CBSE Improvement Exam Details – Steps To Apply (Personal Experience)

No matter how hard you work, it’s a ground reality that you will not be satisfied with what you have got and therefore you want that one-second chance to improve your performance.

The same way there are many students who are not satisfied with marks after result announcement and improvement exams come with the blessing of that second chance to reappear and improve your marks once again in boards.

So in this article, I will walk you through about all the details about improvement exams and steps on how to apply for improvement exams and will be sharing some things you should take care of and my personal experience of improvement exam.

In this article, I have covered following things such as what is an improvement exam?, advantages and disadvantages of improvement exam and whether you should give it or not, rules and regulation to follow if you willing to give and steps and procedure and how this exam is conducted and what are the things you need to take into consideration while giving exam.

So let’s start 😉

What is an improvement exam ?

Improvement exam is an exam for those students who are not satisfied with their marks and want to improve them. This exam is conducted by almost all boards whether it’s State or Central board (CBSE).

But one thing which you need to be clear about is all boards have their own sets of rules and regulation but mostly they are the same with just a bit of tweaking. In this article, we will be having our main focus only on CBSE board and what set of rules and regulations they have with all the detail you need to know if you are willing to give improvement exam.

Ahhh! Believe me, once I was also in your place (Yus! I have given improvement exam after my 12th) so therefore I can tell you some other bunch of stuff which you need to take into consideration before proceeding.

So first let’s learn what are the benefits and drawback of this improvement exam.

Advantages and disadvantages of improvement exam:

Advantages: As you all know, main benefit is that you will get a second chance to score more marks and if you are a JEE aspirant or preparing for some specifically competitive exams but just in case you are not eligible to appear, you will not only get a second opportunity, not only to be eligible but also to prepare for your competitive exam as well.

See, Just make sure to give improvement for all the subject if you are aiming for JEE mains & advance or if you are not aiming for JEE atleast check that whether such terms and conditions are there for exam you are aiming or not.

Disadvantages: Only two disadvantage which I see here is that you need to wait for whole one year to give exam because your improvement exam will be conducted with the next batch of class 12th after one year and the second disadvantage is that you will now end up having two different report card or mark sheet of class 12.

Personally this second disadvantage does not actually look like a disadvantage for most of you, it just doesn’t look good in your resume that you have appeared for exam 2nd time. It actually depends on people individually.

Knowing both the advantages and disadvantages of improvement exam will help you to take a good decision that whether you should go for it or not.

In what scenarios I will recommend giving improvement exam:

Personally, seeing both advantage disadvantage and from my personal experience, I will recommend you to apply for improvement only if you are preparing for any competitive exam or not able to give exam just due to eligibility criteria for any exam because you need to wait for whole 1 year again to give improvement and legally if you are applying for improvement you are not eligible to join any college.

If you are just doing for sake of improving your marks to just show off that you have scored good marks in your 12th, personally I would not recommend it because then it’s of no use but again it’s your personal choice.

If you talk about me, I have given improvement because I was not eligible for the KVPY exam and therefore I decided to wait 1 year and prepare for it.

Guideline to know before applying for the exam:

Here are some rules and regulation you need to check if you want to apply for improvement

• Improvement exams are only for those students who have passed all the subjects in class 12 boards, in case you have failed in any of them then you need to appear for compartment exams conducted after 2-3 month of result announcement.
• You can appear for an improvement exam for one or more subject but the only condition is that you can select from only those subjects which you have appeared before. 
• Your improvement exam would take place in the next following year with the next batch of class 12th. 
• You can appear for the practical exam if you want but in case you don’t then your old practical marks will be counted. 

Steps to apply for improvement exam (Class 10th and 12th):

Things you will need while filling the form:

1. Your admit card (for roll number, centre number and school number)
2. Scanned images of passport size photograph and your signature

Step 1: Visit the official link provided on CBSE site to apply for improvement exam: Click here

Step 2: Click here on improvement exam section:

Visit this page from link above and click on improvement

Step 3: Enter your roll number, school number, centre number, year of passing and class:

Enter your roll number and other details page

You can apply for improvement exam only if you have passed your boards either in current year or a year before. For example if you are filling form in 2020 to apply for improvement exam, then either you should have passed the exam from 2019-20 batch or 2018-19 batch.

Step 4: Select the subjects you want to give improvement in, fill your address detail, mobile number and e-mail id and press “Submit Application”

Select subject and fill all the other details

Step 5: After successfully filling the detail, you will be provided with your application number of improvement exam note it down.

No doubt CBSE will send your application number on your mobile and email id but many student forgets their application number and therefore they have trouble in downloading admit card when it is issued.

Step 6: After getting your application number you need to come back to the page on step number 2 again and this time click on upload images

Step 7: Enter your application number and click next, after that upload your passport size image and signature photograph.

Step 8: Come back to the step 2 page again and now click on fee payment.

Step 9: Pay the fee by online payment or you can even pay it online (long procedure) by visiting a respective bank mentioned in the images.

Enter you application number and roll number and pay your fee

Don’t get into this bank procedure because it’s long and time consuming, instead of that pay your fee online by net banking, debit or credit card. 

If there is some payment fail kind of error don’t try to pay again until and unless it is confirmed that amount has not been debited from your account because if you pay again and again in case like that there is high chances for you to loose your money. In this kind of case, go to page on step 2 and check fee status and wait for sometime before paying again 

Step 10: After successful payment, come back to the page at step 2 again and this time click on the “Confirmation page” and enter your application number. You will see your confirmation page of payment and improvement exam form is filled. Download the pdf of the page in case you need it in the future.

You have successfully applied for an improvement exam and now wait for your admit card which you will get before 2-3 months for your exam.

Now I will tell you the procedure of how the exam is conducted because I didn’t find this information anywhere before applying so make sure to do this else you will not be able to give your exam.

Improvement Exam procedure – Things to take care of:

1. Apply for improvement exam online (Steps given above)
2. Wait for your admit card once you get confirmation that your application is been filled
3. Download the admit card and visit your exam centre.
4. Get the signature and stamp of principal where you have got your exam centre for improvement exam.

This last step is very important because if you don’t have sign on your admit card by centre’s principal you will not be allowed to appear in exam. It’s not mentioned anywhere on other sites but it’s an important step which I had to do when I had appeared for my improvement.

Important dates and link for improvement exam: