ISC 2025 English Literature Improvement Examination Question Paper for Class 12

About this paper

This is the ISC Class 12 English Paper 2 (Literature in English) from the 2025 Improvement Examination, code 1225-801B-IE. It carries 80 marks and lasts three hours, with an extra fifteen minutes for reading only. All five questions are compulsory, and the long answers must keep to the printed word limits. Section A has ten multiple-choice questions and ten sentences to be completed with a reason. Section B has three twenty-mark questions, on Shakespeare's Macbeth, the short-story collection Prism and the poetry collection Rhapsody, each ending with an internal choice. The set pieces include Indigo, The Medicine Bag, There Will Come Soft Rains, The Cookie Lady, Atithi, Death Be Not Proud, Beethoven, Tithonus and Telephone Conversation. This copy has the questions only.

Exam

ISC Class 12

Subject

English Literature

Year

2025

Paper code

1225-801B-IE

Maximum marks

80

Time allowed

3 hours + 15 min reading

Questions

5

Pages

7

Answers included

No, questions only

Paper pattern

• Section A

  20 marks

  Question 1: ten multiple-choice questions. Question 2: ten sentences to be completed with a brief reason

• Section B

  60 marks

  Question 3 on Macbeth, Question 4 on Prism and Question 5 on Rhapsody: two short paragraphs of five marks and one ten-mark answer with an internal choice

Topics covered

• Macbeth
• The apparitions
• Indigo
• The Medicine Bag
• There Will Come Soft Rains
• The Cookie Lady
• Atithi
• Death Be Not Proud
• Beethoven
• Tithonus
• Small Towns and the River
• Telephone Conversation

Questions from this paper

1. Which King of England does Malcolm refer to as the one who "solicits heaven" in Act IV Scene iii of Macbeth?
2. In Act IV Scene i of Macbeth, what do the three apparitions predict, and how far do the predictions prove correct?
3. How do Banquo's and Macbeth's soliloquies in Act III Scene i reveal their mental turmoil?
4. Why did the narrator in Indigo decide to visit Dumka?
5. In what ways does John Donne overthrow the traditional perception of Death in Death Be Not Proud?
6. In the poem Tithonus, why does Tithonus call ordinary men happy?