CBSE 12 English Core - 2026

CBSE 12 English Core – 2026 – Overview

Section A – Reading | 22 Marks

Purpose: Tests your ability to understand, interpret, and analyze unseen passages.

What appears in the exam:

• Unseen passage (factual / descriptive / literary).
• Case-based passage (may include charts or data).

Question types

• Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).
• Short answers.
• Vocabulary questions.
• Inference or meaning questions

Skills tested

• Finding the main idea.
• Understanding tone and purpose.
• Identifying facts and opinions.
• Interpreting vocabulary from context

The combined passage length is usually about 700–750 words.

2. Section B Writing – 18 Marks

This section checks your formal writing ability, format, and clarity.

Short Writing Tasks | 50 Words

• Notice Writing (about 50 words).
• Invitation and Reply (formal or informal)

Long Writing Tasks | 120 – 150 Words

• Letter Writing.
• Job application with bio-data.
• Letter to the editor.
• Article or Report Writing.
• Social issue / event / school report

Criteria: Correct format. Content and ideas. Language and grammar. Coherence and organization

3. Section C Literature | 40 Marks

Main Literature Chapters

1. The Last Lesson.
2. Lost Spring
3. Deep Water.
4. The Rattrap.
5. Indigo.
6. Poets and Pancakes.
7. The Interview.
8. Going Places
9. My Mother at Sixty-Six.
10. An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
11. Keeping Quiet
12. A Thing of Beauty
13. A Roadside Stand
14. Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers
15. The Third Level
16. The Tiger King
17. Journey to the End of the Earth
18. The Enemy.
19. On the Face of It.
20. Memories of Childhood.

Types of Questions

• Extract-based questions from prose or poetry.
• Short answer questions (30–50 words)
• Long answer questions (100–120 words)
• MCQs and interpretation questions

These questions test:

• Theme.
• Characters.
• Message.
• Literary devices.
• Interpretation beyond the text.