ISC 2026 History Improvement Examination Question Paper for Class 12

About this paper

This is the ISC Class 12 History paper (code 851) from the 2026 Improvement Examination. It carries 80 marks, runs for three hours plus fifteen minutes of reading time, and has 13 compulsory questions in three sections. Section A is sixteen one-mark items on the Cabinet Mission, perestroika, détente and the Quit India Movement. Section B has eight four-mark questions, with an internal choice in two, including a news extract on the Mountbatten Plan, the commune system and a pictured Cold War crisis of 1962. Section C has four eight-mark questions, with an internal choice in two, on the Towards Equality report and the US Civil Rights Act of 1964, the JP Movement or the Emergency, the Berlin Blockade, and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War or the Yom Kippur War.

Exam

ISC Class 12

Subject

History

Year

2026

Paper code

851

Maximum marks

80

Time allowed

3 hours + 15 min reading

Questions

13

Pages

7

Answers included

No, questions only

Paper pattern

• Section A

  16 marks

  Question 1 with 16 one-mark parts, mixing multiple-choice items, one assertion–reason item and very short answers

• Section B

  32 marks

  Questions 2–9, four marks each; two are based on a news extract or a picture; internal choice in Questions 2 and 6

• Section C

  32 marks

  Questions 10–13, eight marks each; Questions 10, 11 and 13 are in two parts of four marks; internal choice in Questions 11 and 13

Topics covered

• Cabinet Mission
• Quit India Movement
• Mountbatten Plan
• First general elections of 1952
• Nagaland
• Assam agitation
• Hitler's foreign policy
• Great Leap Forward
• Cold War crisis of 1962
• Japan and Manchuria
• JP Movement and the Emergency
• Berlin Blockade and the Arab–Israeli wars

Questions from this paper

1. Why was the Cabinet Mission sent to India?
2. What is the full form of MISA?
3. On what grounds, in June 1975, did the Allahabad High Court declare Indira Gandhi's 1971 election to the Lok Sabha null and void?
4. Discuss any four causes of the movement that followed Gandhi's “Do or Die” mantra.
5. Analyse any four causes of the Assam agitation of 1979–85.
6. Examine the causes and consequences of the Berlin Blockade of 1948–49.