The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday announced date sheet for class 10 and 12 board exams with the examination for both classes beginning from February 15.The class 10 exams will conclude on March 13 and the class 12 exams will end on April 2. The CBSE Board exams will last for 55 days and conclude by April 10, 2024.

On the first day, the examination will be held in two sessions: from 10.30am to 1.30pm and from 10.30pm to 2.30pm. On other days, it will be held in one, two, three, and four sessions.

“CBSE Class 12 board exams will be conducted from February 15 to April 2, 2024 while Class 10 board exams will be held from February 15 to March 13,” examination controller Sanyam Bhardwaj said.

 “While preparing the date sheet, the board has kept in mind that there is sufficient gap between two subjects. Dates of competitive exams like JEE have been kept in mind while deciding schedule for class 12,” Bhardwaj said. “The date sheets have been prepared by avoiding more than 40,000 subject combinations to ensure that no two subject exams fall on the same date,” he added.

As per the schedule, the Class 12 board exams will be held on February 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, March 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30, April 1 and 2. Class 10 exams will be conducted on February 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, March 2, 4, 5, 7, 11 and 13.

For class 10, on February 15, exams for five subjects are scheduled---Painting, Rai, Gurung, Tamang and Sherpa.  Similarly, on the first day, exams for four subjects are scheduled for class 12. They are --Entrepreneurship, Kokborok, Capital market operation and Physical activity trainer.

To pass the external examination for Secondary/Senior School Certificate, a minimum of 33% marks is required in each subject. For the Senior School Certificate Examination (Class 12th), if a subject includes practical work, candidates must secure 33% marks in both theory and practical components, in addition to achieving 33% marks in the overall aggregate, to successfully qualify in that particular subject. The CBSE Board Exam 2024 question paper will contain 50% competency or case-based questions and 20% response-type questions. 20% will be multiple-choice questions (MCQs); 30% will be constructed response questions (short answer/long answer type). Last year, 38,64,373 students registered for the CBSE Board exams.

Earlier, in July, it was announced that the time table for academic year 2023-24, will begin on 15 February 2024, and will conclude on 10 April. Last year, the date sheet for the Class 10, 12 exams was released on 29 December.

Generally, the board publishes the datesheet approximately 1 to 1.5 months ahead of the first day of examinations. In the 2023 academic year, Class 10 exams concluded on March 21, while Class 12 exams were extended until April 5.

Meanwhile, CBSE had also recently announced that the board will not award any overall division, distinction or aggregate to the students appearing for the Class 10 and Class 12 exams in 2024. The board will neither calculate nor declare and inform the percentage of marks. Additionally, the board also clarified that if a candidate has taken more than five subjects, the decision to determine the best five subjects may be taken by the admitting institutes or the employer recruiting the CBSE board student.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education in India announced that board exams for classes 10 and 12 will be held twice a year starting from the academic year 2024-25. This major change is aimed at reducing exam stress and offering students more flexibility and the opportunity to improve their scores. Meanwhile, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has affirmed that appearing for Class 10 and 12 board exams twice a year will not be mandatory for students.