CBSE Class XII Board Exam Analysis: ‘The question paper was simple and easy’

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) scheduled the Class XII exams for 2025 to be conducted from February 15, 2025, to April 4, 2025, in the traditional pen-and-paper format. The exams opened with the subject of Entrepreneurship and will conclude with Psychology. The Board also released the 2025 syllabus, outlining the critical chapters and topics that students must focus on.

The Board conducted the Class XII Political Science exam on March 22, 2025. The three-hour exam commenced at 10:30 am and concluded at 1:30 pm, marking the completion of this year’s CBSE Board exams. Students were allotted 15 minutes, from 10:15 am to 10:30 am, to thoroughly review the question paper before beginning the test.

The Board had declared the date sheet in November last year. This year, approximately 44 lakh students from 26 countries appeared for the Board exams.

Format of the question paper

Read the instructions carefully and follow them. All questions are compulsory. The question paper was divided into five sections: A, B, C, D, and E.

Section A (Questions 1 to 12): Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), each question carried 1 mark.

Section B (Questions 13 to 18): Short answer type questions, each question carried 2 marks. Write answers in 50 to 60 words.

Section C (Questions 19 to 23): Long answer type I, each question carried 4 marks. Write answers in 100 to 120 words.

Section D (Questions 24 to 26): Passage, cartoon, and map-based questions. Answer each question accordingly.

Section E (Questions 27 to 30): Long answer type-II questions. Each question carries 6 marks. Write answers in 170 to 180 words.

There is no overall choice. However, there is an internal choice provided.

According to Ms Praveen Kumari, Primary In-charge, who also is a Political Science teacher at Apeejay School, Pitampura, the question paper for all three sets was the same. “The four-marker and six-marker questions were also the same, except for one question in each category. The choices given in the paper were as per the sample paper, and there were internal choices provided accordingly. Nothing was out of the syllabus, and everything was in line with the CBSE guidelines. The paper strictly followed what was prescribed by CBSE,” the educator shared.

The overall quality of the paper was simple. However, a few of the MCQs were slightly tricky. Those students who would have studied the subject in depth would have been able to handle them well, she said.

“Overall, it was an easy paper and much simpler compared to last year’s. Also, the paper was not lengthy, and the students would have been able to complete it well within the allocated time. Even in the four-marker questions, where two things were asked, it was quite manageable and easy for the students to write their responses,” Ms Kumari shared.