Where Class 12 students lose marks in Physics

The lowest-scoring chapter was Nuclei: students scored 36% of the marks on its questions, against 50% across the whole paper.

What examiners look for: Examiners mark this chapter point by point: the law or definition, the labelled diagram, the equation with units. Revise it from the marking schemes of past papers and practise writing each point in full, not just reading it.

Current Electricity cost the most marks overall: 21% of all the marks lost, with 67% scored on its questions.

What examiners look for: A chapter that turns up in most papers and costs this many marks repays a full revision cycle: work through its past-paper questions against the marking scheme until you can write each answer, with every step, without notes.

Students scored 85% on 1-mark questions but only 30% on questions worth 5 marks or more, which made up 38% of all the marks lost.

What examiners look for: Long answers are marked step by step. Plan the answer before writing, cover every part the question asks for (a), (b), (c), and show the working: each correct step earns its own mark.

No answer was found for 14% of the questions, and these blanks made up 39% of the marks lost. (This includes answers we could not locate on the sheet, for example where the question number was missing.)

What examiners look for: CBSE board papers have no negative marking, so a blank answer is the only sure zero. Attempt every question, and write the question number clearly next to each answer so it is found and marked.

Where the checker recorded why a written answer (2 marks or more) lost marks, the most common reason was "incomplete answer" (40%), then "calculation or careless slip" (28%).

What examiners look for: Most answers lost marks by stopping short. Match the length of the answer to the marks: a 3-mark answer needs three distinct points or steps.