q21), a pedigree chart (Q23), the megasporangium you draw and label (Q25), a gel electrophoresis setup (Q28), barnacles on a rocky shore (Q29) and bar graphs of genetic crosses (Q30).
• Several questions describe a situation and ask you to apply a concept: a farmer spraying Bt spores on one of two corn fields (Q27), and three couples who need a suitable assisted reproductive technology (Q31, second option).
• Eight questions offered an internal choice: three of the five 2-mark questions (Q18, 20, 21), one sub-part of each case-based question and all three long answers. The MCQs and 3-mark questions had none.
• Set 2 reused 21 of Set 1's 33 questions, worth 49 marks, in a different order. Solving one set well covers a good part of the others.

Biology paper pattern and time per mark

The theory paper is 70 marks in 3 hours, with 15 minutes of reading time first. It has 33 questions in five sections: 16 one-mark MCQs (four of them assertion-reason), five 2-mark, seven 3-mark, two 4-mark case-based and three 5-mark questions. Practicals carry the other 30 marks.

That gives you about 2½ minutes per mark, or roughly 13 minutes for each 5-mark answer. A labelled diagram takes longer than students plan for, so keep 5 minutes in hand for Q25-type drawing questions.

Searching for the Biology sample paper with solutions? CBSE's 2026-27 sample paper and marking scheme are free on cbseacademic.nic.in. The sample paper notes that the question paper design and assessment pattern have not changed for 2026-27.

How the 2026 Biology marking scheme gives marks

• Q25, megasporangium diagram (3 marks): ½ for each of six correct labels. A neat drawing with three labels earns 1½.
• Q22, pollen viability (3 marks): ½ for answering "No", 1 for each of two examples, and ½ for how pollen banks store pollen (in liquid nitrogen at -196°C).
• Q24, Hardy-Weinberg (3 marks): the derivation is split into four ½-mark steps, then ½ for each factor that disturbs the equilibrium.
• Q27, Bt corn (3 marks): ½ for naming the gene, three ½-mark points on how the toxin kills the larva, and 1 for explaining the GM plant's resistance.

Marks come for named terms, examples and each step of a process. An answer that explains the idea in general words but never names the gene, the example or the label loses most of them. The scheme's instructions also say that if you attempt both options of a choice question, both are marked and the higher score counts.

Which Biology previous year papers to solve first

• Write 2026 Set 1 in three hours, with every diagram drawn. Then answer only the new questions in Sets 2 and 3.
• Move on to 2025 and 2024, then 2023 and 2020.
• Use the 2022 papers for chapter practice. That exam was held term-wise and was much shorter.
• Check each answer against the solution and underline the terms the marking scheme rewards. Learn those terms the way they are written there.

For practice by chapter, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 12 Biology gathers the board questions from 2016 to 2026 under each chapter of the 2026-27 syllabus, with the exam year on every question and the marks for each point in the solutions.

Past papers for other Class 12 science subjects

Solved past papers for Physics, Chemistry and Maths are also on Gradehunt.

The table below has CBSE Class 12 Mathematics board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020, three sets for each year, with solutions. The 2026 rows are CBSE's March 2026 papers, and their solutions are CBSE's official 2026 marking scheme. There is no 2021 paper, because CBSE cancelled the Class 12 board exams that year.

CBSE has also put the March 2026 Mathematics paper and its marking scheme on its question paper page and marking scheme page, as ZIP files.

CBSE Class 12 Maths 2026 question paper: unit-wise marks

Sort all 38 questions of the March 2026 Set 1 paper (code 65/1/1) by unit, and every total matches CBSE's 2026-27 unit weightage:

• Relations and Functions: 8 marks (Q1, 25, 32)
• Algebra (Matrices and Determinants): 10 marks (Q2 to 6, Q33)
• Calculus: 35 marks (Q7 to 12, 21, 22, 26 to 29, 34, 36, 38)
• Vectors and Three-Dimensional Geometry: 14 marks (Q13 to 16, 20, 23, 24, 35)
• Linear Programming: 5 marks (Q17, 18, 30)
• Probability: 8 marks (Q19, 31, 37)

Source: CBSE Class 12 Mathematics question paper 65/1/1 (March 2026) and the 2026-27 curriculum, Gradehunt analysis.

What the count shows:

• Calculus took 15 of the 38 questions. Two of the three case studies were calculus too: Q36 asked when a delivery company's subscription revenue is highest, and Q38 asked for the area of a roundabout and its pond by integration. The third case study, Q37, was probability on an online jackpot.
• Algebra was almost all one-markers. Five MCQs (Q2 to 6) plus one 5-mark question on the inverse of a matrix or a singular matrix.
• Each unit appeared in at least two sections, so no unit could be safely left for MCQs only.
• All three case studies, Q36 to 38, appear in Sets 1, 2 and 3, only numbered differently.

Class 12 Maths paper pattern 2026-27 and time per question

• Theory: 80 marks, 3 hours, plus 15 minutes to read the paper. Internal assessment adds 20 marks.
• Section A: 18 MCQs and 2 assertion-reason questions, 1 mark each. Section B: five 2-mark questions. Section C: six 3-mark questions. Section D: four 5-mark questions. Section E: three 4-mark case studies.
• Choices in the 2026 Set 1 paper: two in Section B (Q21, 25), three in Section C (Q27, 29, 31), two in Section D (Q32, 33) and one sub-part in each of the three case studies. Section A had none. No calculator.

With 80 marks in 180 minutes you get 2¼ minutes a mark. That is about 4½ minutes for a 2-mark question, 7 for a 3-mark question, 9 for a case study and 11 for a 5-mark question.

CBSE's 2026-27 sample paper keeps this layout and notes that the design has not changed for the session. One small difference: its instructions list a choice inside two of the case studies, where the 2026 board paper had one in all three. The sample paper and its marking scheme are free on cbseacademic.nic.in.

How CBSE gave marks in the 2026 Maths marking scheme

In Maths most of the marks sit in the steps. Three examples from the Set 1 scheme:

• Q30, linear programming (3 marks): 1½ for the correct graph with the feasible region shaded, 1 for the table of corner points, ½ for the minimum value.
• Q22, rate of change of a cone (2 marks): four steps of ½ each, and only the last one is the final rate.
• Q35, two lines in space (5 marks): 1 mark each for showing the lines are not parallel, writing a general point on each, solving for the parameters, checking the third equation and stating the point of intersection.

Two general rules in the scheme also matter. A mistake carried forward is penalised only once, so keep going after an early slip. If you answer an extra question, the examiner keeps the answer that deserves more marks and scores out the other.

Which Maths previous year papers to practise first

• Write 2026 Set 1 as a full timed paper. Use Sets 2 and 3 for the questions that differ from Set 1.
• Next do 2025 and 2024. They follow the same 38-question pattern.
• Use 2023 and 2020 for extra questions. The 2022 papers come from a term-wise exam, so treat them as chapter practice.
• Write each paper in three hours without a calculator or notes, then mark it step by step against the solution. Note every question where you got stuck on the first step; that list is your revision plan for the next week.

For the full 2026-27 chapter list, see our CBSE Class 12 Maths syllabus guide.

If you would rather practise one chapter at a time, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 12 Maths groups the board questions from 2016 to 2026 by chapter, in the 2026-27 syllabus order. Each question shows its year, and each solution shows the marks for every step.

Past papers for other Class 12 subjects

Solved past papers for Physics, Chemistry and Biology are also on Gradehunt.

The table on this page has CBSE Class 12 Chemistry board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020, three sets a year, each with a solution. The 2026 rows are CBSE's own March 2026 papers, and the solution for each set is CBSE's official 2026 marking scheme. You won't find a 2021 paper: CBSE cancelled the Class 12 board exams that year.

CBSE also keeps the full set of March 2026 Chemistry papers as a ZIP file on its question paper page, with the marking schemes on its marking scheme page.

CBSE Class 12 Chemistry 2026 question paper: chapter-wise marks

Match all 33 questions in the March 2026 Set 1 paper (code 56/1/1) to their units, and each unit total comes out exactly equal to CBSE's 2026-27 weightage:

• Solutions: 7 marks (Q2, 13, 17, 24)
• Electrochemistry: 9 marks (Q5, 23, 33)
• Chemical Kinetics: 7 marks (Q1, 4, 21, 22)
• d- and f-Block Elements: 7 marks (Q3, 15, 32)
• Coordination Compounds: 7 marks (Q7, 19, 30)
• Haloalkanes and Haloarenes: 6 marks (Q9, 18, 28)
• Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers: 6 marks (Q6, 8, 14, 27)
• Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids: 8 marks (Q26, 31)
• Amines: 6 marks (Q10, 11, 29)
• Biomolecules: 7 marks (Q12, 16, 20, 25)

Source: CBSE Class 12 Chemistry question paper 56/1/1 (March 2026) and the 2026-27 curriculum, Gradehunt analysis.

A few things stand out once the paper is laid out like this:

• Organic chemistry (the last five units) is 33 of the 70 marks, the same share the syllabus gives it.
• Four questions need working: the rate change when the vessel shrinks to a third (Q21), a first-order rate constant from pressure data (Q22), the boiling point of benzoic acid that dimerises in CS2 (Q24), and the Nernst equation in both options of Q33. That is 13 marks of calculation, without a calculator.
• Seven questions had an internal choice: Q19 in Section B, Q23 in Section C, both case-based questions and all three long answers. The 16 MCQs, including four assertion-reason items (Q13 to 16), had none.
• The three sets were close to one paper reshuffled. Fourteen of the 17 written questions, 47 of their 54 marks, appear word for word in Sets 1, 2 and 3. The other three keep the topic and change the example: a different mixture for deviation from Raoult's law, different pairs to differentiate in biomolecules, and a different 3-mark question on carbohydrates.

Chemistry paper pattern and time per mark

The 2026 paper kept the five-section layout: 16 one-mark MCQs, five 2-mark questions, seven 3-mark questions, two 4-mark case-based questions and three 5-mark long answers. That is 70 marks in 3 hours, with 15 minutes of reading time before writing starts. Practicals carry the other 30 marks.

Three hours for 70 marks works out to roughly 2½ minutes a mark: about 5 minutes for a 2-mark answer, 8 for a 3-mark answer, 10 for a case-based question and 13 for a long answer. If the MCQs take you 25 minutes rather than 40, spend the spare time on mechanisms and conversions, which are slow to write.

The 2026-27 sample paper and its marking scheme are on cbseacademic.nic.in. The sample paper carries a note that the question paper design and assessment pattern have not changed for 2026-27, so the 2026 board paper is the closest model for the 2027 exam.

How the 2026 marking scheme gives marks

CBSE's 2026 scheme splits even short answers into small pieces. Some examples from Set 1:

• Q17, 2 marks: ½ for naming negative deviation, 1 for the reason (hydrogen bonding between phenol and aniline) and ½ for saying the boiling point rises.
• Q28, 3 marks: ½ for each structure, then ½ for choosing the right compound and ½ for the reason (SN1 or SN2) in each of the other two parts.
• Q30(b), 1 mark: ½ for each crystal field configuration.

So a correct name with no reason usually gets half the marks at most. The scheme's instructions add two rules worth knowing. An error carried into later steps is penalised only once. And if you answer both options of a choice question, both are marked and the higher score counts, though that costs time you need elsewhere. The 2026 scheme also notes that Class 12 answer books were marked on screen for the first time that year.

Which Chemistry previous year papers to solve first

• Write 2026 Set 1 as a full three-hour paper. For Sets 2 and 3, answer only the MCQs and the three changed questions, since the rest repeats Set 1.
• Then do 2025 and 2024. They follow the same five-section pattern as 2026.
• Use 2023 and 2020 for extra questions, chapter by chapter. Treat 2022 the same way, because that year's exam was term-wise and much shorter.
• Mark every paper against the solution part by part, and keep a list of reactions and named reactions you could not write from memory.

The full 2026-27 chapter list is in our CBSE Class 12 Chemistry syllabus guide.

Want every past question on a chapter in one place? Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 12 Chemistry sorts the board questions from 2016 to 2026 chapter by chapter, in the 2026-27 syllabus order, with the year on each question and step-wise marks in the solutions.

Past papers for other Class 12 science subjects

Solved past papers for Physics, Maths and Biology are also on Gradehunt.

The table on this page has CBSE Class 12 Physics board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020, three sets each, and every paper comes with a solution. The 2026 rows are CBSE's own March 2026 papers (Sets 1, 2 and 3, code 55/1), and their solutions are CBSE's official marking schemes. You won't find a 2021 paper anywhere, because CBSE cancelled the Class 12 board exams that year.

CBSE also keeps the 2026 Physics paper, the 2026 compartment paper and their marking schemes on its question paper page and marking scheme page, as ZIP files. For the 2027 exam, the 2026-27 sample paper and its marking scheme are free on CBSE's academic website. That sample paper carries a note: no change in the question paper design or assessment pattern for 2026-27.

CBSE Class 12 Physics 2026 paper: unit-wise marks

Here is Set 1 (55/1/1), with each of its 33 questions matched to a chapter in CBSE's 2026-27 Physics syllabus. Where a question offers an internal choice, both options sit in the same unit group, so the totals stay the same whichever option you pick.

• Electrostatics and Current Electricity: 16 marks (Q1, 2, 11, 20, 22, 23, 31)
• Magnetism, Electromagnetic Induction and AC: 17 marks (Q3, 6, 13, 19, 24, 29, 33)
• Electromagnetic Waves and Optics: 18 marks (Q4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 18, 27, 28, 32)
• Dual Nature, Atoms and Nuclei: 12 marks (Q8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 30)
• Semiconductor Electronics: 7 marks (Q12, 25, 26)
• Objective marks: 24 of 70. That is the 16 MCQs of Section A (four of them assertion-reason) plus eight 1-mark MCQs inside the two case studies.
• Internal choice in 7 questions: Q18, 22, 29 (part III), 30 (part IV), 31, 32 and 33.

Source: CBSE Class 12 Physics question paper 55/1/1 (March 2026) and Physics curriculum 2026-27, Gradehunt analysis.

One question needs a note. Q24 asks for the voltage that bends an electron beam onto the edge of a plate. This page puts it under Moving Charges, because that chapter's syllabus covers the force on a moving charge in uniform electric and magnetic fields. Counted that way, all five totals match CBSE's unit weightage exactly. If you count it under Electrostatics instead, the first two groups read 19 and 14.

What changed from the sample paper, and across the three sets

The 2026 paper kept the 33-question, five-section layout: 16 one-mark questions, five 2-mark, seven 3-mark, two 4-mark case studies and three 5-mark long answers. The choices moved, though. The sample paper had internal choices in two Section B questions, one in Section C and all three in Section E, with none in the case studies. The board paper had only one choice in Section B and put a choice inside each case study.

Sets 2 and 3 are not new papers. They share both case studies with Set 1 (a moving coil galvanometer, and a stopping potential graph for two metals), the same three long answers in a different order, and four of the seven 3-mark questions. Most of the difference is in the MCQs. If you solve all three sets, you will repeat a fair amount, and that repetition is worth having.

Derivations and diagrams the 2026 paper asked for

The paper leaned on standard NCERT derivations. Each 5-mark question had one before its numerical, and two shorter questions asked for one as well:

• Relation between current and drift velocity (Q20, 2 marks)
• Field of an infinite charged sheet using Gauss's law, or the balance condition of a Wheatstone bridge (Q22)
• Field on the equatorial line of a dipole, or emf and internal resistance of two cells in parallel (Q31)
• Lens maker's formula, or the mirror formula from a ray diagram (Q32)
• Self-inductance of a long solenoid, or the turns ratio of a transformer (Q33)

The diagram questions were a refracting telescope (Q27), a concave mirror with the object between F and C (the Q32 option), a labelled step-up transformer (the Q33 option), and the plot of potential energy of a pair of nucleons against their separation (Q21). Set 3 also asked for the V-I characteristic of a silicon diode.

How CBSE marked the 2026 Physics paper

The 2026 marking scheme opens by saying CBSE has introduced On Screen Marking for Class 12 answer books from the 2026 exam, with marks entered part by part in the OSM portal. Number every part of your answer, (a), (b), (i), (ii), exactly as the paper does.

Marks go in half-mark steps. In Q17, a 2-mark photoelectric sum, the scheme gives ½ for the photoelectric equation, ½ for rearranging it, ½ for substituting the values and ½ for the answer, 5.4 eV. So the final number is worth a quarter of the question. A student who writes the equation and substitutes correctly but slips in the arithmetic still keeps 1½ marks. Skipping straight to an answer throws that safety net away.

Three hours for 70 marks works out to about 2½ minutes a mark: roughly 8 minutes for a 3-mark answer and 13 for a 5-mark one. The 15 minutes of reading time (10.15 to 10.30 a.m.) is a good moment to choose your options in Sections C and E.

Which Physics previous year papers to practise first

• 2026 Sets 1 to 3 and the 2026-27 sample paper, since CBSE says the design has not changed for 2027.
• 2025 and 2024 next, as full three-hour papers.
• 2023, 2022 and 2020 for topic practice. The 2022 exam was held in two terms, so its papers are shorter and laid out differently.

After each paper, mark it against the solution step by step, not just by the final answer, and write out any derivation you could not finish the next day.

For more practice, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 12 puts the board questions from 2016 to 2026 chapter by chapter, with the year and marks on every question and step-wise solutions, amended to the 2026-27 syllabus.

Solved past papers for Chemistry, Maths and Biology are also on Gradehunt.

Download CBSE Class 10 Social Science board papers with solutions for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020 from the table below, three sets for each year. The 2026 sets come with CBSE's official 2026 marking scheme as the solution. There is no 2021 paper, because CBSE cancelled the Class 10 board exams that year.

In SST, marks depend on two things beyond knowing the chapter: writing the points the marking scheme looks for, and putting each answer in the right section of the answer book. The 2026 papers and marking schemes below show how both work.

CBSE Class 10 SST 2026 paper: marks by question type

The theory paper is 80 marks in 3 hours, and internal assessment adds 20. In 2026 the 38 questions sat in four sections of 20 marks each: History, Geography, Political Science and Economics. Set 1 broke down like this:

• 20 MCQs of 1 mark: 20 marks (History 4, Geography 6, Political Science 4, Economics 6)
• 4 very short answers of 2 marks, up to 40 words: 8 marks
• 5 short answers of 3 marks, up to 60 words: 15 marks
• 4 long answers of 5 marks, up to 120 words, one in each section: 20 marks
• 3 source-based questions of 4 marks, up to 100 words, in History, Geography and Political Science: 12 marks
• Map: 2 marks in History and 3 in Geography, 5 marks in all

Source: CBSE Class 10 Social Science 2026 question paper and marking scheme, Set 1 (32/1/1), Gradehunt analysis.

The MCQs and the map together are 25 of the 80 marks. The sections are not shaped alike, though. Economics had no source-based question and three 3-mark answers instead, and Geography had no 3-mark question at all.

Six questions had an internal choice: the 2, 3 and 5-mark questions in History, and the long answer in each of the other three sections. At 2¼ minutes a mark, each section is worth about 45 minutes.

The 2026-27 sample paper keeps this design. Its first line says there is no change in the question paper design and assessment pattern for 2026-27.

Did Sets 1, 2 and 3 have the same questions?

Many of them, yes. Across CBSE's three marking schemes, all three source-based questions were identical: Bhagat Singh and the HSRA in History, flood safety precautions in Geography, and power sharing through parties and pressure groups in Political Science.

So were six short answers: Gutenberg and print, organic farming, features of federalism, the functions of political parties, technology connecting the world, and why sustainable development matters. Many MCQs also repeated in a different order.

The 5-mark questions changed from set to set. In History, Set 1 asked how the British nation-state formed differently, Set 2 how culture shaped the idea of the nation, and Set 3 about Bismarck and German unification.

The four-section answer book rule

CBSE's 2026 marking scheme repeats the rule in its instructions to examiners. Students divide the answer book into four sections, one per subject. Answers written in the wrong section, or mixed across sections, are not evaluated, and the mistake is not corrected at verification or re-evaluation.

Older papers in the table mix the four subjects, so practise the habit with them too: divide your sheets into History, Geography, Political Science and Economics before you start, and write each answer in its own part. Our post on the CBSE section-wise answer book rule has the details.

How SST answers are marked

• Long answers are marked one mark per point. The 2026 scheme says "any five points", lists seven or more acceptable ones and adds "any other relevant point".
• Source-based questions split 1 + 1 + 2, and most answers can be built from the passage. The flood question, for example, asked for precautions with drinking water, food and leaving home during a flood warning.
• Short answers follow the same rule: three relevant points for 3 marks, two for 2.
• Examiners can give marks for a correct answer that is not in the scheme, especially in competency-based questions.

One 2026 answer shows why the newest marking scheme matters. For the rural employment question in Set 1, CBSE's scheme lists MGNREGA 2005, with its 100 days of guaranteed work, and also the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, which it says guarantees 125 days. Older solutions won't mention the 2025 Act.

Which SST past papers to practise first

• The three 2026 sets and the 2026-27 sample paper, timed at three hours and written in four sections.
• 2025 and 2024 next. They are the most recent papers before 2026, but they are not split by subject, so add the sections yourself.
• 2023 and 2020 for more practice, and 2022 for chapter work, since that year's exam was term-wise and shorter.
• Do the map on the outline map every time, and label each place as well as marking it.

For the full run of board questions, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 10 sorts the Social Science board questions from the 2016 to 2026 exams by chapter, with the year on each question and the marks for each point shown.

We also have solved past papers for Class 10 Science, Maths and English.

This page has CBSE Class 10 Science board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020, three sets for each year, with solutions, free to download from the table below. The 2026 rows are CBSE's own March 2026 papers (Sets 1, 2 and 3, code 31/1). CBSE published one marking scheme that covers all three sets, and that is the solution for each 2026 row. There is no 2021 paper, because CBSE cancelled the Class 10 board exams that year.

On CBSE's own question paper page you will also find the 2026 Science paper and the paper from the second Class 10 board examination of 2026, with marking schemes on the marking scheme page. The 2026-27 sample paper and its marking scheme are on CBSE's academic website. That sample paper says there is no change in the question paper design for 2026-27, and it keeps the same three sections: Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

CBSE Class 10 Science 2026 paper: section-wise marks and questions

In 2026 the paper came split by subject. Here is Set 1 (31/1/1), counted from the paper and CBSE's marking scheme:

• Section A, Biology: 30 marks, 16 questions (Q1 to 16). Nine 1-mark questions, two of them assertion-reason, then three 2-mark, two 3-mark, one 4-mark case-based and one 5-mark question.
• Section B, Chemistry: 25 marks, 13 questions (Q17 to 29). Eight 1-mark questions with one assertion-reason, one 2-mark, two 3-mark, one 4-mark case-based and one 5-mark question.
• Section C, Physics: 25 marks, 10 questions (Q30 to 39). Three 1-mark questions with one assertion-reason, two 2-mark, three 3-mark, one 4-mark case-based and one 5-mark question.
• Objective marks: 20 of 80. Biology has 9 of them, Physics only 3.
• Physics split: light 12 marks (Q30 to 33, 35, 38) and electricity and magnetism 13 marks (Q34, 36, 37, 39), the same as CBSE's weightage for Natural Phenomena and Effects of Current.
• Internal choice in 9 questions: Q11, 15, 16, 27, 28, 29, 34, 38 and 39. In Q15, 28 and 38 the choice is only inside one part.

Source: CBSE Class 10 Science paper 31/1/1 (March 2026), CBSE marking scheme for Sets 1 to 3 and Science curriculum 2026-27, Gradehunt analysis.

Biology carries 30 marks because the Biology section takes in Natural Resources (5 marks in CBSE's Science curriculum for 2026-27, the chapter Our Environment) as well as World of Living (25). In 2026 that came as an MCQ on waste materials and a 3-mark question on trophic levels and the ecological pyramid. Each section also ends the same way, with a 4-mark case and a 5-mark question, so Chemistry and Physics need long-answer practice as much as Biology does.

The section rule for the Science answer sheet

The 2026 paper's instructions told students to divide the answer sheet into Section A (Biology), Section B (Chemistry) and Section C (Physics), and said it is compulsory to answer each question in its own section, without mixing answers across sections. The 2026-27 sample paper keeps the same three-section layout.

The older papers in the table are arranged by question type, with the three subjects mixed, so build the habit on purpose. Before you start any past paper, mark three parts in your answer sheet and write every answer in the right one. It takes two minutes, and it is how you will have to write in 2027.

Where the 2026 marking scheme cut marks

The marking scheme names a few deductions directly, and they are worth knowing before you practise:

• Chemistry, Q27: ½ mark is deducted if a chemical equation is unbalanced or not balanced at all.
• Physics, Q35: ½ mark is deducted if the ray diagram for hypermetropia does not show the direction of the rays.
• Physics numericals are marked in ½-mark steps for the formula, the substitution and the answer. In Q34(b), a 2-mark sum on an electric heater, the marks are spread over four steps.
• Biology diagrams are marked part by part: in Q12, 1 mark for the diagram and ½ for each of the two labels asked, stigma and pollen tube.
• An error carried into later steps is penalised only once, and if you answer an extra choice, the examiner keeps the higher-scoring answer.

So the formula line, the unit, the arrow on a ray and the label on a diagram each carry their own share. Three hours for 80 marks gives you 2¼ minutes a mark, roughly 11 minutes for a 5-mark answer, which leaves room to write those lines.

How to practise with Class 10 Science previous year papers

• Start with the 2026 sets and the 2026-27 sample paper, which follow the design you will sit in 2027.
• Then write 2025, 2024 and 2023 as full papers, dividing your sheet into Biology, Chemistry and Physics as above.
• Use 2022 and 2020 for extra questions. The 2022 exam ran in two terms, so its papers are shorter and laid out differently.
• Check every answer against the solution step by step, and two days later redo only the questions where you dropped marks.

For chapter-wise practice after that, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 10 groups the board questions from the last ten years by chapter, with each question's year and marks and step-by-step solutions, amended to the 2026-27 syllabus.

Past papers with solutions for Maths, Social Science and English are also on Gradehunt.

The table on this page has CBSE Class 10 Maths board papers with solutions for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020, three sets for each year. The 2026 rows are CBSE's Mathematics Standard (041) papers, Sets 1 to 3, and the solution for each is CBSE's official 2026 marking scheme. There is no 2021 paper because CBSE cancelled the Class 10 board exams that year.

Taking Maths Basic (241)? That is a separate paper. CBSE's question paper page has the 2026 Class 10 papers, including the Maths Basic and Standard papers from its 2026 second board examination.

CBSE Class 10 Maths paper pattern (2026 and 2027)

• 38 questions, 80 marks, 3 hours, plus 15 minutes of reading time. Calculators are not allowed.
• Section A: 18 MCQs and 2 assertion-reason questions, 1 mark each (20 marks).
• Section B: 5 very short answers of 2 marks (10 marks).
• Section C: 6 short answers of 3 marks (18 marks).
• Section D: 4 long answers of 5 marks (20 marks).
• Section E: 3 case studies of 4 marks (12 marks).
• Internal choice in two questions each in Sections B, C and D, and in the 2-mark part of every case study.

CBSE's 2026-27 sample paper for Maths Standard has the same 38-question layout, and every page of it carries one line: there is no change in the question paper design and assessment pattern for 2026-27. So the 2026 papers are the closest practice you can get for 2027.

Three hours for 80 marks is 2¼ minutes a mark. That makes a 5-mark question worth about 11 minutes and a case study about 9.

Chapter-wise marks in the 2026 Maths paper

We matched every question in Set 1 (paper code 30/1/1) to its chapter:

• Real Numbers: 6 marks (Q1, 2, 3, 26)
• Algebra, 20 marks: Polynomials 4 (Q4, 20, 21), Pair of Linear Equations 6 (Q5, 32), Quadratic Equations 5 (Q33), Arithmetic Progressions 5 (Q6, 36)
• Coordinate Geometry: 6 marks (Q8, 23, 27)
• Geometry, 15 marks: Triangles 8 (Q7, 22, 34), Circles 7 (Q12, 13, 25, 29)
• Trigonometry, 12 marks: Introduction to Trigonometry 7 (Q9, 10, 24, 28), Some Applications of Trigonometry 5 (Q11, 37)
• Mensuration, 10 marks: Areas Related to Circles 6 (Q14, 15, 38), Surface Areas and Volumes 4 (Q16, 30)
• Statistics and Probability, 11 marks: Statistics 6 (Q17, 35), Probability 5 (Q18, 19, 31)

Source: CBSE Class 10 Mathematics Standard 2026 question paper and marking scheme, Set 1 (30/1/1), and the 2026-27 curriculum, Gradehunt analysis. Where a question had an internal choice, both options came from the same chapter.

The unit totals are exactly CBSE's weightage in the 2026-27 curriculum: 6, 20, 6, 15, 12, 10 and 11. Triangles was the single biggest chapter at 8 marks, mostly through one 5-mark question: prove the Basic Proportionality Theorem, or show that medians of similar triangles form similar triangles.

Same questions in Sets 1, 2 and 3

The three sets were not three different papers. Comparing CBSE's three marking schemes, 32 of the 60 marks in Sections B to E were the same questions in every set, only renumbered, and many of the one-mark MCQs repeated as well:

• all three case studies: a potato race (AP), a trigonometry case and a circular wire frame with ten sectors (12 marks)
• the 5-mark quadratic word problem (two trains, or two squares) and the 5-mark triangle theorem (10 marks)
• the 3-mark trigonometric identity and the 3-mark circle question on an incircle or tangent lengths (6 marks)
• the 2-mark questions on DE ∥ BC or similar triangles, and the trigonometric ratio question (tan θ = 24/7, or cot θ = 7/8) (4 marks)

Smaller swaps changed the rest. Set 2, for instance, asked students to prove √2 irrational where Sets 1 and 3 used √3. For revision, this means the standard question types reached every student, whichever set they got.

How the 2026 marking scheme gave step marks

• Two-trains quadratic (5 marks): 2 for forming the equation, 1 for simplifying it, 1 for factorising, ½ for rejecting the negative root and ½ for the final speeds.
• Basic Proportionality Theorem (5 marks): 1 for the statement, 2 for given, to prove, construction and figure, and 2 for the proof.
• √3 is irrational (3 marks): ½ for the assumption, 1 and 1 for the two divisibility steps, ½ for the conclusion.

Two general instructions in the marking scheme matter too. An error carried forward is penalised only once, so keep working after a slip. And in competency-based questions, a correct method that is not in the scheme still earns marks.

Which CBSE Maths past papers to practise first

• The three 2026 sets and the 2026-27 sample paper, as timed three-hour papers.
• 2025, 2024 and 2023 next. They use the same five-section design.
• 2022 and 2020 for chapter practice. 2022 was a two-term year, so its papers are shorter.
• After each paper, mark each step against the solution as well as the final answer.

Want more than one paper a year? Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 10 puts the Maths board questions from the 2016 to 2026 exams in chapter order, with the year on each question and the marks for each step shown.

We also have solved past papers for Class 10 Science and Social Science.

Download CBSE Class 10 English (Language and Literature) board papers for 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020 from the table below, three sets for each year, with solutions. The 2026 rows are CBSE's own March 2026 papers (Sets 1, 2 and 3, code 2/1), and each comes with CBSE's official marking scheme as the solution. There is no 2021 paper, because CBSE cancelled the Class 10 board exams that year.

CBSE's question paper page has the same 2026 paper and the paper from the second Class 10 board examination of 2026, and its marking scheme page has the schemes.

CBSE Class 10 English sample paper 2026-27 with solutions

The official 2026-27 sample paper for English Language and Literature (code 184) and its marking scheme, which works as the answer key, are free PDFs on CBSE's academic website. The sample paper states that there is no change in the question paper design or assessment pattern for 2026-27. It has 11 questions, like the 2026 board paper, and opens with a 435-word passage comparing plastic and eco-friendly toys.

CBSE Class 10 English 2026 paper: marks, questions and choices

This is Set 1 (2/1/1), counted from the paper and CBSE's marking scheme:

• Reading, 20 marks, no choice: a passage on the history of pancakes around the world (10 marks, 8 questions) and a factual passage on internet use in India (10 marks, 9 questions).
• Grammar, 10 marks: any ten of twelve 1-mark tasks, among them reported speech, error correction, tenses and modals.
• Writing, 10 marks: a letter (5) and an analytical paragraph of about 120 words (5), each with an OR.
• Literature, 40 marks: two extracts of 5 marks, any four of five 3-mark answers from First Flight (12), any two of three from Footprints without Feet (6), and two long answers of 6 marks.
• One-mark questions: 30 of the 80 marks, 14 in reading, 10 in grammar and 6 in the extracts.
• Expression and accuracy: 17 marks across writing and literature, plus 1 for the letter's format.
• Written length: the word limits add up to roughly 640 to 780 words, not counting reading and extract answers.

Source: CBSE Class 10 English Language and Literature paper 2/1/1 (March 2026), its marking scheme and the 2026-27 curriculum, Gradehunt analysis.

Both long-answer options in Q10 asked you to compare two texts: A Tiger in the Zoo with The Tale of Custard the Dragon, or The Sermon at Benares with For Anne Gregory. In that question, the scheme's 2 expression marks look for a balanced comparison and a synthesis of the two texts, and the content marks need points from both. Practise linking poems and prose, not just learning each chapter on its own.

What the 2026 English marking scheme rewarded

• Grammar is right or wrong. The scheme says full credit for a correct answer and no half marks in this section.
• The analytical paragraph gets its 2 content marks only if at least four trends or points are analysed and tied together, and 1 mark for two. The scheme warns examiners not to accept a plain description or summary of the data, and it expects linking words such as however, in contrast and therefore.
• The letter's format mark drops to ½ if one or two parts are missing and to zero if more than two are missing. Format earns nothing if the content is irrelevant.
• In writing, ½ mark is cut when there are three or more spelling errors along with errors in punctuation and grammar.
• Short literature answers of 40 to 50 words carry 2 marks for content, with at least two points backed by the text, and 1 for expression.

Split by marks, three hours works out to about 45 minutes for reading, 45 for grammar and writing, and 90 for literature.

How to practise with Class 10 English previous year papers

• Write the 2026 sets and the 2026-27 sample paper first, since 2027 follows the same design.
• Move to 2025, 2024 and 2023, one full paper per sitting.
• Use 2022 and 2020 for extra reading passages and literature questions. The 2022 exam was held in two terms, so its papers are shorter.
• Mark your letter and analytical paragraph against the scheme in separate passes for format, content, organisation and accuracy.

Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 10 is the next step once these are done: ten years of board questions sorted chapter by chapter, each with its year and marks, and step-by-step solutions amended to the 2026-27 syllabus.

Past papers with solutions for Science, Maths and Social Science are also on Gradehunt.

Biology is fascinating. Life, cells, genetics, evolution it’s the science of how everything lives and breathes. But those details? They can sneak up on you. Want to ace Biology? Past year papers are your best strategy. They show you how questions are framed. Diagrams, definitions, processes you’ll catch the pattern. No shocks on exam day.

Practice sharpens your thinking. You’ll know what chapters matter more. Human Physiology, Genetics, Plant Growth, Ecology it’s all there. And timing? You’ll nail it. That’s gold during the exam.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s Maharashtra Board HSC test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

Updated for the 2027 CBSE Class 10 exams: CBSE now holds two board exams for Class 10. Phase 1 (February–March 2027) is compulsory and Phase 2 (May 2027) is optional, for improvement in up to three subjects or for compartment candidates. The syllabus is the same in both.

Once you know the syllabus, test yourself on it chapter by chapter. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 10 test series has chapter-wise and full-syllabus English papers, checked step-wise by subject teachers, so you know which chapters still cost you marks.

The syllabus of Class 10 English has four sections. Each of these sections is carefully framed to develop the most important language skills. It includes reading, writing, grammar, and literature.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 10 English test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

Updated for 2026-27: this guide follows the CBSE senior secondary curriculum listed for 2026-27 on cbseacademic.nic.in. Some subject PDFs there still carry a 2025-26 label inside, so check the official PDF for your subject before you finalise your plan.

Once you know the syllabus, test yourself on it chapter by chapter. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 12 test series has chapter-wise and full-syllabus Chemistry papers, checked step-wise by subject teachers, so you know which chapters still cost you marks.

Chemistry in Class 12 is foundational for higher studies in Science and Medicine, and helps understand both Industrial and Biological processes. From Solutions to Biomolecules, the syllabus explores both Inorganic and Organic chemistry with precision.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 12 Chemistry test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

Updated for 2026-27: this guide follows the CBSE senior secondary curriculum listed for 2026-27 on cbseacademic.nic.in. Some subject PDFs there still carry a 2025-26 label inside, so check the official PDF for your subject before you finalise your plan.

Once you know the syllabus, test yourself on it chapter by chapter. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 12 test series has chapter-wise and full-syllabus Physics papers, checked step-wise by subject teachers, so you know which chapters still cost you marks.

Physics is the subject which introduces us to the laws of nature. In Class 12, there are extremely important subjects such as electricity, magnetism, optics, and atomic physics. This syllabus is prepared to create a solid foundation for the studies and competitive exams. Let us discuss in detail all the topics taught this year.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 12 Physics test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

The CBSE Class 12 Maths syllabus for 2026-27 has six units and 13 chapters. The board paper is 80 marks, and internal assessment adds 20. Calculus alone carries 35 of the 80 theory marks.

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.

Updated for 2026-27: this guide follows the CBSE senior secondary curriculum listed for 2026-27 on cbseacademic.nic.in. Some subject PDFs there still carry a 2025-26 label inside, so check the official PDF for your subject before you finalise your plan.

Once you know the syllabus, test yourself on it chapter by chapter. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 12 test series has chapter-wise and full-syllabus Biology papers, checked step-wise by subject teachers, so you know which chapters still cost you marks.

Class 12 Biology sets you up with the knowledge of life systems, genetics, evolution, and the environment. Modern biology is dealt with in the syllabus. It relates you to current biological problems from molecules to ecosystems. Let's have a detailed look at each topic and subtopic.

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 12 Biology test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam.

Updated for 2026-27: this guide follows the CBSE senior secondary curriculum listed for 2026-27 on cbseacademic.nic.in. Some subject PDFs there still carry a 2025-26 label inside, so check the official PDF for your subject before you finalise your plan.

Once you know the syllabus, test yourself on it chapter by chapter. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 12 test series has chapter-wise and full-syllabus Accountancy papers, checked step-wise by subject teachers, so you know which chapters still cost you marks.

Business is the accountancy language. Class 12 syllabus strengthens students' knowledge of financial transactions and accounting principles. This course is important for those who pursue commerce and wish to excel in business and finance

Practising past papers is the best way to use this syllabus. Gradehunt’s CBSE Class 12 Accountancy test series gives you chapter-wise and full-syllabus papers with detailed evaluation, so you know where you lose marks before the board exam. Planning a commerce career after Class 12? Many students start with CA: see our CA Foundation test series and the CA course guide for after 12th.