The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) commenced the Standard X and XII board exams for the 2024-25 academic year yesterday, with more than 42 lakh students set to appear for the papers. The exams are being conducted at 7,842 centres across India and 26 other countries worldwide. According to the board, a total of 24.12 lakh students will appear for the Std 10 papers across 84 subjects, while 17.88 lakh Std 12 students will write papers in 120 subjects.

This reflects an increase of 3.14 lakh students over last year’s total count of 38.85 lakh across both grades. On Saturday, Std 10 students wrote the English (Communicative) and English (Language and Literature) papers, while Std 12 students appeared for the Entrepreneurship exam. Many students found the English paper easy. Maulik Shah, a Standard 10 student, told mid-day: “The paper was easy, but I had concerns about the word limit. The answers were much longer than the allowed word count. Also, one question was out of the syllabus, but since it was optional, we didn’t have to attempt it.”