Now that CBSE has provided the improvement exam dates for previous academic year (2020-21) students, they are tied up in preparing for these exams. However, our sources tell us that the CBSE announcement for uploading the highly awaited CBSE Sample Paper for Term 1 for Class 10 and Class 12 students is delayed. It is now expected that the CBSE Sample Paper for Term 1 will be uploaded on their cbseacademic.in website sometime in the last week of August.

Due to these delays, CBSE Class 10, 12 students and teachers are concerned about how to adapt to these Term-based preparations as many schools are still focusing on completing the full rationalised syllabus, which includes Objective + Subjective periodic tests as well, covering even some of Term 2 Chapters. This is to not break their teaching flow.

In absence of the CBSE Sample Paper and to compensate for the delay, a special study plan was announced yesterday. This plan is specially devised to provide a simple structure for completing their study on time for the November-December Board Exams. A lot of teachers have already welcomed this plan and are adapting to it for the remainder of their Term 1 preparation.

Also, a Term 1 MCQ/ Objective Book is suggested to help students with the strict new pattern of MCQs for Term 1, which is currently best-selling on Amazon.

Our team has done a detailed study of this and provided a simplified breakdown for all teachers, students and parents so please read till the end!

1. Term 1 Study Timeline

According to this CBSE plan, irrespective of the sample paper announcement date, it is suggested to complete (at least) the Term 1 Syllabus by 25 September 2021 (40 days from now) and Term 1 Revision in the next 40 days (until 5th November).

CBSE experts say that after the usual daily online classes and assignments, students usually have limited hours of self-study left on a daily basis.

So, they need to:

• Structure their self-study and try to cover the Term 1 Syllabus at their own pace as well by the latest 25th of September.
• This needs to be done using only NCERT Book and an Objective Chapter-wise Question Bank that is specially prescribed for Term 1 MCQ preparation on the new pattern (more on it told later on below in point 3).
• From September end to 1st week of November (~40 days), the focus should be wholly on Final Revision using Sample Papers and reverse study of weak topics after every Sample paper that is attempted.

The process of completing the syllabus is explained using a new concept called ‘student Study hours’.

2. Student Study Hours

Just like professionals work within strict ‘Business working hours’, students also should have their own ‘study hours’ each day, as they have limited productivity time.

CBSE Experts have come up with a new concept of ‘x hours to be spent on certain subjects every day to ensure the subject Chapters for Term 1 are completed by 25th September the latest. Be it for Class 10 or 12.

The idea is to self-study 2 hours per the main subject (Mathematics, Science and SST) daily for Class 10, with a total of 6 hours. Two hours of English or Social Science in rotation as those subjects have a lot of Chapters to cover.

Overall 6 hours of self-study should be sufficient to maintain productivity (apart from online classes plus tests/Internal Assessment assignments).

Similarly for Class 12, the daily self-study hours will be 8 hours instead of as per the below Science stream breakdown.

For the CBSE Class 12 Commerce stream, the breakdown will be of 8 hours between Economics, Business Studies, Accountancy and English.

3. Study Material and Breakdown of Subjects

The most important bit here is the right use of study material. Apart from zoom slides, rough notes and NCERT, one type of book that CBSE Experts recommend heavily to cover all Term 1 Assertion Reason, MCQ and Case/Source/Competency/Extract based MCQs of any subject is EDUCART Question Banks for Term 1 Class 10 and Class 12.

These books are currently ranked #1 on Amazon as they are especially written by selected Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers for each subject in consultation with NCERT experts. Special focus is made on summarised theory for Term 1 in each chapter and providing an extremely large quantity of MCQs of all new types on every topic of the Chapter.

In order to use the 2 hours study hour concept per subject per day, a rough plan needs to be made by dividing the chapters into easy and difficult/lengthy. An example of Class 10 Maths TERM 1 Chapters is shown below:

As we can see, in a total of 40 days, by just focusing on 2 hours per day per Chapter on Maths, the complete Term 1 will be complete by the 40th day or late September.

The 2 hours study should especially use these Question Banks for Term 1 (Class 10) and Term 1 and 2 (Class 12) to practice the questions on each topic along with NCERT. Covering these Term 1 focused Questions daily will help students with a wholesome preparation and be ready for the final revision from September onwards.

The table given above can be easily made by students for other Class 10 and all Class 12 subjects, to study 2 hours at a time using the reference Objective Bank suggested above for each subject.

4. Final Revision

Once the entire course is self-studied, following the above structure, students should start the revision with CBSE Sample Paper and Marking Scheme as the basis of paper-wise revision. Time Management will be key and the market by then will be flooded with many Sample Paper Books on Term 1 Objective paper pattern to choose from.

The key is to focus on smart planning as per the above, well-rounded practice of new pattern questions in each topic and complete your syllabus on time for revision time.

I hope this ‘student study hour’ method will prove useful to provide a useful perspective along with a genuinely useful book recommendation from the CBSE team.

According to the CBSE Study Plan:

Class 10 Term I MCQ Books

Class 12 Term I & II Books