CBSE Class 9 & 10 English: The 5-Mark Speaking & Listening Test

Ask a Class 10 student what their board English paper is worth and most will say "80 marks," which is true — but only of the theory exam. The remaining 20 marks come from internal assessment, and one specific slice of that, worth 5 marks, has nothing to do with writing at all. It is a listening and speaking skills assessment, conducted in school, usually months before the written exam even happens. It is easy to overlook precisely because it never shows up on a board admit card — and that is exactly why students who ignore it end up losing marks they never needed to lose.

What the 5 Marks Actually Cover

The official CBSE syllabus documentation for English Language and Literature describes this as the Assessment of Listening and Speaking Skills (ALS), and recommends that schools build it around activities like role play, skits, and dramatization — often folded into art-integrated projects rather than run as a formal interview. The goal is not a polished performance; it is evidence that a student can understand spoken English and respond in it — clearly enough, and confidently enough, to be assessed against a rubric the school follows.

In practice, that usually means a short, structured activity: reading a passage aloud with correct pronunciation and pacing, responding to a few spoken questions, or performing a brief scripted or semi-scripted scene with classmates. Teachers typically look for pronunciation, fluency, listening comprehension, and the confidence to speak without long pauses — not literary vocabulary or a flawless accent.

Class 9 and Class 10 — Same Idea, Same Weight

Both Class 9 and Class 10 carry this assessment at 5 marks within the wider 20-mark internal assessment structure, which typically also includes periodic tests and notebook or project work. For Class 10 specifically, internal assessment usually breaks down as periodic tests, notebook submission, and a subject enrichment activity — and for English, that enrichment activity is the speaking and listening component. The exact scheduling and format is set by each school within CBSE's guidelines, which is the main reason two students in the same city can have quite different experiences of "the speaking test" — one school runs it as a paired conversation, another as an individual read-aloud, a third as a group skit.

Why It Gets Under-Prepared

Three things conspire against this 5-mark component. It carries no board-level date sheet entry, so it never feels urgent the way a periodic test does. It happens mid-year, often with little advance notice from school. And because it is spoken rather than written, students who have spent the year reading and writing English rarely think to practice it as a distinct skill — right up until they are asked to stand up and speak.

Five marks will not decide a board result on its own. But in a system where students increasingly compete over single-digit percentage differences for stream or college cut-offs, a skill that costs almost nothing to practice and is simply never rehearsed is an unnecessary way to lose ground.

How to Actually Prepare

• Ask your school early. Formats vary — find out whether it is an individual read-aloud, a paired conversation, or a group activity, and whether a rubric or sample questions are shared in advance.
• Practice reading aloud daily, even for five minutes. Pick any English passage — a textbook chapter works fine — and read it aloud, focusing on pace and clear pronunciation rather than speed.
• Talk about the topic before you're asked to. If the activity is themed (a chapter, a festival, a social issue), have a two-minute answer ready in your head, not memorised word for word, just organised.
• Record yourself once. Most students are far harder on their own voice than a teacher will be — hearing yourself back is usually enough to fix filler words and pacing without outside help.
• Treat listening as half the mark. Comprehension questions after a spoken passage are common; practice by listening to short English audio or video clips and summarising what you heard, out loud, in your own words.

Where Regular Practice Helps

Spoken English is one of the areas students get the least structured practice in simply because it is hard to rehearse alone — reading silently or writing an answer doesn't build the same confidence as speaking one does. IndiaSchool.ai includes spoken English practice as part of its AI lessons for CBSE, ICSE, and KSEAB students in Classes 6 to 10, so students can build the habit of speaking and being heard well before their school schedules the actual assessment. You can see the full English syllabus and chapter list for your child's class and board on the syllabus explorer, and a 14-day free trial covers spoken English practice alongside every other subject.

The Bigger Picture

Internal assessment marks like this one are a reminder that board exam preparation isn't only about the written paper in February or March. The students who quietly pick up small, low-effort habits — five minutes of reading aloud, a recorded practice answer, an early question to their teacher about format — walk into these in-school assessments with far less anxiety than students encountering the activity for the first time on the day it's graded. It costs almost nothing to prepare for. It costs real marks not to.