Most parents grew up in a system where your mark sheet told you everything. You got a number, you compared it to someone else’s number, and that was your education summarised in a percentage. CBSE has spent the last decade and a half actively dismantling that model, and a lot of parents have not caught up with what has replaced it.
This matters. Because if you are evaluating your child’s progress only through report card marks, you are looking at maybe forty percent of what CBSE schools are actually measuring.
Why CBSE Moved Away from Pure Exam-Based Assessment
The shift started in earnest with the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) framework introduced in 2009, and it has accelerated significantly under NEP 2020. The reasoning behind it is not ideological. It is practical.
A single high-stakes examination measures one thing reliably: how well a child performs on that day, under that pressure, on those particular questions. It does not measure whether they understood the concept three weeks earlier when it was taught. It does not capture whether they can apply that concept to a new problem they have not seen before. It says almost nothing about their ability to collaborate, communicate, or persist through difficulty.
These are not soft skills in any dismissive sense of the term. They are the skills that determine whether academic knowledge actually becomes useful. CBSE’s shift toward continuous evaluation is an attempt to build assessment systems that capture more of what education is actually supposed to produce.
The Two Pillars: Formative vs. Summative Assessment in CBSE
What Formative Assessment Includes
Formative assessment is ongoing. It happens during the learning process, not at the end of it. The point is to inform teaching and to give students feedback while there is still time to adjust.
In practice, formative assessment in CBSE schools includes classroom observations, oral questioning, worksheets, group activities, projects, assignments, and teacher-recorded anecdotal notes about how individual children are developing specific skills. None of this is formally examined in the way a term paper is. It is gathered and interpreted by the teacher over weeks and months.
Done well, formative assessment tells a teacher which children have genuinely understood a concept and which have learned to perform understanding well enough to get through a worksheet. Those are different things, and they require different responses.
What Summative Assessment Covers
Summative assessment happens at defined points, typically at the end of a term or academic year. This is the category that includes written examinations, end-of-unit tests, and board examinations at Class 10 and 12 level.
CBSE has significantly reduced the weightage of summative assessment in the lower grades, and increased the internal assessment component at the secondary level. The board examination still matters enormously at Class 10 and 12. But the internal assessment that contributes to a student’s final mark is drawn from work done across the year, not just a single exam sitting.
Internal Assessment Breakdown by Grade Band
Class 1 to 5: Activity-Based Assessment
At the primary level, CBSE assessment is almost entirely formative and activity-based. There are no board examinations, and formal written tests are minimal. Assessment is conducted through classroom activities, oral work, creative projects, and teacher observation.
This is where many parents feel least informed, because there is no mark to point at. What teachers are actually tracking at this stage includes language development, number sense, fine motor skills, curiosity, and the child’s ability to engage with a task independently and with others. The absence of a number does not mean the absence of evaluation.
Class 6 to 8: Projects, Orals and Periodic Tests
At the middle school level, internal assessment begins to have more visible structure. CBSE prescribes periodic written tests, notebook submission and completion, subject enrichment activities (which include orals, practicals, and projects), and attendance.
The internal assessment typically contributes around 20 marks per subject at this stage, with periodic tests making up a portion and the remaining marks coming from projects, orals, and notebooks. Students who perform consistently across these components across the year tend to fare better overall than those who are strong test-takers but weak on sustained work.
Class 9 to 10: Board-Linked Internal Assessment
This is the level where internal assessment connects directly to board results. CBSE prescribes 20 marks of internal assessment per subject for Class 9 and 10, typically structured as periodic tests, notebook assessment, and subject enrichment activities.
The Class 10 board examination carries 80 marks per subject, and the internal assessment 20. That internal assessment is conducted and certified by the school, which means the school’s assessment practices directly affect a student’s board result. This is where the quality of a school’s internal assessment infrastructure becomes consequential in a very tangible way.
Class 11 to 12: Practical and Project Marks
At the senior secondary level, practical examinations and project work carry significant weightage in science, commerce, and humanities subjects. Biology, Physics, and Chemistry each have practical components. Accountancy includes project work. History and Political Science include project submissions.
These are not optional additions to the board examination. They are formally marked components, and the marks are submitted to CBSE as part of the final result. A student who takes practicals and projects lightly is leaving marks on the table in a year when marks matter considerably.
The Role of Portfolio and Project Work in CBSE Schools
Portfolios are among the most underused assessment tools in Indian schooling, and among the most valuable.
A portfolio is a curated collection of a student’s work over time. Not the best work. Not a final submission. A selection that shows how thinking developed, where a child struggled, what changed between an early attempt and a later one. When maintained well, a portfolio is the only assessment tool that actually shows growth rather than just current attainment.
Project work, similarly, assesses things that tests cannot reach. The ability to frame a research question, gather information from multiple sources, synthesise it into an argument, and present it coherently is a genuinely complex skill. A student who does this well is demonstrating competence that no multiple-choice examination can capture.
Schools that treat project work as a formality, assigning generic topics and marking on presentation quality alone, are missing the pedagogical point almost entirely. The process matters as much as the product.
How Parents Can Track Their Child’s Progress Beyond Report Cards?
Report cards are a summary. They are useful, but they are not the whole picture. Here is what to look for beyond the numbers.
Ask teachers specific questions during parent-teacher meetings, not general ones. Not “how is she doing” but “what does she do when she gets stuck on something” and “which subjects does she engage with most readily.” These questions produce answers that actually tell you something.
Ask to see your child’s work, not just their marks. Look at the quality of their writing across the year, not just in final submissions. Notice whether they are taking more risks or fewer. Whether their questions are getting more sophisticated.
Track the pattern of assessment, not just the outcome. A child who scores 85 consistently has a very different profile to a child who scores 60 in periodic tests and 95 in projects. Both profiles are informative about how that child learns and where support might be needed.
What to Look for in a CBSE School’s Assessment Philosophy?
When visiting schools or evaluating the one your child already attends, assessment philosophy is worth examining specifically.
Ask what percentage of a student’s evaluation comes from continuous assessment versus terminal examinations. In the lower grades, the ratio should be heavily weighted toward continuous assessment. Schools that run formal monthly examinations for Class 1 students are not following CBSE’s assessment guidelines, and they are likely generating test anxiety in children who are developmentally nowhere near ready for it.
Ask how teachers document and track individual student progress. Observation records, anecdotal notes, and individual portfolios require time, training, and a genuine commitment to knowing each child. Schools that use only marks-based tracking are doing the minimum.
Ask what feedback looks like. Effective assessment produces specific, actionable feedback, not just a grade. A child who receives a mark of 14 out of 20 on a project with no written comments has been evaluated but not assessed.
How TSUS Bengaluru Approaches Student Assessment?
Choosing the right school for your child’s early years goes beyond reviewing facilities and curriculum brochures. It involves understanding how a school nurtures curiosity, creativity, confidence, and a genuine love for learning every day.
At The Shri Ram Universal School (TSUS) Bengaluru, the Early Years Programme is thoughtfully designed to support the developmental needs of young learners through play-based, experiential, and inquiry-led learning. Aligned with the vision of NEP 2020 and inspired by the educational philosophy of Shri Ram Educare, the programme encourages children to explore, question, create, and grow in a safe and stimulating environment.
From interactive classroom experiences to hands-on activities and meaningful social interactions, every aspect of the learning journey is planned to help children build strong foundations for future academic and personal success.
If you are looking for a school in Bengaluru that prioritises holistic development during the formative years, we encourage you to explore TSUS Bengaluru and experience its approach to early childhood education firsthand.
Visit the campus or connect with the admissions team to learn more about the Early Years Programme and the admission process.
