Never Miss an Exam Update
CBSE Class 12 English Exam Pattern 2026 for English Core and English Elective is provided in detail here. The students can check the exam pattern in detail and prepare for the exam thoroughly. For English Core, students will have to answer questions worth 80 marks. There will be three sections in the question paper for evaluating the reading and writing skills. The third section will include questions from Literature text book and supplementary reading. Similarly, English Elective will include questions worth 80 marks. The students will find questions related to reading skills, applied grammar, creative writing, textbook, and fiction. Through the article, students can check the pattern of questions asked and marking scheme. Knowing the details in advance will help students to perform well in board exams. Continue reading the article to get complete information about the CBSE Class 12 English Exam Pattern 2026. Also Read - CBSE Class 12 English Syllabus 2026
CBSE Class 12 English Core Exam Pattern 2026
For student and teacher information that should be known before the exam, the CBSE Class 12 English Core exam pattern is important (Subject Code-301). This guarantees that the student will be prepared and know the questions that will be asked. Here is the CBSE Class 12 English Blueprint 2026, along with section-specific competencies.
| Section | Competencies | Total marks |
|---|---|---|
| A- Reading Skills |
Conceptual comprehension, decoding, analyzing, drawing conclusions, interpreting, and appreciating literary norms and language, as well as summarizing and employing the proper structure or formats.
1 and 2 mark questions | 22 |
| B- Creative Writing Sills |
The ability to grasp concepts, apply rules, analyze, reason, use suitable style and tone, use acceptable format and fluency, draw conclusions, analyze, evaluate, and creativity.
4 and 5 mark questions | 18 |
| C- Literature Text Book and Supplementary Reading Text |
Recalling, reasoning, critical thinking, appreciating literary convention, inference, analysis, creativity with fluency.
2, 4, 5 and 6 mark questions. These might be divided into 1 to 2-mark questions. | 40 |
| Overall Marks | Total | 80 |
| Internal Assessment |
Assessment of Listening and Speaking Skills
|
10
5+5 |
| Project Work + Viva | 10 | |
| Total | 20 | |
| Grand Total | 100 | |
Also Read- CBSE Class 12 Exam Pattern 2026
CBSE Class 12 English Core Marking Scheme 2026
Check here the section-wise marking scheme and parameters for assessment.
| Section | Marking Criteria | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| A- Reading Skills | Usually, each question is worth one or two marks. One-word, fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice, and one-liner questions. | 22 |
| B- Creative Writing Sills | Marks are allocated based on the quality of writing and grammar correctness. | 18 |
| C- Literature Textbook and Supplementary Reading Text | There are different types of questions with different marks: essay-style, long-answer, and short-answer. | 40 |
| Overall Marks | Total | 80 |
| Parameters for Assessment |
The listening and speaking skills are to be assessed on the following parameters:
a. Interactive competence (Initiation & turn taking, relevance to the topic) b. Fluency (cohesion, coherence and speed of delivery) c. Pronunciation d. Language (grammar and vocabulary) | 20 |
CBSE Class 12 English Elective Blueprint 2026
The English exam, pattern for English elective subjects (Subject Code-001) in CBSE Class 12 may be found here. This is the CBSE Class 12 English elective exam pattern 2026, which will benefit the CBSE Class 12 Board exams. The marking scheme and the CBSE Class 12 English exam pattern are also provided here.
| Section | Competencies | Total marks | % Weightage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading Comprehension | Conceptual comprehension, decoding, analyzing, interpreting, drawing conclusions, recognizing literary devices and terminology, summarizing, and employing the proper format or formats. | 20 | 25% |
| Applied Grammar | Applying appropriate language conventions comprehension using structures interactively, application, accuracy | 8 | 10% |
| Creative Writing | Using suitable format and fluency, reasoning, analysis, evaluation, and creativity with fluency are all important skills. | 20 | 25% |
| Textbook | Recalling, reasoning, appreciating literary convention, inference, analysis, and creativity with fluency | 22 | 27.5% |
| Fiction | Recalling, reasoning, appreciating interventions, illustrating with relevant quotations from the text, inferring, analyzing, evaluating and creating, giving opinions, justifying with fluency | 10 | 12.50% |
| Overall Marks | Total | 80 | 100% |
| Seminar | Finding information and providing clarification, supporting arguments with pertinent textual quotations, using suitable linguistic conventions, reasoning, diction, articulation, and pronunciation clarity addressing participants with overall fluency and suitable titles or nomenclature. | 20 | -- |
| Grand Total | -- | 100 | -- |
CBSE Class 12 English Elective Marking Scheme
Check here the section-wise marking scheme for the CBSE Class 12 English Elective paper.
| Section | Marking Criteria | Total marks |
|---|---|---|
| A- Reading Skills | Marks | 20 |
| Passage one (12 Multiple Choice Questions / Objective Type Questions, out of 15) | 12 | |
| Poem (4 out of 5 multiple choice questions / Objective Type Questions) | 4 | |
| Passage two (4 out of 5 multiple choice questions / Objective Type Questions) | 4 | |
| B- Grammar and writing | Marks | 28 |
| Applied Grammar (Eight multiple-choice questions / Objective Type Questions, out of ten) | 8 | |
| Creative Writing (Three Long Writing Tasks, out of four, to be answered in 120-150 words each ) | (5x3)15 | |
| One Long Writing Task out of two to be answered in 120-150 words | 5 | |
| C- Literature and fiction | Marks | 22 |
| Textbook - Reference to the Context | One Prose extract, out of two | 6 |
| One Poetry extract, out of two | 6 | |
| One Short Answer Question, out of two | 2 | |
| One Short Answer Question, out of two (40-50 words) | 3 | |
| One Long Answer Question, out of two (120-150 words) | 5 | |
| Textbook - Fiction | Marks | 10 |
| One Short Answer Question, out of two (30-40 words) | 2 | |
| One Short Answer Question, out of two (40-50 words) | 3 | |
| One Long Answer Question, out of two (120-150 words) | 5 | |
| Overall | Total Marks | 80 |
| Seminar |
| 20 |
| Total | 20 | |
| Grand Total | 100 | |
Students who want to do well on the CBSE Class 12 Result can get the most recent exam pattern and syllabus from the CBSE's official website. Make sure you review the most recent adjustments and adapt your board exam preparation accordingly.
Are you feeling lost and unsure about what career path to take after completing 12th standard?
Say goodbye to confusion and hello to a bright future!
FAQs
Knowing the CBSE Class 12 English Exam Pattern 2026 in advance will give students an idea about the types of questions to be answered in the board exam. They also get familiar with the marking scheme. This idea makes it easy for them to attempt the questions in board exams.
The students can score high marks in the CBSE Class 12 English Exam 2026 by practicing the questions regularly. After completing the syllabus, students can solve questions from the previous year question papers. The regular practice will help them to write perfect answers for different types of questions in board exams.
The CBSE Class 12 English Exam Pattern can be checked online. The students can take a look at the latest exam pattern and get an idea of the variety of questions appearing in the exam. The students can also check the marking scheme followed by the board for English Core as well as English Elective.
In the CBSE Class 12 English Exam 2026, students will have to answer a variety of questions. There will be very short questions, short questions, and long questions for different marks. Each question should be answered as per the marks allotted to the questions.
According to the CBSE Class 12 English Exam Pattern, the theory exam will be of 80 marks. There will be separate exams for English Core and English Elective exam. There will be different types of questions included in the theory exam. The students can check the exam pattern in advance to get familiar with the types of questions.
Was this article helpful?
