Education: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced the practical and internal assessment exam dates for classes 10th and 12th in winter-bound schools. The schedule of the exam can be checked on the CBSE's official website, cbse.gov.in.

To accommodate the closure of these schools in January 2025, the CBSE has decided to conduct the practical exams earlier.  According to the official statement, the practical exams, projects, and internal assessments for the session 2024-25 for classes 10th and 12th for winter-bound schools will be conducted from November 5 to December 5. Along with the exam schedule, the board has released SOPs and guidelines for conducting practical examinations/projects/internal assessments in winter-bound schools. 

CBSE 10th, 12th practical exam 2024: Guidelines

All winter-bound schools have been advised to follow the guidelines to ensure the timely completion of practical exams in respect of their schools. The guidelines are as follows:-

- Prepare the final list of candidates and ensure that no student of the school whose name has not been submitted in the online LOC to the Board is allowed to appear for these practical examinations/projects/Internal Assessments.

- Contact the Regional Office for the appointment of external examiners and observers.
- Ensure timely completion of Practical Examination/Project work/Internal Assessment and despatch Practical examination answer books to the regional offices.

It should be noted that these dates are only for winter-bound schools and are not applicable for regular session schools for which the circular will be issued separately.

Procedure for conducting CBSE 10th, and 12th exams

• The selection of the practical experiments from the list of practical experiments supplied by the board should be done through consensus of both the examiners, external, and internal. 
• Questions for the viva voce should be asked by both the examiners and should relate either to the project that the student has prepared or the practical exam in hand.
• Questions of general nature should be avoided.
• Investigatory projects especially those that show a considerable amount of effort and originally, on the part of the student, should get suitable high marks while the project of a routine or stereotyped nature should only receive mediocre marks.
• In the assessment and award of marks, follow strictly the marking scheme which is given in the list of practical/experiments provided to the examiners/schools at the time of declaration.
• Marks awarded for laboratory records, viva, project, and practical must be separately shown on the answer book along with the total marks so that no complication arises later on.