Class X and XII students from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have said that the duration of the study holidays is insufficient. The objection came days after CBSE released the public exam timetable on Sunday. According to the board, there are 240 subjects in total and students have opted for around 30,000 combinations.

After two years, the CBSE exam timetable has gone back to the old schedule of starting in mid-February. This has, however, shocked students who were unprepared for the change in the timetable. "We learnt that we have only 1.5 months left for the exams. Our school announced that we will have to come to school for two or three days during the Christmas vacation for special classes," said Rhea Mittal, a class 12 student pursuing the fashion designing and technology stream at a school in West Mambalam.

Earlier, the exams started in March and the results were announced 45 days later. Exams of both classes are to begin in February and end in April. For Class 12, the exams will start on February 15 and end on April 3. The Class X exams start on February 21 and end on March 29. Class XII students, particularly those in Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Biology (PCMB) stream, said that the number of study holidays between the exams was insufficient as well. "We have Chemistry on March 12, Biology on March 15 and Mathematics on March 18. We have only two days before both these important exams. But, we have nearly 12 days before physical education," said D Goutham, a class 12 student from a CBSE school in Gopalapuram. He added that CBSE should revise the timetable such that the difficult subjects are spaced evenly.

"Most schools complete teaching the syllabus by the second week of January," said a Class X teacher. "Usually we revise in January and conduct model exams in the first two weeks of February. Students get to study on their own after that. But this year, we're on a tight schedule, she said."

A senior official from the regional CBSE office, said the timetable was advanced as students from across the country, complained that their results were delayed for State undergraduate engineering and medical counselling. With the Lok Sabha elections scheduled in the coming year, early completion of public exams will make things easy for students, the official said.