Board Chairperson Rahul Singh stated on Thursday that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) does not anticipate that more than 40% of Class 10 students who take the first required exam in mid-February will take the optional second exam in May. He stated that in order to maintain the severity of the first exam, CBSE will not permit students to divide their tries between the two cycles.
Speaking at a webinar on the CBSE two-board exam plan, Singh stated that a student who misses three or more topics in the first exam starting on February 17 will not be permitted to take the second exam in order to enhance their grades. Beginning with the 2026 cycle, CBSE will administer the Class 10 board exams every two years.
The first exam is required in mid-February, and students who want to improve their scores in three of the four subjects—science, math, social science, and languages—may take an optional second exam in May. This modification is consistent with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s guidelines, which emphasized lowering the “high-stakes” aspect of board exams.
It is anticipated that 2.6 million pupils in Class 10 would take the board exams starting in February 2026. According to Singh, teachers were anticipated to have less work to do in the second exam than in the first.
“The entire number of answer books that the board evaluates for the first board test in Class 10 is approximately 1.5 crore, perhaps more than that. The evaluation load for the second board test is not anticipated to exceed 20 to 30 lakh. In order to produce the results for the second board exams on time, we also aim to be able to finish evaluations swiftly. He stated, “Our deadline is June 30… to close the entire cycle so that schools can continue with the task of new admissions and teaching.”
The CBSE had earlier stated that the results would be released by July 15, 2026, and that the second set of exams would take place from May 15 to June 1. The major board exams will take place from February 17 to March 10 for Class 10 and from February 17 to April 9 for Class 12, per the timetable released on October 30.