The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has officially published the examination timetable for the upcoming 2025 board exams for Classes 10 and 12. Students can now access the complete date sheet on the board's official website, cbse.gov.in, allowing them to plan their final revision strategy effectively.
Key Dates and Exam Schedule
The theory examinations for both classes are scheduled to commence on February 15, 2025. For Class 12 students, the first paper will be Entrepreneurship, while Class 10 students will begin with their English papers. The Class 10 exams are set to conclude on March 18, 2025, and the Class 12 exams will end on April 4, 2025.
The board has also finalized the schedule for practical examinations and internal assessments. For the majority of schools across the country, these practicals will start on January 1, 2025. However, considering academic schedules in regions with harsh winters, schools in winter-affected areas will conduct their practicals between November 5 and December 5, 2024.
Major Shift Towards Competency-Based Assessment
Aligning with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the 2025 CBSE exams will see a significant pedagogical shift. The focus will move decisively from rote learning to assessing the practical application of knowledge and critical thinking skills.
A major change is the increased weightage of competency-based questions to 50% in both Class 10 and Class 12 papers, a notable rise from the previous 40%. These questions will be presented in various modern formats including Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), case-based scenarios, and source-based integrated questions. Consequently, the proportion of traditional short and long-answer questions has been reduced.
The total marks for each subject will remain 100, distributed across theory exams, practicals, project work, and internal assessments as per the detailed subject-specific guidelines issued by CBSE.
How to Access the Date Sheet and Prepare
Students and parents can download the official date sheet by following a simple process:
- Visit the CBSE official website: cbse.gov.in.
- On the homepage, locate and click on the link for 'Date sheet for Class 10 and 12 for board examinations - 2025'.
- The date sheet PDF will open on a new page.
- Download the file and take a printout for easy reference during preparation.
To help students adapt to the new exam pattern, CBSE has made sample question papers for both classes available on its academic portal, cbseacademic.nic.in. These resources are crucial for understanding the updated question formats, marking schemes, and the overall structure of the 2025 papers. Schools have been instructed to strictly adhere to the board's guidelines to ensure smooth administration of the examinations.
With the date sheet released nearly 86 days before the exams begin, students have ample time to create a structured study plan. Focusing on understanding concepts and practicing competency-based questions from the sample papers will be key to performing well in the revamped CBSE Board Exams 2025.
