Exam pattern · BoardPrep blog
How to Solve Case-Based Questions in CBSE Class 10 and 12
What CBSE case-based questions look like in Maths, Science and other subjects, and a step-by-step method to answer them accurately and quickly.
Case-based questions give you a passage, data, a diagram or a real-life situation, then ask 3–4 sub-questions on it. In Maths and Science papers they usually form the last section, carrying 4 marks each.
Why students lose marks
- reading the passage too quickly and missing a given value
- answering from memory instead of the case
- not showing working in the 2-mark sub-part
A 4-step method
- Read the sub-questions first, so you know what to look for.
- Read the case carefully, underlining numbers, conditions and key words.
- Identify the concept: it's almost always a standard NCERT idea in a new setting.
- Answer each part separately, with working where marks are more than one.
Examples of the concepts behind them
- Class 10 Maths: heights and distances from a real situation, arithmetic progression (AP) in savings plans, probability from a game
- Class 10 Science: an experiment's observations, or a circuit's readings
- Class 12 Physics and Chemistry: a short research-style passage with data
Practise them
Solve the case-based questions from the last 3 years of board papers and the 2026-27 sample papers. BoardPrep lets you practise them one by one with the official answer.
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