12 Common Mistakes That Cost Marks in CBSE Board Exams

Most lost marks aren't about knowledge. They're avoidable. Here are the ones examiners see every year.

In the answer

1. Skipping steps in Maths and numericals. Steps carry marks.
2. Missing units in Physics, Chemistry and Maths word problems.
3. Unlabelled diagrams. A diagram without labels often gets little or no credit.
4. Vague language instead of NCERT key terms in SST, Biology and Business Studies.
5. Writing too much for small questions and running out of time later.
6. Ignoring the word limit and format in English and Hindi writing tasks.

In the paper

1. Not using the 15-minute reading time to choose internal-choice questions.
2. Getting stuck on one question for 15 minutes.
3. Wrong question numbering, which makes answers hard for the examiner to match.
4. Leaving questions blank. A partial answer can still earn step marks.

Before the exam

1. Not practising full timed papers, so time management fails on the day.
2. Never reading marking schemes, so you don't know what examiners reward.

Fix these with regular timed practice and self-marking against the official schemes. BoardPrep shows the marking-scheme answer after each question, free.