The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) has decided that there will be multiple sets of question papers for the third-semester examinations of Class 12 students in the 2025-26 academic session. This will the first batch of students to take the higher secondary exams under the new semester system.

WBCHSE president Chiranjib Bhattacharya said that the third-semester exam, set to be held in September, will feature multiple sets of question papers. “This is being introduced to prepare students for future competitive exams and to familiarise them with the format,” he said.

In order to prevent cheating, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education has introduced a new measure this year by deciding to change the sequence of questions in papers across regions. For example, a question that appeared first in Kolkata might be placed fifth or sixth in Burdwan.

However, Bhattacharya said no such measures will be in place for this year’s higher secondary exams scheduled from March 3 to March 18 as they are the final exams under the annual system.

The higher secondary exams will be held at 2,089 centres with 5.09 lakh students appearing. The number of girls is more than boys in all districts, with around 47,571 more girls appearing for the exams. This year, the Board has taken several initiatives to prevent cheating in the annual exams, like installing metal detectors and preventing mobile phones or any other electronic gadgets.