NEB Grade 11-12

Overview

NEB Grade 11-12, also called the higher secondary or "+2" stage, is the two-year senior-secondary programme the National Examination Board (NEB) runs in Nepal after the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) at Grade 10. NEB was formed in 2016 (2073 BS) when an amendment to the Education Act merged the earlier Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB), which had run Grade 11-12 since 1989, with the board that ran the old SLC exam at Grade 10. As part of that change, the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) name itself moved up: it now refers to the board exam at the end of Grade 12, while the Grade 10 exam is called SEE. Grade 11-12 is a distinct, longer qualification from SEE, with its own streams, subjects and two separate annual exams (one at the end of Grade 11, one at the end of Grade 12).

Who can apply

A student who has passed SEE (or an equivalent Grade 10 qualification) can enrol in Grade 11 at a school or college affiliated with NEB, choosing one stream: Science, Management, Humanities/Education, or Law. Enrolment and exam registration both go through the school the student is currently attending, the same as SEE — an application cannot be made directly to an NEB office. Students who do not clear a subject, or want to improve a grade, can later sit partial, supplementary ("grade increment") exams for that subject through their school.

Exam pattern

Each stream has its own compulsory and optional subjects. The table below summarises the main streams.

A student sits a Grade 11 annual exam at the end of the first year and a separate Grade 12 exam (the current SLC) at the end of the second year; each exam covers that year's subjects, and a Class 11 result is required before a student can register for the Class 12 exam. Most subjects combine a written theory paper with school-conducted internal or practical marks, similar to SEE, though the exact split varies by subject.

Marking and results

Like SEE, Grade 11 and Grade 12 results are reported as a letter grade and grade point (GPA) per subject on a 4-point scale, not as a single pass/fail mark.

Grading is subject-wise: there is no single combined pass/fail verdict for the exam as a whole. A subject scored below 35% is marked NG (Not Graded) rather than "fail," and D is the minimum grade needed to clear a subject. The grade sheet lists a GPA per subject plus an overall GPA for the year.

Important dates

NEB runs the Grade 12 annual exam first each year, typically starting in Baishakh, with the Grade 11 annual exam following afterwards and finishing by the end of Jestha the same year. For the 2082 BS (2025-2026) cycle, Grade 12 exams began around Baishakh 10, 2083, with Grade 11 exams completing by the end of Jestha 2083. Exam form registration for Class 12 opens roughly two to three months earlier, around Poush-Magh, with schools entering student data online and then submitting printed forms and fee receipts to the NEB office by a mid-Magh deadline. Exact dates shift with the Nepali calendar and are published fresh by NEB each year, so always check the current year's routine rather than reusing a previous year's dates.

How to apply

Students do not apply individually; the school enters each student's exam registration online and submits the physical forms, along with proof of fee payment, to the relevant NEB office. For the Class 12 exam form, a student must also submit a certified Class 11 grade sheet issued by the school. For the 2082/2083 cycle, the Class 12 exam fee was NPR 600 per student when paid by the standard deadline, rising to NPR 1,600 with a late fee. Fees and deadlines are set fresh each cycle, so confirm the current year's notice with the school before paying.

After the exam

A Grade 12 result and the Humanities/Education, Management, Science or Law stream it was taken in both affect which bachelor's programmes a student can apply to next. Engineering and architecture programmes under Tribhuvan University's Institute of Engineering commonly require at least a C grade (around 45%) in each of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics with an overall GPA of 2.0 or higher. Medical and allied-health programmes (MBBS, BDS, BSc Nursing and related courses admitted through the common medical entrance test) commonly require roughly 50% aggregate, or about GPA 2.4, in Physics, Chemistry and Biology from the Science stream. General bachelor's programmes such as BSc or BSc CSIT typically ask for at least a C grade, roughly CGPA 2.0, in the relevant +2 subjects. Most university-level programmes additionally require clearing a separate entrance exam set by that university or body, on top of the +2 GPA cutoff.

Preparation tips

• Work through NEB's model questions and previous years' Grade 11 and Grade 12 question papers for each subject in your stream; question patterns repeat closely from year to year.

• Treat internal and practical marks seriously in science and other lab-based subjects, not just the theory paper, since a weak practical score limits the overall grade even with strong theory marks.

• Choose your stream and optional subjects early and deliberately: they decide which bachelor's programmes and entrance exams you are eligible for afterwards.

• If you plan to apply for engineering, medicine or another competitive bachelor's programme, start preparing for that programme's own entrance exam well before your +2 result is out — most of these run on a separate timeline from NEB's own exams.

• Track the exam-form registration window and submit documents through your school ahead of its deadline; NEB does not accept forms directly from students.

FAQs