About ICSE
The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education popularly known as ICSE is an examination conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE), a private board of school education in India for Class 10. The CISCE board is headquartered in New Delhi. It is considered as one of the popular boards of education in India who conducts the ICSE Class 10 and ISC Class 12 board examinations every year.
The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education has been designed to provide an exam in the course of general education, according to the New Education Policy 1986, through English medium. The Council focuses on a student’s overall growth, providing a balanced curriculum to all its learners. Students can also find all the information related to the ICSE Board exam on this page.
ICSE Board Exam Details
CISCE aims to serve its learners through quality education and empower them to contribute towards humanity, a pluralistic society, by creating an exciting learning experience. The contact details of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations are given below.
| Name of Board | Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) |
| Established | 1958 |
| Medium of Instruction | English |
| Address (Head Office) | Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE)
P 35-36, Sector VI Pushp Vihar, Saket New Delhi – 110017 |
| Telephone Number | (011) 29564831/33/37 |
| council@cisce.org | |
| Official Website | cisce.org |
| Fax Number | (011) 29564735 |
ICSE Syllabus
The ICSE Syllabus is well-structured and comprehensive and aims to build analytical skills and practical knowledge for its students. ICSE board exam is known for its vast syllabus, and students must give importance to all the subjects. The board focuses on a detailed study of each subject which helps students to have the flexibility of selecting specific subjects in higher classes.
The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education also considers internal assessments to be very important for a student’s development. The practical exam results are aggregated with the student’s overall score. Students who are studying under the ICSE should be completely familiar with the exam syllabus to prepare effectively for their examinations. They can access the latest Syllabus of the ICSE exam for all classes by visiting the links below.
ICSE Practical Syllabus
The practical syllabus of the ICSE board exam will help students get an idea about the types of experiments they need to perform for Physics, Chemistry, and Biology in their respective school labs. The experiments mentioned in the syllabus are framed according to the theory syllabus so that students can understand its importance. Before performing the experiment, students should have a thorough understanding of the theoretical concepts. Click the link given below to download the latest ICSE practical syllabus.
| ICSE Class 9 Experiments |
| ICSE Class 10 Experiments |
ICSE Affiliations
Below, we have provided the steps and Guidelines through which a school can get affiliated with CISCE Board.
Guidelines for affiliations:
- The school must obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the state government for affiliation of the school to the council.
- The school should be run by a registered society, trust or company registered under Section 25 (1)(a) of the Companies Act, 1956, and one of the principal purposes of the society, trust or company must be educational.
- Each school must have a duly constituted governing body and managing committee.
- The society, trust or company must be financially stable.
- The medium of instruction in the school must be English, and the scheme of studies must be in accordance with the scheme laid down by the council for secondary and higher secondary stages.
- The staff must be qualified and trained in accordance with the qualifications prescribed by the council.
- There should be a compulsory provident fund scheme.
- The school infrastructure should be adequate for accommodating the numbers and gender of pupils attending the school.
- The playing fields and/or other facilities for extra-curricular and co-curricular activities must be adequate.
- The equipment should be adequate to enable all subjects to be taught efficiently and must include apparatus for practical work.
- The number of working days and hours should conform to those prescribed by the council from time to time.
- The Certificate of Land is a mandatory document to be submitted electronically in a prescribed format for provisional affiliation.
ICSE Curriculum Details
The detailed curriculum of the ICSE exam from class 1 to class 10 is provided below.
- Class 1 to 5
The council focuses more on refining the skills of students. All the schools under the CISCE have the freedom to select their textbooks for classes 1 to 5. The board has guidelines for every subject, which the schools must follow to make the syllabus relevant to the students studying under the CISCE board.
- Class 6 to 10
For classes 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, a well-structured syllabus is provided by the council along with the guidelines. The council also provides a list of books from which the schools can choose for their students. There is no textbook set by the council. The subject areas in the ICSE curriculum have been organised in a matrix format. Each subject follows a theme-based approach. For each theme, Learning Outcomes have been identified. These have been given at the beginning of the ICSE Curriculum, after each theme description.
Moreover, from 2021, new subjects will be included in the curriculum. Group I history, civics and geography (Thailand) will be offered to aspirants of Thai nationality compulsorily, while others can also opt for the same. The students will have a choice to study either History, Civics and Geography or History, Civics and Geography (Thailand).
ICSE Class 10 Board Exam
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations conducts the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) exam for Class 10 students.
- ICSE Class 10 Board Exam
The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) has been designed to provide an exam in the course of general education, according to the New Education Policy 1986. The ICSE Class 10 Board exam is conducted for Class 10 students. There are 7 subjects in the examination, out of which 4 are compulsory subjects, and 3 have a choice of subjects. The CISCE conducts all school-level ICSE Board exams for subjects like English, History, Commercial Studies, Science, Environmental Science, etc.
ICSE Compartmental Exams
After the conduction of the ICSE board examination, the results are declared a few months later. Once the results are out, the board releases the timetable for the ICSE compartment exam. Students who fail to secure pass certificates are permitted to appear for the compartmental examination in one subject in which they have not secured the pass mark. However, the students should have secured passing marks in English (compulsory) and three other subjects in the ICSE examination. The entries of all the students are submitted online to the Council by the Head of the concerned school.
ICSE Practical Exams
Practical exams are also an important part of the syllabus, like theory papers. Practical help students to clear all the concepts and doubts related to the topic. Along with the theory part scoring well in practical exams is also necessary to score well in that subject. Practical work promotes experimental learning. ICSE conducts practical exams for subjects such as Art, Physics, Indian Music, Home Science, Chemistry, Biology, Biotechnology, Computer Science and Fashion Designing.
ICSE Study Materials
Students who are studying under CISCE Board must prepare hard for their examination. Visit ICSE Study Materials to get the latest question papers, previous year papers and sample papers of the ICSE Board exam. These study materials will help students to prepare effectively for the upcoming board exam.
| ICSE Previous Year Question Papers |
| ICSE Important Questions |
| ICSE Selina Solutions |
| ICSE Books |
ICSE Sample Papers
ICSE Sample Papers will help students to build a strong foundation for solving the problem in their board exams. These ICSE Sample Papers are prepared as per the latest ICSE syllabus and considered as important study material while preparing for their board exam. The ICSE class-wise sample papers are provided in the table below.
ICSE Previous Year Question Papers
ICSE Previous Year Question Papers are based on the current and updated curriculum by CISCE Board. By referring to more and more ICSE Previous Years Question Papers, students become perfect in the question paper pattern for a particular class and subject and learn about the possibility of repeating questions. Also, it helps in reducing the student’s nervousness while answering their question paper in the ICSE Board exam.
| ICSE Previous Year Question Paper Class 10 |
ICSE Important Questions
ICSE Important Questions give students an idea of the portions they should not miss. Hence, solving them will help cover the types of important questions or essential topics from the ICSE syllabus that are likely to appear for the ICSE Board examination. So, solving these critical questions is an unavoidable task for the students. The class-wise ICSE Important Questions are mentioned below.
| ICSE Class 6 Important Questions |
| ICSE Class 7 Important Questions |
| ICSE Class 8 Important Questions |
| ICSE Class 9 Important Questions |
| ICSE Class 10 Important Questions |
ICSE Textbook Solutions
The council does not prescribe any specific textbook to the student. Most students of ICSE study through various reference books.
Concise Selina Solutions
The book by the Selina publisher is the most sought book by ICSE students. This book contains several questions from each chapter with varying difficulty levels. Here we have provided the Selina Solutions for Classes 8, 9 and 10. Students can access the chapter-wise ICSE Textbook Solutions from the table below.
ML Aggarwal Solutions
The book published by ML Aggarwal is one of the best reference books of Mathematics, designed for students. These ML Aggarwal Solutions contain detailed answers to the questions present in the book ICSE Books. The ICSE syllabus includes some of the most important topics that form the basic foundations. So, it is very important to be well-equipped with all the ICSE Books and have a proper understanding of the concepts. Students can download ICSE books in PDF format, which helps them while preparing for the ICSE Board exam.
ICSE Exam Pattern
The ICSE exam pattern for all the compulsory subjects is provided below so that students can overview of the exact question paper pattern, the weightage of marks for each section and the number of questions in each section. By knowing the exam pattern, they get to know the important topics which need to be focused more. Students should go through the exam pattern before they start preparing for the ICSE Class 10 Board exam.
| ICSE Exam Pattern English IÂ (2 hours) |
| There will be 4 broad questions. A composition of 450 to 500 words, the second is a letter, the third is an unseen passage and related questions, and the fourth would be a question to test students’ grammar. In the essay and letter section, students are given a choice. They should choose only those topics which they know thoroughly. |
| ICSE Exam Pattern English – II Exam Pattern (2 Hours) |
| Section – A (2 questions ) |
| Section – B (2 questions ) |
| Section – C (2 questions ) contains an essay-type question |
| ICSE Exam Pattern For Maths (2 ½ hours) |
| Section – A ( 4 questions of 10 marks each = 40 marks) |
| Section – B ( 7 questions out of which 4 are to be solved for obtaining 40 marks) |
| ICSE Exam Pattern For Hindi (3 hours)- First section deals with the Hindi Language. |
| It has 3 major parts – i) Essay of around 250 words ii) Letter iii) Unseen passage |
| Second section deals with Hindi Literature, in which students are supposed to answer any 4 questions from the two books they have read from. |
| ICSE Exam Pattern For Physics ( 1.5 hrs) |
| Section – A – Short compulsory questions worth 40 marks |
| Section – B – 6 questions, out of which any 4 are to be solved, worth 40 marks. |
| ICSE Exam Pattern For Chemistry (1.5 hrs) |
| Section – A – Short compulsory questions worth 40 marks |
| Section – B – 6 questions, out of which any 4 are to be solved, worth 40 marks. |
| ICSE Exam Pattern For Biology (1.5 hrs) |
| Section – A – Short compulsory questions worth 40 marks |
| Section – B – 6 questions out of which any 4 are to be solved worth 40 marks |
| ICSE Exam Pattern For History and Civics (2 hrs) |
| Section – A First part deals with small answer-type questions from the civics part (10 marks) |
| The second part deals with small answer-type questions from the history part (20 marks) |
| Section – B  First part has 3 long answer type questions from civics, out of which any 2 are to be solved (20 marks) |
| The second part has 5 long answer type questions from history, out of which any 3 are to be solved (30 marks) |
| ICSE Exam Pattern For Geography (2 hrs) |
| First part has 2 questions – i) Map of India(10 marks) ii)Survey map and its interpretation(20 marks) |
| The second part has 9 questions, out of which 5 are to be solved (50 marks) |
| ICSE Exam Pattern For. E.V.S (2 hrs) |
| The first part has 4 compulsory questions, and the second part has 5 long answer-type questions, out of which 4 are to be solved. |
ICSE Grading Pattern
The ICSE grading system and pattern are given below. Group 1 is compulsory, but students can select any 2 subjects from Group 2 and any 1 subject from Group 3.
| GROUP I: (Compulsory) | Percentage External Examination | Marks Internal Assessment |
| English | 80% | 20% |
| A Second Language (one/two) | 80% | 20% |
| History, Civics and Geography | 80% | 20% |
| GROUP II: (Any two/three of the following subjects) | ||
| Mathematics | 80% | 20% |
| Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) | 80% | 20% |
| Economics | 80% | 20% |
| Commercial Studies | 80% | 20% |
| A Modern Foreign Language | 80% | 20% |
| A Classical Language | 80% | 20% |
| Environmental Science | 80% | 20% |
| GROUP III: (Any one of the following subjects) | ||
| Computer Applications | 50% | 50% |
| Economic Applications | 50% | 50% |
| Commercial Applications | 50% | 50% |
| Art | 50% | 50% |
| Performing Arts | 50% | 50% |
| Home Science | 50% | 50% |
| Cookery | 50% | 50% |
| Fashion Designing | 50% | 50% |
| Physical Education | 50% | 50% |
| Yoga | 50% | 50% |
| Technical Drawing Applications | 50% | 50% |
| Environmental Applications | 50% | 50% |
| A Modern Foreign Language | 50% | 50% |
How to Prepare for ICSE
The preparation tips mentioned below will guide students on how to schedule their study plan effectively. It will give them some idea of how to begin the preparation according to the subject. Students are advised to go through these tips before they start their ICSE Board exam preparation so that they can work on it smoothly.
| ICSE 10 Preparation Tips |
| ICSE Class 10 Physics Preparation Tips |
| ICSE Class 10 Chemistry Preparation Tips |
| ICSE Class 10 Biology Preparation Tips |
| ICSE Class 10 Maths Preparation Tips |
ICSE Latest Updates
ICSE’s latest updates help students to be updated with the recent changes and notifications released by the CISCE. Knowing the updates will help students to know all the changes initiated by the board and how it will benefit them. Given below is the table of all the notifications issued by the Council related to syllabus, compartmental exams, ICSE Board exams etc. The latest updates are taken from the ICSE official website so that students are updated with the latest changes implemented by the board.
| ICSE Notifications |
| CISCE to Introduce Compartmental Exams From This Year Onwards |
| CISCE Lower Passing Marks Limit for Class 10 & 12 |
Students were advised to plan their studies as per the revised schedule. It helped them to ace the exam with good marks.
ICSE Videos on Important Topics
To make learning easier and fun through interactive videos. Here we have provided the links to a few videos. Go through them and enjoy learning.
Periodic Table
Understanding Carbon
Stay tuned with BYJU’S to get the latest notification on ICSE Exam along with syllabus, marking scheme, sample papers, previous year question papers and more.
Frequently Asked Questions on ICSE
What is the abbreviation of ICSE?
If a candidate has passed in all subjects in the ICSE examination, can he/she reappear in one or two subjects to improve grades?
Can a private candidate or a candidate from another Board take the ICSE (Class-X) Examination directly?
I had appeared for the ICSE Examination and wished to apply for a recheck in a few subjects. To whom do I have to approach for the recheck and the subsequent result?
What is the procedure that must be followed to make a correction in the name/parent’s name or the DOB in my ICSE/ISC certificates?
a) Duly attested copy of the amended School Admission Form.
b) Duly attested copy of the Birth Certificate.
c) Original Affidavit (signed by a First Class Magistrate)- English version.
d) Original Statement of Marks and Pass Certificate
e) Online payment of Correction fees through the school.
f) Cutting of a Newspaper announcement regarding the change/correction (English version)
g) Covering letter from the school, clearly mentioning the required correction.
Comments