CBSE Class 10 pass percentage rises to 96.78% after second board exam; over one-fourth of students took improvement test

CBSE announced the results of the Class 10 Second Board Examination 2026 on Saturday. Students can check their results via DigiLocker.

The overall pass percentage in the Class 10 board examinations rose to 96.78% after the second board examination, with 308,095 students out of 663,777 –59.95% –improving their performance, according to results announced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Saturday.

The second board examination was taken by 663,777 students, accounting for 26.85% of the more than 2.47 million students who had appeared for the mandatory main Class 10 board examination held between February and March.

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The Class 10 main board examination results, declared on April 15, had recorded an overall pass percentage of 93.70%, marginally higher than 93.66% in 2025.

According to CBSE, 664,027 students registered for the second examination and 663,777 appeared. Of these, 513,955 students took the examination for improvement, and 308,095 (59.95%) succeeded in improving their performance over the main examination.

149,822 students appeared for compartment exam

Another 149,822 students appeared under the compartment category, of whom 78,503 (52.40%) cleared the examination, an improvement of 3.72 percentage points over the 48.68% compartment pass percentage recorded in 2025.

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After incorporating the better scores obtained in the second board examination held between May 15 and 21, the overall pass percentage increased by 3.08 percentage points to 96.78%—an increase of 3.12 percentage points from last year's overall pass percentage of 93.66%.

“The second board examination provided eligible students of the main board examination of 2026 with an additional opportunity to improve their performance. Accordingly, for regular students of 2026, the better of the two performances is considered for preparing the final result,” CBSE Controller of Examinations Sanyam Bhardwaj said in a statement.

The 2026 Class 10 cohort is the first to be assessed under CBSE's two-board examination system, a key reform under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aimed at reducing the "high-stakes" nature of board examinations by giving students an additional opportunity to improve their scores.

Under CBSE's new two-board examination policy, introduced from 2026 in line with the NEP 2020, only students who appeared in the main board examination were eligible to take the second examination to improve their scores in up to three subjects—science, mathematics, social science and languages. For regular students, the board considers the better of the two performances while preparing the final result.

Students can access their results and digital academic documents through DigiLocker, while printed marksheets and passing certificates will be issued through their respective schools.