Class 10 Science Previous Year Questions (CBSE)
Class 10 Science previous year questions on this page are organised chapter by chapter, in the same order as the NCERT Class 10 Science textbook. Each chapter’s page carries solved CBSE board questions tagged by marks value, so you can revise a chapter and immediately test yourself on how it has actually been asked in exams.
Chapter 1, Chemical Reactions and Equations, is live now with full solved answers. The remaining twelve chapters are being added one at a time, so their rows in the table below show Coming soon instead of a broken link — you will not land on an empty page by clicking them.
For the class-level directory that covers every CBSE subject, not just Science, open the Class 10 previous year questions hub. If you want to check any chapter’s content directly against the source book, the NCERT Class 10 Science textbook is available on the official NCERT site.
Chapter Wise Class 10 Science Previous Year Questions
Here is what each of the 13 chapters covers and what kind of questions examiners usually build around it.
- Chemical Reactions and Equations — types of reactions, balancing skeletal equations, and identifying oxidation and reduction changes, the questions examiners repeat most often from this chapter.
- Acids, Bases and Salts — the pH scale, indicators, and salt preparation reactions that examiners test with test-tube based questions.
- Metals and Non-metals — the reactivity series, extraction methods, and corrosion questions that often carry diagram-based marks.
- Carbon and its Compounds — covalent bonding, hydrocarbon nomenclature, and soap and detergent numericals.
- Life Processes — nutrition, respiration, transportation, and excretion questions across plants and animals.
- Control and Coordination — the nervous system, reflex arcs, and plant hormone questions.
- How do Organisms Reproduce? — asexual and sexual reproduction, and human reproductive system diagrams.
- Heredity — Mendel’s laws, sex determination, and trait inheritance questions.
- Light – Reflection and Refraction — mirror and lens formula numericals and ray diagram questions.
- The Human Eye and the Colourful World — eye defects, prism dispersion, and scattering questions.
- Electricity — Ohm’s law, resistance combination, and heating effect numericals.
- Magnetic Effects of Electric Current — the right-hand rule, electromagnetic induction, and motor or generator questions.
- Our Environment — food chains, the ozone layer, and waste management short-answer questions.
How to Use These Previous Year Questions During Revision
| Ch | Chapter notes | Key topics covered |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chemical Reactions and Equations | Chemical Reactions and Equations: What CBSE Has Actually Asked · Marks Distribution and Most-Tested Topics (2023-2025) · CBSE 2025 Chemical Reactions Questions (Solved) |
| 2 | Acids, Bases and Salts (coming soon) | — |
| 3 | Metals and Non-metals (coming soon) | — |
| 4 | Carbon and its Compounds (coming soon) | — |
| 5 | Life Processes (coming soon) | — |
| 6 | Control and Coordination (coming soon) | — |
| 7 | How do Organisms Reproduce? (coming soon) | — |
| 8 | Heredity (coming soon) | — |
| 9 | Light – Reflection and Refraction (coming soon) | — |
| 10 | The Human Eye and the Colourful World (coming soon) | — |
| 11 | Electricity (coming soon) | — |
| 12 | Magnetic Effects of Electric Current (coming soon) | — |
| 13 | Our Environment (coming soon) | — |
Follow this order so previous year questions strengthen recall instead of testing guesswork.
- Finish the NCERT chapter and its in-text and exercise questions first. Previous year questions test the same concepts in exam language, so the base understanding has to come from the textbook.
- Attempt that chapter’s previous year questions — for example, the Chemical Reactions and Equations solved previous year questions — without looking at the answer first.
- Time yourself at roughly two minutes per mark. A 3-mark question should take about six minutes; a 5-mark question about ten minutes.
- Check your answer against the solution, and separate method mistakes (wrong approach) from calculation mistakes (right approach, wrong arithmetic or unit).
- Revisit only the questions you got wrong, three to four days later — not the ones you already answered correctly.
Two habits cost students marks repeatedly. The first is jumping straight into previous year papers before finishing the NCERT exercises, which skips the concept practice that these questions assume you already have. The second is writing the correct chemical change but forgetting to balance the equation, or giving the right numerical answer without its unit — both are marked as incomplete even when the underlying science is correct.
Marks Weightage Across Physics, Chemistry and Biology in Class 10 Science
Previous year Class 10 Science board papers generally split questions by marks value like this:
| Marks value | Question type | What it usually tests |
|---|---|---|
| 1 mark | MCQ / assertion-reason | A direct fact, definition, or one-step application |
| 2 marks | Short answer | A reason with an example, or a two-step calculation |
| 3 marks | Short/long answer | A labelled diagram, a balanced equation, or a multi-step numerical |
| 5 marks | Long answer / case-based | Multiple sub-parts combining concept, diagram, and application |
The 13 chapters also group naturally by subject area, which is useful when deciding where to spend revision time:
| Subject area | Chapters |
|---|---|
| Chemistry | Chapters 1–4 |
| Biology | Chapters 5–8 and 13 |
| Physics | Chapters 9–12 |
This is the general pattern seen in past CBSE Class 10 Science board papers, not a fixed rule. The exact number of 1-mark versus 5-mark questions, and how marks are distributed across chapters, can vary by year — treat this table as a planning guide, not a guarantee for the paper you will sit.
What Each Chapter’s Previous Year Question Page Includes
Once a chapter page is published, it follows the same format:
- Original step-by-step solutions written in plain language, not copied from the textbook wording.
- The marks value tagged on every question, so you know how much detail to write.
- The CBSE year and set where it could be identified from the source paper.
- A mix of MCQ, short-answer, and long-answer questions, arranged in the order they usually appear on the paper.
Only the Chemical Reactions and Equations page follows this format live right now. The other twelve chapters will use the same structure as they are published, so bookmark this hub and check back rather than searching for each chapter separately.
Frequently Asked Questions on Class 10 Science Previous Year Questions
Are CBSE Class 10 Science previous year questions enough for board exam revision?
No, on their own they are not enough. They work best after you have completed the NCERT chapter and its exercises — previous year questions show you how concepts are actually asked, but they cannot substitute for building the concept first.
How many previous year questions should I solve per chapter before the board exam?
There is no fixed number that guarantees a result, but working through every previous year question available for a chapter, plus redoing the ones you got wrong after a few days, is a reasonable target before moving to full mock papers.
Do the same previous year questions repeat in later CBSE Class 10 Science papers?
The exact wording rarely repeats, but the same concepts — balancing equations, Ohm’s law numericals, ray diagrams — are tested year after year. Solving past questions builds familiarity with how a concept gets converted into a question, which is more useful than memorising a specific answer.
Which Class 10 Science chapters usually carry the most marks in the board paper?
Chapters with numerical and diagram components — such as Electricity, Light – Reflection and Refraction, Chemical Reactions and Equations, and Life Processes — tend to carry more multi-mark questions, but the exact distribution can shift from year to year based on the paper design.
Where can I find solved previous year questions for chapters other than Chemical Reactions and Equations?
Only the Chemical Reactions and Equations page is live at the moment. The remaining chapters are being added to this hub, and their table rows will turn into links as each one is published.
Should I solve previous year questions chapter-wise or as a full mock paper?
Start chapter-wise while you are still revising individual topics — it isolates weak areas faster. Move to full mock papers, timed at about two minutes per mark, once you have covered most chapters and want to practise exam pacing.
Reference: NCERT textbooks (CBSE).