MP Board Introduces New Exam Pattern For Classes 5 & 8 From 2026 To Help Students Score Better

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh State Education Center has introduced important changes in the exam guidelines for 5th and 8th class students in government and private schools affiliated with the MP Board.

These new rules will come into effect for the academic session 2025-26, and the annual exams are likely to be held in March 2026.

According to the guidelines, the exams will be based on the NCERT textbooks and syllabus. The evaluation of results will be done based on three parts:

Half-yearly exam – 20 marks

Written annual exam – 60 marks

Project work – 20 marks

This time, there will be some changes in the question paper pattern. The number of long-answer questions will be reduced, while the number of very short and short-answer questions will be increased. Additionally, objective-type questions worth 10 marks will also be included.

The half-yearly exam will also follow the new blueprint. For government schools, the question papers will be prepared at the state level, while private schools will need to prepare their own papers according to the blueprint.

Each subject will include:

Four long-answer questions of 5 marks each

Six very short-answer questions

Six short-answer questions

Five multiple-choice questions

Five fill-in-the-blank questions

Students must score at least 33% marks in both written exams and internal assessment (project work) in each subject to pass.

If a student fails to get minimum marks in any subject, they will have to appear in a re-exam. Students who fail again in the re-exam will be held back in the same class.

What does the new pattern include?

Total questions: 26

Multiple-choice questions – 5 questions (5 marks)

Fill in the blanks – 5 questions (5 marks)

Very short-answer questions – 6 questions (12 marks)

Short-answer questions – 6 questions (18 marks)

Long-answer questions – 4 questions (20 marks)

These changes aim to make the evaluation fairer and help students focus more on understanding the syllabus.