West Bengal Class 12 semester 3 exams start Monday — and three October papers have moved
The Higher Secondary semester 3 examinations run from 21 September to 14 October 2026. Papers originally set for 5, 6 and 7 October have been pushed to 12, 13 and 14 October because of the bye-elections. Answer sheets are OMR and machine-evaluated.
West Bengal's Class 12 students sit their third-semester Higher Secondary papers from Monday, 21 September, and the examinations run to 14 October 2026. This is the semester-3 leg for the batch that finishes Higher Secondary in 2027, and the council issued a revised routine on 10 September — so the version printed in July is not the one to go by.
The three papers that moved
Bye-elections in the Nandigram and Rejinagar assembly constituencies fall on 6 October, and school buildings are polling stations. The council therefore shifted the papers scheduled for 5, 6 and 7 October to 12, 13 and 14 October respectively. Mathematics is the one that catches most science students out: it was 5 October and is now 12 October. Physics stays on 28 September and Chemistry on 1 October.
Timings
- Most theory papers: 11:00 am to 12:30 pm — ninety minutes.
- Music, Visual Arts and the vocational subjects: a shorter sixty-minute paper.
What the hall will look like
Semester 3 is answered on OMR sheets, which are machine-evaluated — no examiner reads them, so a half-filled bubble or a stray mark is not something a human can interpret in your favour. Sheets travel to the regional offices by post.
The council has set at least two invigilators per room and one council nominee for every twenty candidates, with staff in place by 10:00 am and question-paper packets opened in front of students. There is CCTV at the main gate and in the supervisor's room. Mobile phones, calculators and any electronic gadget are barred outright, and the penalty runs to cancellation of the examination and of the candidate's enrolment.
Do this tonight
Download the revised routine from the council's site and check your own subject dates against it, particularly anything you had pencilled in for the first week of October. Carry two black or blue ballpoint pens — an OMR sheet is unforgiving about ink.
CareerBox News Desk — reporting on the revised Higher Secondary semester 3 examination programme issued by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. Official portal: wbchse.wb.gov.in. Dates and eligibility change; confirm them on the official portal before you act.