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Exam Review

Key Facts: NEB Class 12 English Exam

75

Theory Marks

25

Internal Assessment Marks

3 hours

Theory Paper Duration

35%

Minimum Theory Score

NEB

Conducting Board

The NEB Class 12 Compulsory English examination is conducted by the National Examinations Board (NEB) of Nepal. It consists of a 75-mark written theory paper (3 hours) plus 25 marks of internal assessment, and students need at least 35% in theory to avoid a Non-Graded (NG) result. OpenExamPrep offers free independent practice questions on reading and literature, grammar, vocabulary and writing conventions. OpenExamPrep's questions are an independent multiple-choice study adaptation of the curriculum topics. They are not a simulation of the written board paper.

Sample NEB Class 12 English Practice Questions

Try these sample questions to review concepts for the NEB Class 12 English exam. Each question includes a detailed explanation. Start the interactive quiz above for the full 100+ question experience with AI tutoring.

1In Tim Winton's short story 'Neighbours', why does the young newly married couple at first feel uncomfortable in their new neighbourhood?
A.Their noisy, outspoken migrant neighbours seem intrusive to a couple used to quiet privacy
B.The city council has issued demolition notices for all the old houses along their street
C.The neighbours file formal complaints to stop the young husband from writing his thesis at home
D.Their street is surrounded by factories that pollute the air and water
Explanation: In Tim Winton's 'Neighbours', the young couple move from a quiet suburb, where neighbours were seldom seen or heard, to a street of European migrants, including a Macedonian family and an old Polish widower. The shouting, spitting and early-morning gardening unsettle them, and for months they mistake the Macedonians' loud talk for violence. Only gradually, through gardening, small gifts and the wife's pregnancy, do they come to feel part of the community.
2In Kate Chopin's short story 'A Respectable Woman', what internal conflict torments Mrs. Baroda during Gouverneur's visit to their plantation?
A.She resents Gouverneur because she believes he secretly plans to cheat her husband Gaston out of the plantation
B.She feels an unexpected physical attraction to Gouverneur that threatens her sense of being a respectable wife
C.She fears that Gouverneur's quiet manner will damage Gaston's political campaign in New Orleans
D.She suspects that Gouverneur secretly plans to marry her younger sister for the family's money
Explanation: Mrs. Baroda's central dilemma in 'A Respectable Woman' stems from her involuntary physical and emotional fascination with her husband's guest, Gouverneur. Because she defines herself as 'a respectable woman' bound by strict southern social propriety, she must suppress her passionate impulses.
3In Anita Desai's 'A Devoted Son', how does the relationship between Rakesh, a successful doctor, and his ageing father, Varma, turn sour?
A.Rakesh settles permanently in America after his studies and neglects his ageing father
B.Varma secretly wastes the family's savings on risky business investments against Rakesh's advice
C.Varma forbids Rakesh's children to attend a modern English-medium school
D.Rakesh's strict control of his father's diet and medicine robs the old man of his pleasures
Explanation: Rakesh, the son of a former kerosene dealer, becomes a celebrated doctor, studies in the USA, returns home and dutifully cares for his parents. After his mother's death, however, he treats his father as a patient: he bans fried food and sweets such as halwa and keeps pressing medicines and tonics on him. Varma comes to feel his son's devotion as a kind of tyranny; he bribes his grandson to buy sweets in secret and finally rejects a tonic, saying that he only wants to be allowed to die.
4In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings', why do the crowds eventually lose interest in the winged old man?
A.Father Gonzaga proves to everyone that the old man is only an ordinary shipwrecked sailor
B.The old man flies away the very next morning after the crowds arrive
C.A travelling show of a woman turned into a spider, with a simple moral tale, draws them away
D.Pelayo and Elisenda stop charging admission and close their gate to all further visitors
Explanation: Pelayo and Elisenda lock the old man in their chicken coop, and Elisenda starts charging five cents to see him. The crowds lose interest when a carnival brings a woman who was turned into a spider for disobeying her parents: unlike the silent, mysterious old man, she tells her pitiable story and offers a clear moral lesson. By then the couple have grown rich enough to build a two-storey mansion; years later the old man grows new feathers and flies away while Elisenda watches with relief.
5In H.G. Wells's 'The Treasure in the Forest', what lethal trap ultimately thwarts Evans and Hooker after they discover the hidden Spanish ingots?
A.Thorns dipped in deadly poison, hidden among the gold ingots by Chang-hi
B.A deep pitfall concealed beneath ferns near the hidden treasure
C.An armed party from a patrol gunboat that lands on the island
D.A sudden tropical storm that capsizes their canoe offshore
Explanation: Evans and Hooker had killed Chang-hi to get his map. On the island they find a dead man with swollen, discoloured limbs lying beside the gold, but greed makes them ignore the warning. Chang-hi had surrounded the ingots with tiny thorns dipped in a deadly poison of the kind used on blow darts; Evans is pricked and dies, and Hooker, pricked while shifting the gold, realizes too late that the strange marks on the map were thorns.
6In Lu Xun's poignant narrative 'My Old Home', what event most dramatically highlights the tragic social gulf that has opened between the narrator and his childhood friend Runtu?
A.Runtu refuses to speak to him and turns away in anger at the door
B.Runtu reveals that he has joined a warlord's army that hunts down educated people from the towns
C.Runtu demands money in return for the games they played together as children
D.Runtu greets him respectfully as 'Master', showing the wall of class that now divides them
Explanation: When Runtu visits, the narrator runs forward eagerly, expecting their childhood intimacy. Instead, Runtu stands with reverent awkwardness, bows, and utters 'Master!' This deferential address shatters the narrator's nostalgic illusions, revealing the rigid class divide imposed by rural poverty and feudal custom.
7In Shankar Lamichhane's 'The Half-closed Eyes of the Buddha and the Slowly Sinking Sun', what does the guide finally show the foreign tourist to reveal the reality behind Kathmandu's beauty?
A.The golden spire of Swayambhunath rising above the morning mist over the valley
B.A young farmer singing folk songs while ploughing terraced rice fields near Bhaktapur
C.A polio-stricken child in a poor farmer's hut, whose helpless eyes reveal hidden suffering
D.A master artisan carving wooden peacock windows in an old courtyard in Patan, watched by visitors
Explanation: The tourist, charmed by temples and the serene half-closed eyes of the Buddha, sees Nepal as a land of spiritual beauty. The guide takes him off the beaten track, near Chobar, to a poor farmer's hut where a child lies paralyzed by polio, unable to move or speak. Moving between the two men's streams of consciousness, Lamichhane sets the tourist's romantic vision against the suffering the guide knows, suggesting that both beauty and pain belong to the real Nepal.
8In Emily Dickinson's poem 'A Day', what poetic contrast defines the speaker's account of dawn versus dusk?
A.She describes the sunrise in vivid detail but admits she does not know how the sun set
B.She portrays morning as a noisy invasion and evening as a joyful celebration
C.She explains sunrise through science and sunset through Greek mythology
D.She laments that dawn brings back labour while dusk frees animals from cages
Explanation: Dickinson writes: 'I'll tell you how the sun rose... / The steeples swam in amethyst... / But how he set, I did not know.' She describes the vibrant details of morning with clear childish delight, but regards sunset as an enigmatic, reverent mystery where a dominie puts up the evening bars.
9In Dylan Thomas's 'Every Morning I Wake', a prayer spoken by the Reverend Eli Jenkins in 'Under Milk Wood', what does the speaker chiefly ask of God?
A.Commercial prosperity for the town's fishing boats and its coastal shipping trade
B.Freedom from illness so that no villager in the town ever grows old or dies
C.Mercy for the townspeople, who are 'not wholly bad or good', and the gift of another day
D.Punishment for the careless villagers who stay away from chapel services on Sundays
Explanation: Each morning the speaker asks God to keep his 'lovely eye' on 'all poor creatures born to die', and each evening he asks a blessing on the town, since whether they last the night is 'always touch-and-go'. Admitting that 'We are not wholly bad or good / Who live our lives under Milk Wood', he trusts God to see 'our best side, not our worst', and he ends by praying to see another day.
10In Julia de Burgos's passionate poem 'I Was My Own Route', what symbolic act demonstrates the speaker's feminist rebellion against traditional female roles?
A.She leaves behind the roles men expected of her and walks forward on a path of her own
B.She burns the bridal gowns that the women of her family have kept for generations
C.She leads a march of factory workers through the capital demanding equal wages
D.She sails away from Puerto Rico to live entirely alone on a remote, uninhabited island
Explanation: The speaker admits that she once tried to be what men wanted her to be, living only an 'attempt at life', a game of hide-and-seek with her own being. Realizing that she is made of the present moment, she refuses to walk backwards and moves forward on new paths, even as the 'old guard' beats its desperate wings against her back. The poem celebrates a woman's freedom to define herself.

About the NEB Class 12 English Exam

The NEB Class 12 Compulsory English Board Examination is the nationwide summative assessment conducted by the National Examinations Board (NEB) of Nepal at the conclusion of Grade 12 (+2). Developed according to the national curriculum designed by the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC), the course fosters communicative competence, analytical reading, functional grammar, formal writing conventions, and literary appreciation. The official examination evaluates learners through a 75-mark written theory paper and a 25-mark internal continuous assessment. This independent practice bank offers 100 objective questions designed to reinforce grammar rules, vocabulary distinctions, reading comprehension strategies, and writing conventions for board exam preparation.

Exam sponsor: National Examinations Board (NEB), Nepal. The requirements and fees below concern the certification or admission exam, separate from our free practice resources.

Assessment

Written board examination: a 75-mark written theory paper (3 hours) plus 25 marks of internal assessment.

Time Limit

3 hours (theory paper)

Passing Score

At least 35% in the theory paper (below that: Non-Graded, NG)

Exam / Certification Fees

Set annually by NEB; paid through the school

Exam sponsor website

Reported exam pass rate: Not published by subject. Under NEB's letter-grading rules, a theory score below 35% is recorded as Non-Graded (NG) for that subject. Exam sponsor website

Fees, eligibility, and exam policies can change. Confirm them with the exam sponsor before applying or paying.

Our practice resources: topics covered

We aim to reflect publicly available exam outlines and topic information in our study resources. Coverage, format, and difficulty may differ from the actual exam, and we cannot guarantee that every detail is accurate or current. Confirm exam requirements, fees, and policies with the official exam sponsor.

25% of practice bank

Reading Comprehension & Literature

Understanding and interpreting prescribed stories, poems, essays and plays, and unseen passages.

35% of practice bank

Grammar & Mechanics

Sentence structure, tense, voice, reported speech, conditionals and agreement.

20% of practice bank

Vocabulary & Usage

Word formation, collocations, idioms, phrasal verbs and word meaning in context.

20% of practice bank

Writing Conventions

Formats and conventions for letters, reports, essays and other functional writing.

Preparing for the NEB Class 12 English Exam

What You Need to Know

  • Passing score: At least 35% in the theory paper (below that: Non-Graded, NG)
  • Assessment: Written board examination: a 75-mark written theory paper (3 hours) plus 25 marks of internal assessment.
  • Time limit: 3 hours (theory paper)
  • Exam / certification fees: Set annually by NEB; paid through the school Official sources

Using Our Practice Resources

  • Work through all 100 available questions
  • Review every answer and explanation
  • Track weak areas and revisit them
  • Use our AI tutor for tough concepts

NEB Class 12 English: Suggested Study Strategy

1Practice functional grammar sentence transformations daily, focusing on tense backshifts in reported speech, passive causative forms, and inverted conditionals.
2Review the prescribed literature selections thoroughly to understand character motives, central themes, literary devices, and philosophical arguments.
3Master the standard formats for formal letters, job applications with CVs, press releases, and editorial essays to secure high marks in the 15-mark writing section.
4Read diverse unseen passages to build speed and accuracy in extracting factual information and inferring vocabulary meanings under timed conditions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the format of the NEB Class 12 Compulsory English examination?

The official assessment is a 75-mark written theory paper (3 hours) plus 25 marks of internal assessment. It is a written board examination, not a multiple-choice test.

What score is needed to pass NEB Class 12 Compulsory English?

Under NEB's letter-grading rules, students need at least 35% of the theory marks. A lower theory score is recorded as Non-Graded (NG) for the subject.

What happens if a student is Non-Graded (NG) in Compulsory English?

Students who are NG in up to two subjects can sit the grade-increment (supplementary) examination announced by NEB after the results; others take the subject again in a later regular examination.

Are these practice questions official NEB papers?

No. OpenExamPrep's questions are an independent multiple-choice study adaptation of the curriculum topics. They are not a simulation of the written board paper. OpenExamPrep is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NEB or the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC).

Which texts are studied in Grade 12 Compulsory English?

The CDC Grade 12 textbook includes stories such as Tim Winton's 'Neighbours' and Anita Desai's 'A Devoted Son', poems such as Emily Dickinson's 'A Day', essays such as Oliver Sacks's 'On Libraries' and Bertrand Russell's 'Knowledge and Wisdom', and one-act plays. Check the current textbook for the full list.