CBSE Class 10 marking scheme: what it is, how to read it

A CBSE Class 10 marking scheme is the board's answer guide for examiners. For each question it lists the value points - the things an answer must show - and the marks for each one. CBSE publishes one with every sample paper, free. For 2026-27 you can download them from the board's academic website.

What is a marking scheme?

A marking scheme is the list an examiner marks from. It is not a model answer to copy. It is a split of each question's marks into small parts, with what earns each part.

CBSE's Examination Bye-Laws say three things about it. The person who sets the paper writes the scheme along with the question paper. The scheme shows the value points for each answer and the marks for each point. And a group of head examiners may change it after marking sample answer books.

That split of marks into steps is what step marking means. The marking scheme is where the split is written down.

What are value points in a marking scheme?

Value points are the pieces of an answer that earn marks. In Maths they are steps. In Science and the languages they are usually facts, reasons or ideas the answer must contain.

The value points are a guide, not a script to learn by heart. The instructions printed at the top of CBSE's 2026 board-exam marking schemes say so directly:

"The Marking scheme carries only suggested value points for the answers. These are in the nature of Guidelines only and do not constitute the complete answer. The students can have their own expression and if the expression is correct, the due marks should be awarded accordingly."

So a student who makes the right point in their own words should get the marks. Deciding whether the wording carries the same meaning is the examiner's call. That call is one place two examiners can differ.

What does one line of a marking scheme look like?

Here is Question 24 from the 2026-27 Maths Standard sample marking scheme. The question asks for the area of a sector of a circle. The diameter is 28 cm and the arc is 22 cm long. It carries 2 marks, and the scheme splits them three ways.

Finding the radius, 14 cm, earns half a mark. The formula with the numbers put in, half of 22 times 14, earns 1 mark. The answer with its unit, 154 cm², earns the last half mark. A student who slips in the last sum still keeps one and a half marks.

What else does a marking scheme tell you?

• Choices inside a question. The 2026-27 Science sample marking scheme lists three examples in Question 11 and asks for "any two". Any two correct ones earn the marks.
• Either-or questions. Where a paper offers a choice, such as Question 28(A) or 28(B) in Maths, the scheme marks each option on its own.
• Half marks for separate points. In Science Question 10, two short points earn half a mark each, written as (0.5 + 0.5).
• Marks for drawings. In Science Question 39, the diagram alone carries 2 of the 5 marks. See where the marks go in CBSE Class 10 Science.

Where do you find the CBSE sample paper 2026-27 marking scheme?

On CBSE's academic website. The page of Class 10 sample papers and marking schemes for 2026-27 lists each subject. The paper and its marking scheme sit side by side. They are free to download.

After each board exam, CBSE also publishes the schemes used for the real papers on its marking scheme page. These are longer. Each opens with a page of instructions to examiners, such as the one on value points quoted above.

Is there an ICSE Class 10 marking scheme?

Yes, in a different form. CISCE, the board that runs ICSE, publishes a yearly report on selected subjects. Each report prints the board paper's questions with a marking scheme for each one. The October 2025 report on ICSE Maths is one of them. It also lists what examiners saw go wrong, and advice for students.

How do you use the marking scheme to check your own answers?

Attempt a sample paper first, with a timer, as if it were the real exam. Then mark it with the marking scheme, not with an answer key. The difference matters. An answer key tells you only if the final answer matched. The marking scheme tells you which marks you had already earned before a step went wrong.

• Mark the working, not only the answer. Give each half mark the scheme names, in the order it names them.
• Where your wording differs from the value point, ask one question: does it make the same point? That is the question the examiner is told to ask.
• Write down where each lost mark went. A lost method mark and a lost final-answer mark need different fixes. Turning a mark-loss list into a 30-day plan shows one way to use it.
• Look at how the real exam is marked too. Read how examiners give marks, step by step.

Who reads the marking scheme apart from the examiner?

The head examiner does. CBSE's 2026 instructions ask the head examiner to check the first five answer books each examiner marks. The aim is to make sure everyone is following the scheme. For the full path an answer book takes, read how your answer sheet is actually checked.

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.

Mohit Sardana on LinkedIn