The Route to 95: Class 10

Your progress

Checkpoint results by chapter and step.

The four steps in every chapter

The board paper has 38 questions, 80 marks, 3 hours: Section A 20 × 1 mark (18 multiple choice and 2 assertion–reason), B 5 × 2, C 6 × 3, D 4 × 5 and E three case studies × 4. Each step trains a part of it.

Move on when the checkpoint is passed (80%). A checkpoint missed twice in a row means going back one step.

A plan from April to the board exam

About 147 hours of chapter work in all.

• Weeks 1 to 30 (April to October): chapters in order, about two weeks each at 6 to 7 hours a week. Steps 1 to 3 of every chapter; step 4 for the chapter just finished if its step 3 checkpoint passed.
• Weeks 31 to 36 (November): step 4 on every chapter, plus any step 3 checkpoints that were missed. Mixed practice across chapters and one timed sample paper every two weeks.
• Weeks 37 to 44 (December to January): one full timed sample paper a week (two in the last three weeks), each followed by redoing every lost mark against the chapter's "where marks are lost" list. School pre-boards sit here.
• Final one to two weeks: light revision of the mark-loss lists and formulae only. The optional second board exam in May is a safety net, not part of the plan.

Starting in October (about 19 weeks)? Do steps 1 to 3 only on each chapter (about 1.2 weeks each at 8 to 9 hours a week), then five weeks of sample papers. Add step 4 only on Algebra and Geometry, which carry 35 of the 80 marks.

For the final month: the last 30 days and a revision timetable. On the day: how answers are step-marked. More in the Class 10 exam strategy guides.

For the timed papers: CBSE's own sample paper (on our Class 10 question papers page) and our 5 sample papers on the 2026-27 pattern, each with a 3-hour timer and a step-marking scheme.

The weekly rhythm

The Sunday paper lands just before the parent report goes out on Sunday evening.

What "on track for 95+" means

The parent dashboard shows an estimated score range, worked out from timed sample-paper scores and chapter mastery: 60% from the average of the last five scored papers and 40% from mastery. The range is ± 4 marks with three or more scored papers, ± 7 with one or two, and ± 10 from mastery alone.

It says "on track for 95+" only when the low end of the range is 95 or more, which needs three or more scored papers and a centre of at least 98.5. "Within reach of 95+" means the high end is 95 or more. It is deliberately cautious: an estimate, never a promise.

Red flags for a parent: a chapter slipping back from "secure", two missed checkpoints in a row in the same chapter, more than ten days without scored practice, or sample-paper marks lost mainly in Sections A and B (careless slips, fixed with the mark-loss lists) rather than D and E.

What steps 3 and 4 ask, chapter by chapter

Each chapter's last two steps (full marks on long answers, then the 95+ stretch) and what you can do once their checkpoints are passed.

• Real Numbers: step 3, write complete 5-mark and case-study answers, with the prime factorisation shown, a clear final sentence and units, so no step mark slips away; step 4, crack the trickiest questions: finding unknown powers, listing all possible number pairs and spotting which sums and products of surds stay irrational.
• Polynomials: step 3, write full-marks long answers and case studies, including completing a table, plotting the graph and reading off the zeroes; step 4, handle expressions like α² + β² or α/β + β/α without solving, and build new polynomials whose zeroes are changed versions of old ones.
• Pair of Linear Equations in Two Variables: step 3, produce neat graphs with labelled lines and complete word-problem solutions that define variables and state the final answer; step 4, handle consistency questions with two unknowns, clever combinations of the solution and the slightly unusual word problems that separate 95+ scripts.
• Quadratic Equations: step 3, write full-marks 5-mark word problems: equation formed, solved, the impossible root rejected with a reason, answer in context; step 4, handle surd coefficients, rational equations and 'for every value of m' discriminant proofs.
• Arithmetic Progressions: step 3, write complete 5-mark answers on AP word problems (savings, instalments, rows of seats) with a, d and n stated; step 4, handle Sₙ given as a formula, 'three numbers in AP' and sums of the next n terms, the 95+ questions.
• Triangles: step 3, write the BPT proof and the long 'prove that' answers the board asks, with figure, given, to prove, construction and proof; step 4, handle the hard proofs: altitudes, parallelograms with extended sides, and algebraic BPT problems.
• Coordinate Geometry: step 3, prove the type of a quadrilateral or triangle from coordinates in a full, reasoned long answer; step 4, handle trisection points, points equidistant from three given points and right-angle conditions.
• Introduction to Trigonometry: step 3, write long answers that combine ratios, standard values and identities, with every substitution shown; step 4, prove the tougher identities and solve problems where the ratio is given in terms of letters such as a and b.
• Some Applications of Trigonometry: step 3, write full-marks 5-mark answers with a labelled figure, two equations and a final answer with units; step 4, handle mixed elevation-and-depression problems, moving objects and speed, and the unusual two-triangle set-ups.
• Circles: step 3, write both theorem proofs and the long 'prove that' questions with a figure, given, to prove and reasons; step 4, handle incircles of triangles and quadrilaterals, tangents meeting chords, and the multi-step angle problems.
• Areas Related to Circles: step 3, write complete long answers on shaded regions, combining sectors, triangles and squares without missing a piece; step 4, work backwards from a given area or perimeter to the radius or angle, and handle major segments.
• Surface Areas and Volumes: step 3, write complete 5-mark answers on combined solids and real objects (tents, toys, vessels) with units and conversions; step 4, handle drilled holes, hollow objects and the 'largest cone in a cube' questions that decide 95+.
• Statistics: step 3, write 5-mark answers with the complete table, find missing frequencies and use the empirical relationship; step 4, handle inclusive classes, two unknown frequencies and questions that combine mean, median and mode.
• Probability: step 3, write complete long answers and case studies, listing favourable outcomes and giving answers in lowest terms; step 4, handle two-dice products and sums, modified card packs and 'find the number of balls' problems.

What's free

Chapter order and hours