A form filled in the first week of Class 9 sets the papers a child will sit at the end of Class 10, and most families give it an evening.
Updated 31 October 2026 · Great Home Tutor · Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon
ICSE subjects are chosen at the start of Class 9 and are the ones examined in the Class 10 board papers. Schools close the choice early and offer only a subset of the full list. Before signing, confirm what your school actually offers, how much of each subject is internally assessed, and until when a change is possible.
| Applies to | ICSE, start of Class 9 |
|---|---|
| Decides | The papers written at the end of Class 10 |
| Confirm | The subset your school offers and its change deadline |
| Tuition | At home in Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon, or live online |
| Enquiries | +91 92121 42427 |
What is actually being chosen
The ICSE course is organised in groups. The first group is compulsory and includes English, a second language, and history, civics and geography. The second group is where the elective academic subjects sit, and this is where mathematics and the sciences are taken. The third group is a single further subject chosen from a list that runs from computer applications through commercial and economic applications to art, physical education and home science.
Two things follow from that structure and both surprise families. The sciences at ICSE are examined as separate physics, chemistry and biology papers rather than as one combined science paper, so a student is sitting more papers than a CBSE contemporary. And the choice is made at the beginning of Class 9 for an exam written nearly two years later, at an age when most children have no strong view.
The full list published by the board is long. Your school will offer only part of it, determined by the teachers it has. Ask for its own list rather than working from a general one, because a subject your child has set their heart on may simply not be taught there.
The third group is not the soft option people assume
Families often approach this choice looking for the easiest marks, and the third group looks like where they are. In practice these subjects carry a larger internal component than the academic ones, which means coursework, files and practical work spread across two years and assessed by the school.
That is genuinely an advantage for a child who works steadily and is willing to produce things. It is a poor fit for a child who leaves everything until a fortnight before the exam, because there is nothing to cram. A subject chosen for being light can become the one that consumes weekends in Class 10 while the academic papers wait.
The honest question to ask is not which subject is easiest but which kind of work the child actually does. A student who enjoys building, drawing or writing things up will do well here. A student who only ever revises will not.
The second language is the choice people regret
Of all the decisions on the form, this is the one we hear about afterwards most often. The second language is examined at the end of Class 10 like any other subject, and a child who has chosen a language with no support at home, no continuity from primary school and no particular interest is signing up for two years of grinding.
Switching later is difficult and sometimes not possible at all, because the syllabus assumes a starting point the child will not have. If there is any hesitation about this one, resolve it in the first fortnight rather than in Class 10.
The thing most parents get wrong here. Choosing on what will look best later rather than on what the child can sustain for two years. The board result reports the marks, not the difficulty of the combination. A student carrying a subject they cannot manage loses marks in that paper and, more expensively, loses the study time to keep the others where they should be.
Two things to confirm with the school, in writing
- The change deadline. Most schools allow a change only in the opening weeks of Class 9, and some not at all once teaching has begun. Ask for the date. If the child is unsure, that date is the real deadline for deciding, not the day the form is due.
- The internal assessment weight for each subject taken. A meaningful share of each ICSE subject's mark is awarded by the school across the year, on project and practical work submitted to deadlines. Get the list of what is due and when at the start, and put it somewhere visible. Marks lost to late submission in Class 9 are not recoverable in Class 10.
Where tuition genuinely helps, and where it does not
We teach one to one at home across Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon, and live online anywhere. Our ICSE families in Gurgaon usually come to us for the science papers and mathematics, and the practical reason is the paper count: three separate science papers plus mathematics makes for a heavier Class 10 timetable than families moving from a CBSE background expect, and it is easy to let one of the three drift.
A tutor can carry a subject the child chose reasonably and is finding hard. A tutor cannot make a second language work for a child who has no footing in it, and should say so rather than take the booking. If a subject choice was wrong, the honest answer in the first term of Class 9 is to change the subject, not to add an hour a week for two years.
Questions parents ask
Can a subject be changed in Class 10?
Generally no. The Class 10 examination is taken in the subjects registered and taught from Class 9. Treat the Class 9 form as the decision point and ask the school for its exact deadline in writing.
Does ICSE really have more papers than CBSE at this level?
In the sciences, yes. Physics, chemistry and biology are examined as separate papers rather than as one science paper. That is worth planning the tuition timetable around rather than discovering in the board year.
Should a child take the maximum number of subjects allowed?
Only if they are managing comfortably. An extra subject taken for appearances has to be carried through the board year alongside everything else, and it draws time from papers that matter more to the child's next step.
Is computer applications a safe choice?
It suits students who are willing to do the practical work steadily; it is not a shortcut. The same is true of the other third-group subjects. Match the subject to how the child actually works rather than to a reputation.
We are moving from CBSE to ICSE in Class 9. What should we watch?
The language load and the separate science papers, mainly. The content overlaps more than people expect, but the volume of writing and the internal coursework are a real adjustment, and it is easier made in Class 9 than deferred.
Should we arrange tuition from the start of Class 9?
Not automatically. Give the first term a chance and see which subjects are actually sliding. What is worth doing from day one is putting the internal assessment deadlines on a calendar, which costs nothing and prevents the commonest avoidable loss.
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