Nepal SEE

Overview

The Secondary Education Examination (SEE) is Nepal's national examination at the end of Grade 10, conducted by the National Examination Board (NEB), a body under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Following an amendment to the Education Act in 2016 (2073 BS), SEE replaced the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination as the Grade 10 board exam starting in 2017 (2074 BS); the SLC name itself moved up and is now used for the exam at the end of Grade 12. The change was intended partly to reduce the pressure historically associated with the SLC, which was popularly called the "Iron Gate" of Nepali schooling.

Who can apply

Regular students enrolled in Grade 10 at a school registered with NEB (general, Sanskrit, technical or madarsa stream) are eligible to sit SEE. A student applies only through the school they are currently attending; an application submitted directly to an examination office, or submitted through more than one school, is rejected.

Exam pattern

SEE has six compulsory subjects and two optional subjects chosen by the student.

Most subjects split 100 marks as 75 for a written theory paper and 25 for school-conducted internal/practical assessment. Computer Science is an exception, split 50 theory and 50 practical. Lab-based subjects such as Science reserve part of their internal marks for practical work, viva and lab records. A subject generally cannot be passed on theory marks alone if the practical/internal component falls below its own minimum requirement.

Marking and results

SEE results are reported as letter grades and a grade point (GPA) on a 4-point scale, not as a pass/fail mark or the old "division" (First/Second/Third) system that SLC used.

Each subject is graded on its own; a subject where a student scores below 35% is marked NG (Not Graded) on the grade sheet rather than "fail," but an NG still means that subject's requirement for progression has not been met. There is no single combined pass/fail verdict for the exam as a whole — the grade sheet lists a GPA and a letter grade per subject plus an overall GPA.

Important dates

SEE is held once a year, typically in Chaitra on the Nepali calendar (roughly mid-March to mid-April). For the 2082 BS (2026) cycle, exams ran from 2 to 12 April 2026, with individual subjects spread across that window (for example, compulsory Nepali, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and the optional papers each on their own day), and around 517,000 students registered nationwide that year. Exact dates, and the registration window that precedes the exam by about two months, are published fresh by NEB each year and shift with the Nepali calendar, 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 submits the SEE exam form on a student's behalf during a registration window that NEB announces (for the 2082 BS/2026 cycle, the deadline was set in Magh, about two months before the exam). For that cycle, the form fee was NPR 500 per student, payable through the school. Schools typically require a passport-size photo, proof of completion of the Basic Level (Grade 8) examination, and a copy of the student's birth registration certified by the school principal.

After the exam

Passing the required subjects allows a student to move on to Grade 11 under the NEB's higher-secondary (+2) system, which is a separate two-year board examination track from SEE. Admission to a Grade 11 stream is based on the SEE GPA and the grades in specific subjects: Science generally requires the highest GPA and subject grades (commonly a GPA of at least 2.8 with at least C+ in Science, English and Mathematics), Management has a lower threshold, and Humanities/Education generally admit more broadly. Some SEE graduates instead join technical and vocational diploma programmes run by CTEVT rather than the +2 academic track.

Preparation tips

• Work through NEB's model questions and previous years' SEE question papers for each compulsory and optional subject; the question style repeats closely from year to year.

• Treat the internal/practical marks seriously, not just the theory paper — in several subjects a weak practical or internal score limits the grade even with a strong theory score.

• Decide optional subjects (and, where relevant, which technical/vocational option a school offers) early, since they affect eligibility for Grade 11 streams later.

• Track the registration window and submit required documents through the school well before its deadline — SEE forms are not accepted directly by any examination office.

FAQs