As over 40 lakh students walked into their CBSE board examination centres this morning, clutching transparent pouches and last-minute revision notes, another invisible document seemed to follow them into the exam hall. The CBSE rulebook.
What is this rulebook, you ask? It is the ever-expanding, increasingly complex framework of CBSE’s structural reforms.
And for many parents and students, the real anxiety this year is not the Mathematics paper (with Class 10 examinations beginning with it) or the Physics numericals. It is this: What exactly happens after the exam? Which attempt counts? Who qualifies for the second exam? And what on earth is “First Chance Improvement” versus “Essential Repeat”?
Because while the exams have begun today, the policy confusion began weeks ago.
CBSE PROMISED LESS STRESS, DELIVERED MORE RULES
The 2026 board cycle marks one of the most dramatic structural shifts in the exam system in recent years. The reforms, aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, were designed with a noble promise. To reduce stress and dismantle the “one-shot, high-stakes” exam culture.
In essence, the new framework includes:
- Class 10 students now have two board exam opportunities in one academic year
- The first exam (February) is mandatory
- The second exam (May) is optional for improvement or compartment clearance
- The better score may be considered
- Internal assessment is conducted only once but applies to both attempts
On paper, this sounds progressive. In practice, however, it reads like a bureaucratic maze.
Ritika Mehra, a Delhi-based parent of a Class 10 student, did not mince her words when she told us, “Earlier, we only worried about preparation. Now we are worrying about policy interpretation. I had to read three circulars just to understand whether my child could improve marks in two or three subjects.”
Her son, Aarav, sounds visibly exhausted. “Teachers are saying ‘don’t skip the first exam’, coaching centres are saying ‘save energy for the improvement exam’, and CBSE is saying both are important. I don’t know which strategy is correct.”
This confusion is far from being anecdotal. Educators across schools have admitted that clarity gaps persist even as exams get underway. Reports from schools suggest that students are still seeking guidance on eligibility rules, subject attempts, and improvement categories just days before the papers begin.
A POLICY THAT NOW EXTENDS THE PRESSURE CALENDAR
CBSE maintains that the dual-exam model is meant to reduce stress by eliminating the “one-chance-only” fear. But a closer look at the lived timeline tells a different story. Students appear for the first main board exam in February, receive results in April, and those seeking improvement must then prepare again for a second exam scheduled in May–June, with revised results expected in July.
Congratulations! Board exam season is no longer a month-long event; it is now a semester-long psychological cycle.
“Earlier, students had exam anxiety for 30 days. Now they can have it for 120 days. It’s a subscription model of stress,” says Shailaja Joshi, a school counsellor in Gurgaon, only half in jest. According to her, the deeper concern is that several structural changes introduced by CBSE appear under-thought in their real-world application.
The two-board exam system
The new policy states that from 2026, students can appear for board exams twice in the same academic year, with the second attempt aimed at improvement.
However, there is a crucial catch. The first exam is mandatory, and missing multiple subjects can lead to an “essential repeat” classification. This creates a paradox: a system marketed as “flexible” begins with a compulsory high-stakes attempt.
Layered eligibility categories sound like legal terminology
Students are now classified under multiple categories, like first attempt, improvement attempt, compartment with improvement overlap, and essential repeat. For a 15-year-old, this is less an assessment framework and more a set of complex administrative labels.
A parent who contacted us to understand the rules told us bluntly, “This doesn’t sound like a school exam system. It sounds like an income tax policy.”
On-screen digital evaluation (Class 12)
Alongside the new framework, CBSE has also introduced digital on-screen marking (OSM) to scan and evaluate answer sheets online for faster and more transparent assessment.
While the technological intent is progressive, counsellors and school administrators have raised logistical concerns, including teacher training gaps, familiarity with digital evaluation systems, and recalibration timelines for results.
Industry observers describe the transition as “ambitious, not sufficiently phased.”
Competency-based question shift
CBSE has steadily increased the proportion of competency-based questions to test application and analytical skills rather than rote learning. However, many educators argue that classroom pedagogy has not evolved at the same pace as assessment reform.
The result is a mismatch with students being tested on conceptual thinking within a system that still largely relies on memorisation-driven teaching.
REFORM FATIGUE IS REAL
Anil Agarwal, an education policy analyst and former school advisor, offers an overall assessment of this situation. “The intent of CBSE’s reforms may be modern, but the execution is layered. When you simultaneously change exam patterns, evaluation methods, and attempt structures, you create reform overload.”
A senior principal from a leading CBSE school in Mumbai echoes this concern, “Yes, we support flexibility. But the communication has been circular-heavy and student-light. Parents are decoding notifications instead of focusing on learning. That is not what CBSE should stand for.”
For proponents of the overhaul, the dual-exam structure is rooted in NEP 2020, which recommends conducting board exams twice a year to reduce pressure and make assessments more flexible. However, policy experts point out a crucial distinction: NEP proposed flexibility, not administrative complexity.
“WE FEEL LIKE POLICY LAB RATS”: STUDENTS SPEAK
A Class 12 student from Bengaluru summed up the mood with striking clarity. “Every year CBSE experiments with us — first CCE, then competency-based questions, and now dual exams. We are the batch that always gets the pilot project.”
Another student preparing for boards today, told us, “Instead of reducing stress, the system has made performance feel reversible, negotiable, and uncertain. That is more mentally exhausting.”
In trying to make board exams more student-friendly, CBSE may have inadvertently made them policy-heavy. The earlier system was straightforward: study, write the exam, and receive the result. The new ecosystem suggests a far more layered route — study, appear for a mandatory exam, analyse eligibility, consider improvement, reappear, recalculate results, and reassess academic trajectory.
One exhausted mother outside an exam centre captured the sentiment perfectly as she said, “My child is giving the board exam today. I feel like I am giving the policy exam.” Perhaps that is the real crisis of CBSE’s reform era. When an examination system requires explanatory webinars, multi-page circulars, and school-level decoding, the reform may be progressive in vision but premature in execution.
Today, as answer sheets are being filled inside exam halls across India, one uncomfortable question lingers outside. Did CBSE truly reduce exam stress, or merely redistribute it across notifications, clauses, and second chances? And if so, is it the system itself that now needs “improvement?
