India's Central Board of Secondary Education has released the date sheet for the Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations of 2027, giving students a firm timetable more than three months before the first paper. The board published the subject-wise schedules on its official website, cbse.gov.in, on Friday, 6 November 2026.
Both sets of examinations will begin on the same day, Tuesday, 16 February 2027, with every theory paper starting at 10:30 in the morning. The Class 10 examinations will run until 9 March 2027, while the Class 12 examinations will continue for almost two more months, concluding on 9 April 2027.
The release came 101 days before the examinations begin, one of the earliest announcements the board has made in recent years. The long lead time is intended to let students plan their revision subject by subject, and to let schools organise invigilation, seating and transport well ahead of the examination season.
For Class 10 students, the core papers fall in a tight sequence in the second half of February. Mathematics is scheduled for 17 February, Science for 22 February and English for 26 February, followed by Hindi on 3 March and Social Science on 8 March, a day before the Class 10 examinations end. The full subject-wise timetable, including subject codes and paper durations, is available in the PDF published on the board's website.
Class 12 students open with Physics on the very first day, 16 February. Chemistry follows on 27 February, Mathematics on 2 March and English on 5 March, while Computer Science and Informatics Practices are scheduled for 31 March. The Class 12 timetable runs longer because it covers a far wider range of streams and elective subjects, with the final papers falling in the first week of April.
The board had already announced the schedule for practical examinations and internal assessment for the 2026-27 session. For most schools, practical examinations will be held from 1 January to 13 February 2027, just before the theory papers begin. Schools in winter-bound areas, where the academic calendar runs earlier, will conduct their practical examinations from 9 November to 19 December 2026.
Students and parents had been waiting for the announcement for weeks, and the release quickly became one of the most searched education stories of the day. The board advised students to download the timetable only from cbse.gov.in and to check their individual subject combinations against the official PDF, rather than relying on summaries circulating on social media.
The datesheet also matters beyond the two classes themselves. Board examination results feed into university admissions across India, and the February start means results are expected in time for the college admission cycle that follows in the summer. For Class 12 students in particular, the timetable sets the pace for entrance examination preparation running alongside the board papers.
Teachers and school administrators now face a busy few months of their own. With the timetable fixed, schools will move to complete syllabuses, hold pre-board examinations and issue admit cards, while the board will finalise examination centres and the deployment of observers. The sample question papers for 2027, released by the board in September, give students the format and marking scheme to practise against.
For now, the message from the board is straightforward: the dates are set, the papers start at 10:30 am on 16 February, and the countdown has begun. Students have just over a hundred days to turn the timetable into a revision plan, and the next milestone on the calendar is the start of practical examinations in January.
