Enter Class 12 once as a pending qualification, with CBSE or CISCE as the awarding body and the examination date in the future, then list each subject under it with the grade left blank. Enter Class 10 as a completed qualification with a grade per subject. Do not enter Class 11 at all; it goes in the reference. Your referee, not you, enters the predicted marks, and the referee can be a teacher who taught you or a counsellor who collates from your teachers.
That is the whole answer, and the reason people get it wrong is that the UCAS form was built for A-levels and Scottish Highers, where every qualification has an awarding body, a module structure and a grade scale the software already knows. A CBSE student has to fit five subjects and a percentage into that shape without help, and the most common error, in the words of one Student Room helper, is adding "all your subjects as modules" instead of "as titles" with "the qualification date in the future" (thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2440676). The second most common is the question every CBSE applicant asks in October: "do i need to include class 10 boards results? ... class 11 results?" (thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7518226).
What the Education section is for
A UK admissions tutor uses the Education section for three things: to see which qualifications you will hold when you arrive, to check that the subjects the course requires are among them at the level required, and to match your pending qualifications to the predicted grades the referee supplies. Everything else about you, including your Grade 11 marks and your school's context, arrives through the reference and the three personal statement questions. The United Kingdom destination page sets out how those pieces fit, and the UCAS personal statement guide covers the questions themselves.
So the section has to be accurate rather than impressive. A tutor reading a file with Class 12 Mathematics listed as pending and predicted 96 knows exactly what to make of it. A tutor reading a file with "Mathematics Unit 1" and "Mathematics Unit 2" listed as modules, no examination date, and a percentage in the grade box for an examination not yet sat, does not know whether the student is in Grade 12 or has already left school, and may treat the application as incomplete.
Step by step for CBSE and ISC applicants
- Add your school. In the Education section, add each school you attended from Grade 9 onwards, with start and end dates and whether you attended full time. For most Indian applicants that is one or two schools. If you changed school after Class 10, add both.
- Add the Class 10 qualification. Search the qualification list for CBSE or for Indian School Certificate; if it does not appear, choose Other and type the name in full, for example "CBSE Secondary School Examination (Class X)" or "CISCE Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (Class X)". Awarding body: CBSE or CISCE. Date: the month and year of the result, typically May 2025 for a student now in Grade 12. Add each subject as a subject entry with the grade or mark you achieved. Enter the mark the marksheet shows; if the marksheet shows both a percentage and a positional grade, enter the percentage and mention the grade band in the reference if a course asks for it.
- Add the Class 12 qualification as pending. Same route: search or choose Other, name it in full ("CBSE Senior School Certificate Examination (Class XII)" or "CISCE Indian School Certificate (Class XII)"), awarding body CBSE or CISCE, date the month the result is expected, typically May 2027. The form will not let you enter a grade for a pending qualification, and you should not try; that is what tells the university it is pending.
- Add every Class 12 subject as a subject, not a module. One entry per subject: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English Core, Computer Science, Physical Education. Include the fifth and sixth subjects even if you think they are irrelevant; tutors want to see the full load, and an omitted subject looks like a hidden mark. Do not split a subject into theory and practical, and do not add unit tests, pre-boards or half-yearlies as anything.
- Add any other qualification you hold or are sitting. AP examinations taken in Grade 11 go in as completed with scores; APs registered for May 2027 go in as pending. IELTS or TOEFL, if taken, go in with the score. Olympiad certificates and competition results do not belong here; they belong in the third personal statement question or the reference.
- Check the highest level of qualification field. For a student in Grade 12 the answer is typically "below honours degree level qualifications", and the form asks it once; it is not a place to describe your marks.
- Leave the grade fields for pending subjects empty and move on. Your referee will be shown exactly those entries and asked for a predicted mark against each one. If you enter a number yourself the referee's prediction cannot be attached to it.
The predicted grades guide covers what the referee should enter and how to brief a school that has never done it.
Class 10 and Class 11: what to include and why
Class 10 goes in. It is a completed external examination with a grade per subject, and it is the only completed national qualification a Grade 12 applicant has. For Oxford, Cambridge and medicine it is read; for most other courses it is skimmed; and for English-language proficiency it matters directly, because many UK universities accept a CBSE or ISC English mark of roughly 70 percent or above from Class 10 or Class 12 in place of IELTS. Check the university's English requirements page for the exact mark and which class it accepts, since it varies.
Class 11 does not go in the Education section, because it is not a qualification. There is no awarding body, no external examination and no certificate a university can verify, and the Student Room helper's phrase for it, "not a completed qualification", is exactly how UCAS sees it. It is not ignored; it is the main evidence behind the prediction. The referee should state the Grade 11 final marks in the reference, say how the school's Grade 11 marking compares to board results, and predict from there. A student whose Grade 11 aggregate was 84 and who is predicted 92 needs the reference to explain that, or the tutor will read the prediction as optimism.
If your school issued a Class 11 marksheet, keep a scanned copy. A university that makes you an offer may ask for a full transcript, and some, notably for medicine, ask for it before interview.
Choosing the referee
You have two routes and the choice is the school's, not yours. If the school is a UCAS registered centre, your application is linked to it and the school's adviser writes the reference, enters the predictions and submits the application on your behalf. If it is not, you apply as an individual, and in the reference section you enter the email address of a referee who then receives a link from UCAS. Ask the school in July which it is; registering takes weeks and cannot be done in the fortnight before 15 October.
The referee must know you in an academic capacity and cannot be a relative. Beyond that, a subject teacher who taught you in Grade 11 and 12 and a school counsellor or year head who collects marks from your teachers are both acceptable. The Student Room question "Does my referee have to be a teacher who has taught me, or can it be a school counsellor, who then collects my predicteds from subject teachers individually?" (thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6482696) has a clear answer: a coordinator who collates is fine, and it is how most large UK schools operate.
Choose on three things. Who can describe the school's grading and your position in it. Who will produce a defensible predicted mark per subject rather than the Grade 11 aggregate. And who will answer an email from a university in November. A teacher who taught you Mathematics for two years and can write two specific paragraphs about your work beats a principal who has met you twice. The letters of recommendation article has the brief to hand whichever person you choose.
Reading the offer condition, and near misses
Offers to CBSE and ISC applicants are worded in percentages and usually have two parts: an overall figure and a subject figure, for example "90 percent overall including 95 in Mathematics and 90 in Physics". Read both parts. The subject condition is the one applicants miss, and a 93 overall with 89 in Mathematics has not met an offer that asked for 95.
The result arrives in mid-May, which is the CBSE and ISC applicant's advantage: two months before IB and three before A-level results, with the university's admissions office not yet in its busiest week. What happens on a near miss is decided by the university and depends on the course. The Student Room answer to "will missing it by 1-2% result in failure of admission, or is that much generally tolerated?" was "case by case", turning on "whether the course is under-subscribed", and that matches what I have seen. An engineering course at a mid-table Russell Group university with places to fill confirms a 1-point miss more often than not. A course at Imperial or LSE with a waiting list does not.
The sequence on results day is:
- Check both parts of the condition against the marksheet, not the aggregate on the school's notice board.
- If short, email the admissions office of your firm choice that day, attach the marksheet, state the shortfall precisely and ask whether they will confirm. Do not phone first; the email creates the record.
- If the firm choice declines, your insurance choice is assessed against its own condition automatically; you do not apply again.
- If both decline, Clearing typically opens in the first week of July, and a CBSE applicant with results in hand can be placed before the August rush. Have two or three courses identified in June, not July.
- Apply for re-evaluation only where a mark sits just below a subject threshold, and check the board's window, which typically runs for a few days after results. Tell the university you have applied; most will hold the decision for a revised marksheet.
Common errors, in order of damage
| Error | What the tutor sees | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Subjects entered as modules or units | A qualification with no recognisable structure; possibly an incomplete application | One subject entry per Class 12 subject under a single pending qualification |
| Grade typed into a pending subject | A claimed result for an examination not yet sat; the referee's prediction cannot attach | Leave pending grades blank; the referee predicts |
| Class 12 dated with the school's internal exam date, or with no date | Unclear whether the student is still at school | Use the month the board result is expected, typically May 2027 |
| Fifth or sixth subject omitted | A hidden mark, or a lighter load than claimed | Enter every subject on the Class 12 registration |
| Class 11 entered as a qualification | Confusion between internal marks and a board result; the referee has nothing to predict against | Remove it; put the Grade 11 marks in the reference |
| Class 10 omitted | A thinner file; English requirement not evidenced | Enter it with every subject and mark |
| Percentage and positional grade both entered as separate qualifications | Duplicate entries for one examination | Enter the percentage; mention the A1 band in the reference where a course asks for it |
| Referee named without asking the school whether it is a registered centre | A referee who never receives the link, or a school that will not submit | Ask in July; decide the route before you start the form |
Two of these are worth a second look. The pending-grade error is the one that makes universities write to applicants asking for clarification, which costs weeks in a cycle that runs from November to May. And the referee error is the one that cannot be fixed after 15 October, because the reference must be in before the application is submitted.
If you are in Grade 12 now
For a 15 October deadline, the Education section should be complete this week and the referee route settled: ask the school today whether it is a registered centre, and if not, nominate the referee and give them the predicted grades brief. Print the entry requirement for each of your five courses from the university's India page, including the subject condition, and check that every required subject is on your Class 12 list. For the 13 January deadline, the same steps by mid-November leave time for the school to revise predictions after the pre-boards. Whichever deadline, put the May results date and the July Clearing date in the calendar now, alongside the deadlines for any other destination on your list; UK applications are the part of a mixed list we most often see left to the last week, and the Education section is where that shows. Getting the five courses, the referee and the form right is a two-hour task inside the college admissions counselling work, and the sequence sits in the method.
Where this stops applying
This article is about CBSE and ISC applicants in Grade 12 applying for 2027 entry. Students who have already received their Class 12 result enter it as a completed qualification with marks and need no prediction. State board applicants follow the same steps but should expect more universities to ask for a transcript and a school description, since tutors calibrate those boards less easily. IB and Cambridge International students at Indian schools will usually find their qualification in the drop-down and their school already registered. And the form's wording, the drop-down names and the re-evaluation windows above are the September 2026 position; UCAS revises the application each cycle, so read the on-screen help text if a field does not match this description.