WBCHSE publishes answer keys for HS Semester-III examination

Kolkata: The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) on Tuesday released the official answer keys for all subjects of the Higher Secondary (HS) Semester-III (Part I) Examinations, 2026, held between September 8 and 22.

The Council said the answer keys have been uploaded on its official website in the interest of students. Candidates have been asked to check the keys and verify their scores as reflected on the “Statement of Marks” already distributed through their institutions.

In case of any issues or doubts regarding the marks obtained and those expected as per the answer keys, candidates have been asked to contact the deputy secretary of their respective Regional Office for resolution.

A total of 6,45,832 candidates out of 6,60,260 enrolled students appeared for the Semester-III examinations. Results were declared on October 31, recording an overall pass percentage of 93.72. Although the Council had earlier proposed uploading all Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets online, WBCHSE president Chiranjib Bhattacharya later clarified that publishing over 38 lakh sheets was “technically unfeasible.” They will instead be available on demand through RTI, and there will be no review or scrutiny, as the evaluation was fully computerised.

With the publication of the answer keys, students can now verify whether they have received marks consistent with the Council’s final evaluation. The keys also show how ambiguous or technically flawed questions were handled to maintain fairness.

In English (First Language), for instance, question number 37 in the Yellow Series has “no option” listed as the correct answer, with the remark “attempt or no attempt – one mark,” meaning all candidates were awarded one mark, whether they attempted it or not. A similar note appears in the Hindi (First Language) paper.

In the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance paper, one question lists all four options — A, B, C and D — as correct, with the remark “attempt – 1 mark, no attempt – 0.” For some questions, two or three options were accepted as correct, and students selecting any of them received full marks.