The Route to 95: Class 12

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 154 hours of chapter work in all.

• Weeks 1 to 26 (April to September): chapters 1 to 9, 8 to 9 hours a week, so that Calculus is finished (steps 1 to 3) by the end of September.
• Weeks 27 to 32 (October to mid-November): chapters 10 to 13, and step 4 on the Calculus chapters.
• Weeks 33 to 38 (mid-November to December): step 4 on everything else, mixed practice and one timed sample paper every two weeks. School pre-boards.
• Weeks 39 to 46 (January to February): one full timed sample paper a week (two in the final three weeks), each followed by redoing every lost mark against the chapter's "where marks are lost" list.

Starting in October (about 20 weeks)? Calculus steps 1 to 3 first (10 weeks at 10 hours a week), then Vectors and 3D Geometry, Probability and Algebra steps 1 to 3, then five weeks of sample papers.

For the final month: the last 30 days and a revision timetable. On the day: how answers are step-marked. More in the Class 12 exam strategy guides.

For the timed papers: CBSE's own sample paper (on our Class 12 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.

• Relations and Functions: step 3, write the 5-mark relation and function proofs in full, with a heading and reason for each property and counter-examples where needed; step 4, handle bijection proofs on restricted domains, tricky counting of relations and the hardest assertion-reason items.
• Inverse Trigonometric Functions: step 3, write complete multi-part answers (the case studies, the 5-mark simplification and the multi-part domain questions), stating the branch you use at each step; step 4, handle radian inputs like sin⁻¹(sin 3), substitution-based simplifications and justifying the signs when you write sin θ and cos θ in terms of x.
• Matrices: step 3, write complete, step-marked solutions to 5-mark and case-based matrix questions, including context problems; step 4, solve unfamiliar matrix problems: matrix equations with unknown entries, nilpotent/idempotent reasoning and pattern arguments for powers.
• Determinants: step 3, score full marks on the 5-mark matrix-method question and on determinant case studies, with every step mark visible; step 4, handle parameter systems (unique / none / infinitely many), adj-inverse identities and unfamiliar applications.
• Continuity and Differentiability: step 3, write long answers and case studies in full, especially 'prove that' second-derivative questions and xˣ-type derivatives; step 4, handle piecewise functions with two unknowns, |x| and greatest-integer functions and max/min-defined functions.
• Application of Derivatives: step 3, write full-marks optimisation and case-study answers: function set up, derivative, test, and the value that was asked for; step 4, handle monotonicity with parameters or trig functions and the harder optimisation problems.
• Integrals: step 3, write complete long answers on definite integrals, including the property questions, with each step and the property named; step 4, handle the hardest property-based integrals and the tricky substitutions that decide 95+.
• Application of Integrals: step 3, write full-marks 5-mark area answers and case studies: sketch, shading, limits, integral and sq units; step 4, handle regions that need two integrals, parts of circles and ellipses and area questions where symmetry is only partial.
• Differential Equations: step 3, write complete long answers and case studies, including setting up a differential equation from a real situation; step 4, handle equations that are linear in x, mixed-method problems and modelling questions that need interpretation.
• Vector Algebra: step 3, write complete multi-step vector solutions (triangle and parallelogram problems, case studies with forces or displacements); step 4, work with vectors given only by magnitudes and angles, minimisation and perpendicular-component arguments.
• Three Dimensional Geometry: step 3, score full marks on 5-mark shortest-distance, intersection and foot-of-perpendicular/image questions and on 3-D case studies; step 4, solve common-perpendicular, image-of-a-point and multi-part triangle problems in 3-D.
• Linear Programming: step 3, write full-mark 5-mark LPP answers from a word problem: formulation, labelled graph, corner-point table and conclusion; step 4, handle parameters in the objective function, multiple optimal solutions and existence questions for unbounded regions.
• Probability: step 3, write complete 5-mark Bayes and random-variable answers (events defined, tree/table, formula, conclusion) and handle probability case studies; step 4, handle proofs about conditional probability and independence, sequential evidence in Bayes, and distributions built from without-replacement experiments.

What's free

Chapter order and hours