The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced more changes to the Class 10 board exam format for Science and Social Science subjects. Now, students are required to answer questions strictly within designated sections in their answer booklets, the board has confirmed.

Under the new guidelines, the Science paper will be divided into three sections, namely Biology (Section A), Chemistry (Section B), and Physics (Section C). Similarly, the Social Science paper will be split into four sections for History (Section A), Geography (Section B), Political Science (Section C), and Economics (Section D).

Students must label and divide their answer sheets accordingly, and any responses written outside the correct section or mixed across sections will not be evaluated and cannot be corrected during verification or re-evaluation, the board informed.

CBSE has uploaded sample question papers for Science and Social Science on its official website for students to get familiar with the new pattern.

The changes come as the board also finalises the 2026 board exam dates, with both Class 10 and Class 12 exams set to begin on February 17, 2026, and Class 10 papers scheduled to conclude on March 10, 2026.

Earlier, the CBSE also announced that 50 per cent of the Class 10 and Class 12 board exam question papers will be competency-based, including MCQs, case-based and source-based questions, data interpretation and situational problems. 20 per cent of the paper will be MCQs, while the remaining 30 per cent will be short and long-answer questions.