CBSE Class 10 English Exam: Last Minute Tips To Score Well
Over 25 lakh class 10 students are to sit for the Central Board of Secondary Education’s English Language and Literature examination on February 21, 2026. The exam will take place from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm. which carries 80 marks annd covers reading comprehension to literature appreciation.
Section A: Reading Skills (20 Marks) – Avoid Copy Paste, Rephrase the idea
Section A contains two passages – a discursive passage and a Case-Based Passage – worth 10 marks each. Students often make one critical mistake here: they lift sentences straight from the text and paste them as answers.
However, examiners look whether a student has understood the text, not memorised it. Students must paraphrase the idea and express in their own words.
CBSE gives data based questions and provide text along with data in the form of a table, a chart, or statistics – and students must analyse it. This is competency – based assessment. Students must think critically, compare, contrast, and draw conclusions.
Section B: Writing Skils & Grammer (20 Marks) – Reported Speech Is A Must
The grammer section (10 marks) asks you to complete any ten of twelve tasks. Students must not ignore that out of those twelve tasks, roughly four questions are likely to be on the reported speech, direct to indirect and vice versa. This requires a short amount of practice.
For the writing component (10 marks), the most probable question is a formal letter to the Editor. Students must keep the marks metrics for this – one mark for format, two marks for content, one for organisation of ideas and one for accuracy.
Section C: Literature (40 Marks) – Keywords and a Mind Map
The literature section carries the most weight. This requires to learn the keywords for each chapter, which requires to recall the entire story and helps in narrating it with a clear mind map.
Students can focus on Bholi and The Necklace from Footprints Without Feet, and from First Flight, give special attention to The Sermon at Benares, Nelson Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom, and A Letter to God.
However along with the preparation the rest also matters for a calm and composed mind. Students must take a good sleep to stay focused during the exam.
