Previous year papers

A previous year paper is the exact paper students sat in the board exam that year. It is different from a sample paper, which the board writes as a model before the exam.

Where do you find them?

CBSE posts them on its question papers page. It holds the Class 10 papers for the 2026 exam and for the second board exam of 2026, with earlier years below. A separate page on the same site holds the marking schemes for those exams.

For ICSE, CISCE's report on the 2025 Maths paper tells students to "solve previous years' papers". It pairs them with the specimen paper on CISCE's website.

How should you use them?

• Sit a full paper in the time the exam allows, which is 3 hours for Class 10 Maths and Science.
• Check it against that year's marking scheme, step by step, not only the final answers.
• Note which marks you lost and why: a missing step, a unit, a wrong reading of the question.

An older paper may follow an older pattern. So compare its sections with the current sample paper before you rely on it. The Class 10 papers we hold, by board, subject and year lists each one and what its download holds.

About the author

Mohit Sardana

Chief Architect

An engineer (B.Tech, Computer Science) with over 20 years of preparing students for entrance exams, including as Dean at FIITJEE and Vice-President at Aakash. He is the chief architect of the TRUpreBoards evaluation engine.

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