The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations has always sought to provide an excellent quality of education to the next generation of Indians. This year, aiming to reduce rote memorisation among students in lieu of a strong emphasis upon understanding and conceptual mastery of each subject, there has been a flurry of reforms vis-à-vis the style of questions asked and the patterns of the question papers.

Though appreciating this shift towards a more modern and insightful method of pedagogy, the ICSE batch of 2025 would like to bring to the attention of the Council that the sudden influx of changes in such a short period of time has negatively impacted many students, primarily due to the shock of such radical changes in a short time span. Specifically, there were issues of adjustment to the new patterns of examinations such as Mathematics, as well as problems faced by students with the large amount of Competency-Focused Questions and ambiguous answers in certain papers, such as Computer Applications.

We would thus implore the Council to ensure that the negative impact of a lack of adjustment time to these changes is reduced. An equitable and lenient rubric of checking taking into account the peculiar circumstances of this year, as well as grace marks allotted in certain subjects which were radically changed, would greatly help in minimising any negative impact of these sudden changes and the new pattern of questioning.

We would like to elucidate some of the complications faced by our batch during this year's papers:

1. All our preparatory material (textbooks, notes, compilations of previous ICSE questions and Pre Board Examination papers) was completely misaligned with the new pattern of questioning and concept-learning-based philosophy espoused by the Council beginning this year.
2. Although we are aware the Council has conducted workshops for teachers to raise awareness regarding this year's changes, a majority of our teachers have not yet adapted to the new style of pedagogy required. Thus, a majority of us were taught with an strong emphasis on rote learning which catastrophically failed us during the Examination.
3. The amount of Competency-Focused Questions in subjects such as Physics, Mathematics, &c. greatly exceeded the ~25% informed to us., which further led us to emphasise on rote learning in lieu of being able to prepare adequately for the overwhelming majority of CFQs in the Examination.
4. In addition, although we are sincerely grateful for the wealth of preparatory resources provided to us by the Council, namely the Question Banks, many of the answers provided therein were incorrect, which inculcated confusion among students.
5. There was also a difficulty among many students in rapidly adapting to the new pattern of questioning which radically departed from the rote learning habits inculcated in us for many years. Though appreciating the move towards a more robust pedagogical philosophy, we request you to keep in mind that we were the first batch to be thrown so suddenly amidst such changes and given barely any time to adapt.
6. While previous batches had a wealth of preparatory material and older questions to refer to, we had almost nothing to practice from adequately.

Some specifically pertinent issues with regard to indivudual papers:

1. The significantly lengthy nature of the Mathematics paper this year was a huge problem. Though the time allotted for the same had been increased to 3 hours, the rather difficult nature of the questions posed significant challenges for many, unlike papers of previous years. The move to an overwhelming majority of CFQs was sudden and unprecedented, causing difficulties for many students. The examination also required many calculations, and many schools were undersupplied with logbooks, which led to long wait times for them, too. Furthermore, there were a number of ambiguous questions (such as the one relating to surface areas) which increased the stress levels of students.
2. The Computer Applications paper also brought challenges to some due to the ambiguous nature of many questions (e.g., the question asking an analogy to be drawn from a post office to an access specifier, which could have been interpreted as either the free access of the public to the building or as the limited and protected access of only the postmen to the postbox). Numerous typo errors also adversely affected us, as even a single character has a bearing on the final program in a programming language like Java. Some questions also relied upon the candidate noticing a very small characters (such as a semicolon in the for-loop output question of the MCQs) with which students with ADHD, eye conditions &c. suffered. Such a question tested neither thinking skills nor application skills but the candidate's vision.
3. The Physics paper had an overwhelming majority of CFQs, in particular in the first section. This startled many candidates and severely and negatively impacted their performance not only in Physics but also the the other Science papers (as we had begun preparing solely with CFQs for Chemistry and Biology, only to discover those two papers ought to have been prepared for in a completely different way).
4. Some of the Language and Second Language examinations departed radically in the kind of topic asked. In French, a word limit was introduced for the first time in dialogue-writing (150 words) which was almost double the word limit usually taught in schools. The comprehension in English Language was rather vague, inconsistent, and lacked proper chronology.

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations has always been known to us as a 'student-friendly' Council. Thus, we are confident that you will take necessary actions during the marking of papers (an equitable rubric of checking, grace marks allotted in required papers, &c.). This would immensely uplift many students as the ICSE, being the first major public examination in our lives, serves as a significant motivating factor for our future and the key to the doors of many academic paths—doors that could be heartbreakingly closed so soon if not for justice done to this batch exposed to so many new changes in such a short time, and given so few resources to adapt with.

We anticipate a positive response and have faith in your sensitive and compassionate spirit and habit of always prioritising the needs of your students first.

Sincerely, the students of the ICSE batch of 2025.