For many Indian students, board exams are etched in their memory as a season rather than a test, a time when entire families reorganize themselves around a teenager’s schedule.
This was the case of Muskan (25), who now works in Pune‘s Vigyan Shala and remember board exams as a collective family project. “I lived in a joint family. My parents would shush the others while I sat in a secluded room to prepare. Earlier, what the family or the school principal suggested based on the assessment became the career goal.” she said. Like many students in his cohort, he prepared for the IIT-JEE in Kota while completing Class 12 in the 2016-17 batch.
Now, reflecting on the unfounded promise on which many students built their careers: “After engineering, one can do anything,” he emphasizes the importance of individual research in career decisions. “When the only option you’re presented with closes, you’re left staring at a blank space. Then it feels demoralizing.”
Board exams also mean something more for many young women, adds Muskan, citing the example of her cousin, who is preparing diligently this year in the hope of getting admission into a good university and moving out of her hometown in search of space and a bit of freedom.
For Pranav Vanikar (25), who now works as a geopolitical analyst at a London-based company, the memory that stands out is a ritual his father unknowingly created. He remembers how a small act his father performed before his first exam coincided with the exam result, and the ritual continued every subsequent exam day. “Everyone feels that there is a lot at stake in these exams,” he says. “But a couple months after they broke up, no one really looks back. Now that I think about it, I didn’t need to put that much pressure on myself. But hindsight is 20/20, right?”
Varun Sharma, a CBSE A 2013 graduate, he remembers his board exams for a very different reason. His batch was the first to experience the then HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system, the batch that had the option to skip the Class 10 boards and directly faced the Class 12 boards for the first time. His first article began with a shock. “My test center was a public school. I walked in and realized I was on a very wobbly table. The surface of the desk was uneven.” When he asked the supervisor to change the desk, the response was brief.
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At home, however, the atmosphere was completely different. “My parents were super calm. They had no expectations. They always said that one article would never define my life.” His real competition, he says, came from elsewhere. “My older sisters were studying abroad and were academics in their fields. When the exam results came in, my parents were over the moon, but I felt lukewarm.” Today, Varun is an investment banker who completed his undergraduate and master’s studies in Japan. “Do I remember anything about my exams? No. However, the atmosphere of the exam center still haunts me,” he recalls.
Ganesh Kuthwad, now a history researcher, completed his Class 12 exams under the Maharashtra State Board in 2019. For many like him, the board exams and engineering entrance tests have merged into a single high-pressure ecosystem. Looking back from a researcher’s perspective, he sees a fundamental gap in the system. “All the exams seemed like a competition for a good university, but we never received research or skills training. When I look back at all those exams, I feel that education has become a competition. Education should not be a competition. Now that I am a researcher in history, I see how research is done, what skills are important and how crucial that training is. In all those exams, the pressure increases so much that the real learning process is lost.”
For Gorakh Gomase, who appeared for the Maharashtra State Board exams from Nanded, the experience was intensely physical and emotional. “The 12th tables felt like a battle: social pressure, domestic pressure, pressure from family members. It was treated like the last fight of my life.” One exam day he felt bad due to stress. “I walked three kilometers to the exam center and still handed in the exam.” Today the memory feels distant. “Now it seems like we were running non-stop. The basic things became clear later, there was no need to put up with so much pressure.” After completing his postgraduate degree in history, he is currently preparing for the NET.