Scheme of CBSE Examinations and Pass Criteria

General Conditions

(i) The Scheme of Examinations and Pass Criteria for All India/Delhi Senior School Certificate Examination conducted by the Board, shall be as laid down from time to time.

(ii) Class XI examination shall be conducted by the schools themselves.

iii) The Board will conduct the external examinations at the end of Class XII.

(iv) Class XII examination will be based on the syllabi as prescribed by the Board for Class XII from time to time.

(v) Number of papers, duration of examination and marks for each subject/paper will be as specified in the curriculum for the year.

(vi) The examination would be conducted in theory as well as in practicals, depending upon the nature of the subject(s) and the marks/grades allotted shall be as prescribed in the curriculum.

(vii) Marks/grades shall be awarded for individual subjects and the aggregate marks shall not be given.

CBSE Grading

(i)(a) Assessment of theory/practical papers in external subjects shall be in numerical scores. In addition to numerical scores, the Board shall indicate grades in the marks sheets issued to the candidates in case of subjects of external examinations. In case of internal assessment subjects, only grades shall be shown.

(ii) Letter grades on a nine-point scale shall be used.

(iii) The grades shall be derived from scores in case of subjects of external examination. In case of subjects of internal assessment, they shall be awarded by the schools.

(iv) The qualifying marks in each subject of external examination shall be 33% at Senior School Certificate Examination. However, at Senior School Certificate Examination, in a subject involving practical work, a candidate must obtain 33% marks in the theory and 33% marks in the practical separately in addition to 33% marks in aggregate, in order to qualify in that subject.

v)(a) For awarding the grades for the Senior Secondary Examination, the Board shall put all the passed students in a rank order and will award grades as follows:

A-1 Top 1/8th of the passed candidates

A-2 Next 1/8th of the passed candidates

B-1 Next 1/8th of the passed candidates

B-2 Next 1/8th of the passed candidates

C-1 Next 1/8th of the passed candidates

C-2 Next 1/8th of the passed candidates

D-1 Next 1/8th of the passed candidates

D-2 Next 1/8th of the passed candidates

E Failed candidates

NOTES:

(a) Minor variation in proportion of candidates to adjust ties will be made.

(b) In case of a tie, all the students getting the same score, will get the same grade. If the number of students at a score point need to be divided into two segments, the smaller segment will go with the larger.

(c) Method of grading will be used in subjects where the number of candidates who have passed is more than 500.

(d) In respect of subjects where total number of candidates passing in a subject is less than 500, the grading would be adopted on the pattern of grading and distribution in other similar subjects.

CBSE Merit Certificates

(i)(a) The Board will award Merit Certificates in each subject to the top 0.1% of candidates passing that subject, provided that they have passed the examination as per the pass criteria of the Board at the Senior School Certificate Examination. 

(ii) The number of merit certificates in a subject will be determined by rounding off the number of candidates passing the subject to the nearest multiple of thousand. If the number of candidates passing a subject is less than 500, no merit certificate will be issued.

(iii) In the matter of a tie, if one student gets a merit certificate, all candidates getting that score will get the merit certificate.