CBSE Class 12 Study Guide

The CBSE Class 12 board exam (officially the Senior School Certificate Examination) is set and run by the Central Board of Secondary Education. Classes 11 and 12 are a composite course: you choose your subjects in Class 11 and must continue the same subjects in Class 12. Class 11 is examined by your school; the Board examines only Class 12, and each board paper covers the entire Class 12 syllabus of that subject.

Your subjects

The 2026-27 scheme of studies asks for at least five subjects:

1. Subject 1: Hindi Elective, Hindi Core, English Elective or English Core.
2. Subject 2: another language, or an elective from Group A.
3. Subjects 3 and 4: electives from Group A or skill subjects (Group S).
4. Subject 5: an elective from Group A.
5. Subject 6 (optional): one more elective or language.

Hindi or English must be one of your languages. Health and Physical Education, Work Experience and General Studies are taken by all regular candidates and graded by the school. You cannot combine Mathematics (041) with Applied Mathematics (241), or take more than one of Computer Science, Informatics Practices and Information Technology. The first five subjects in the order they were filled in at registration count as your main subjects. If you fail one of them and passed a sixth subject, the sixth replaces it, as long as Hindi or English is still among your five.

Theory, practicals and internal assessment

Every subject is out of 100, split according to its syllabus. Physics and Chemistry are 70 theory + 30 practical. Mathematics and Applied Mathematics are 80 theory + 20 internal assessment. Theory papers are 3 hours.

The pass rule

CBSE's Examination Bye-Laws set the qualifying mark at 33% in each subject of the external examination. In a subject with practical work, you must get 33% in theory and 33% in the practical separately, as well as 33% overall. To pass the examination you need a grade higher than E (at least 33%) in all five subjects of the external examination, in the main exam or the compartment exam, and a grade higher than E in your internal assessment subjects.

No aggregate, positional grades

The Board's mark sheet gives your marks in each subject separately and states no aggregate or percentage; colleges calculate percentages by their own rules. Each subject also gets a grade on a 9-point scale: CBSE ranks all students who passed the subject and gives A-1 to the top eighth, then A-2, B-1, B-2, C-1, C-2, D-1 and D-2 to each following eighth. E means Essential Repeat. This applies where more than 500 candidates pass the subject.

The supplementary exam

The two-board-exam system applies to Class 10, not Class 12. For Class 12, CBSE holds a supplementary examination after the main results. In 2026 it was open to compartment candidates (who missed the qualifying mark in one of the five main subjects), to students who passed by replacing a main subject with their sixth subject and wanted to retake it, and to students who had passed and wanted to improve one subject. CBSE declared the 2026 supplementary results on 12 August 2026.

Unit weights (70 marks)

The 2026-27 syllabus groups the nine units into five weighted blocks:

• Electrostatics + Current Electricity: 16
• Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism + Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating Currents: 17
• Electromagnetic Waves + Optics: 18
• Dual Nature of Radiation and Matter + Atoms and Nuclei: 12
• Electronic Devices: 7

The paper, section by section

The 2026-27 sample paper (no change in design, CBSE says) has 33 compulsory questions:

• Section A (16 marks): 12 MCQs and 4 Assertion-Reason questions, 1 mark each.
• Section B (10 marks): 5 questions of 2 marks.
• Section C (21 marks): 7 questions of 3 marks.
• Section D (8 marks): 2 case-study questions of 4 marks.
• Section E (15 marks): 3 long answers of 5 marks.

Internal choice is given in two questions of Section B, one of Section C and all three of Section E. Calculators are not allowed; the paper gives values of constants such as c, e, h, ε₀ and μ₀. The question design is about 38% remembering and understanding, 32% applying and 30% analysing, evaluating and creating.

Where the syllabus limits depth

• Energy stored in a capacitor: formula only, no derivation.
• Biot-Savart law: applied to a circular loop. Ampere's law: applied to an infinitely long straight wire. The solenoid is qualitative only.
• Magnetism and Matter: the bar magnet as a solenoid, its field and the torque on it are qualitative only.
• LCR series circuits: phasors only.
• Young's double slit: the fringe width expression with no derivation. Single slit diffraction: qualitative only.
• Hydrogen spectra: qualitative only. Energy bands: qualitative ideas only.
• Semiconductors: intrinsic and extrinsic, the p-n junction, diode I-V characteristics and the diode as a rectifier.

The syllabus also says content marked in the NCERT textbooks as excluded for 2026-27 is not assessed in the 2026-27 board exams.

Practical (30 marks, 3 hours)

Two experiments, one from each section (7 + 7), practical record 5, one activity 3, investigatory project 3, and viva on experiments, activities and project 5.

Unit weights (70 marks)

• Solutions: 7
• Electrochemistry: 9
• Chemical Kinetics: 7
• d- and f-Block Elements: 7
• Coordination Compounds: 7
• Haloalkanes and Haloarenes: 6
• Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers: 6
• Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids: 8
• Amines: 6
• Biomolecules: 7

Grouped the usual way, that is 23 marks of physical chemistry (Solutions, Electrochemistry, Chemical Kinetics), 14 of inorganic (d- and f-Block Elements, Coordination Compounds) and 33 of organic (Haloalkanes and Haloarenes through Biomolecules). Every unit is examined, and CBSE's question paper design note says care must be taken to cover all the chapters.

Taught but not in the board paper

The 2026-27 syllabus lists these as assessed only formatively, not in the board exam: Surface Chemistry; General Principles and Processes of Isolation of Elements; Polymers; Chemistry in Everyday Life.

The paper

The 2026-27 sample paper has 33 questions: Section A, 16 MCQs of 1 mark; Section B, 5 very short answers of 2 marks; Section C, 7 short answers of 3 marks; Section D, 2 case-based questions of 4 marks; Section E, 3 long answers of 5 marks. All are compulsory, with about 33% internal choice across the sections. Log tables and calculators are not allowed. The design is 40% remembering and understanding, 30% applying and 30% analysing, evaluating and creating.

Practical (30 marks)

Volumetric analysis 8, salt analysis 8, content-based experiment 6, project work 4, class record and viva 4.

Unit weights (80 marks)

• Calculus: 35 (continuity and differentiability, applications of derivatives, integrals, applications of integrals, differential equations)
• Vectors and Three-Dimensional Geometry: 14
• Algebra: 10 (matrices, determinants)
• Relations and Functions: 8 (including inverse trigonometric functions)
• Probability: 8 (conditional probability, multiplication theorem, independent events, total probability, Bayes' theorem)
• Linear Programming: 5

The paper, section by section

The 2026-27 sample paper has 38 compulsory questions, laid out like the Class 10 paper:

• Section A (20 marks): 18 MCQs and 2 Assertion-Reason questions, 1 mark each.
• Section B (10 marks): 5 very short answers of 2 marks.
• Section C (18 marks): 6 short answers of 3 marks.
• Section D (20 marks): 4 long answers of 5 marks.
• Section E (12 marks): 3 case studies of 4 marks.

Internal choice: 2 questions in Section B, 3 in Section C, 2 in Section D and one sub-part in 2 questions of Section E. Calculators are not allowed. The design is 55% remembering and understanding, 25% applying and 20% analysing, evaluating and creating, with no chapter-wise weightage inside the design.

Syllabus details that shape questions

• Matrices: non-commutativity and zero products restricted to square matrices of order 2; determinants up to 3 × 3; solving systems of two or three equations with a unique solution by the inverse matrix.
• Integrals: substitution, partial fractions, by parts, and the standard forms listed in the syllabus; area under lines, circles, parabolas and ellipses in standard form only.
• Differential equations: separation of variables, homogeneous first-order first-degree equations, and linear equations of the form dy/dx + Py = Q or dx/dy + Px = Q.
• 3D geometry: lines only (equations, angle between lines, skew lines and shortest distance).
• Linear programming: graphical method in two variables, up to three non-trivial constraints.

Internal assessment (20 marks)

Periodic tests (best 2 of 3) 10 marks; mathematics activities 10 marks (activities and record 5, year-end activity test 3, viva 2).

When the exams are

As of 30 October 2026, CBSE has not yet published the 2027 date sheet; dates are announced by CBSE on cbse.gov.in. For reference, the revised 2026 Class 12 date sheet (31 December 2025) ran from 17 February to 10 April 2026, with most papers from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm. In 2026, Physics was on 20 February, Chemistry on 28 February, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics on 9 March, and English on 12 March. CBSE declared the 2026 Class 12 results on 13 May 2026.

1. Use the 2026-27 sample papers first

CBSE released the 2026-27 sample question papers and marking schemes on 21 September 2026 and said there is no change in question paper design or assessment pattern, and that the passing criteria stay the same as in 2025-26. Do each subject's sample paper under timed conditions early, to see the format.

2. Then real papers

CBSE's Previous Years' Question Papers page has the 2026 Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics papers, the 2026 compartment papers and earlier years.

3. Mark with the marking scheme

The marking schemes show the value points and how marks split inside a question. Mark your own work strictly and note where you lost step marks.

4. Do not leave the practicals for last

Practical marks need 33% on their own in Physics and Chemistry. Keep your practical record and investigatory project up to date through the year, and revise the viva questions on each experiment.