CBSE rechecking chaos: Blurry copies, payment glitches, portal crashes spark outrage

For lakhs of CBSE Class 12 students, the battle did not end with board exams. It followed them into the rechecking process.

What was supposed to be a transparent post-result system for the 17.7 lakh students who appeared for the exam this year has now exploded into one of the ugliest student outrage moments of this year’s board season.

Since May 19, when the window opened to apply for a scanned copy of evaluated answer sheets, students and parents across the country have been stuck in a loop of crashing portals, failed payments, disappearing links, endless refreshes and now, blurry scanned answer sheets that many claim are almost impossible to read.

And all this is happening while many students are simultaneously preparing for NEET again, recovering from JEE, or running between CUET exams and college admission deadlines.

The frustration online has crossed the point of normal complaints. Students are openly questioning whether their papers were evaluated properly in the first place.

Here are some of the comments students and parents posted on our Facebook post about the CBSE reevaluation portal glitches back on May 19:

'WE CAN'T EVEN READ OUR OWN HANDWRITING'

The biggest trigger now is the scanned copies of answer sheets uploaded through CBSE’s post-result system.

Students and parents have been posting screenshots on X showing pages so blurred and faded that even basic numbers, symbols and words looked unclear. Several posts quickly went viral.

One user wrote: "Are students a joke? Copies have been scanned so poorly that in many places, students themselves can’t read their own writing."

Another post that spread rapidly online read: "Copies were scanned so badly even we can’t read them, yet 50+ teachers are expected to check them accurately."

That line about "50+ teachers" reflects a growing online suspicion among students about the On Screen Marking or OSM system itself.

Many are now questioning whether evaluators, especially older teachers unfamiliar with digital correction systems or with eyesight issues, could properly assess heavily scanned scripts on screens for hours.

The complaints are not just emotional reactions from disappointed students. Many claim they found missing marks despite correct steps, unchecked portions, or answers that received surprisingly low scores despite matching expected solutions.

Some students who performed well in competitive exams like JEE Main have also posted about scoring unexpectedly low in PCM subjects in boards, adding fuel to the distrust.

TEACHERS TOO DESCRIBE A CHAOTIC SYSTEM

Concerns are not coming only from students and parents. A CBSE school teacher from Lucknow described this year’s Class 12 evaluation process as deeply disorganised.

"The answer-checking process for Class 12 this year was chaotic. Teachers received answer sheets in multiple sets," the teacher said.

He explained that unlike previous years, evaluators did not receive all answer sheets together. "After finishing one set and completing all the work, another set was sent a week later. This happened three times for the English subject," he said.

The teacher also pointed to technical troubles during the On Screen Marking process. "For Biology, the OSM did not work properly for the first 3–4 days due to system glitches. Teachers had to visit the centre and return multiple times. The answer-checking process started only 4–5 days later than planned," he added.

"In some copies, pages were missing, which caused further delays. The answer sheets were also not loading because of server issues," the teacher said.

"Some concerns were raised regarding the adequacy of teacher training, with reports suggesting that many educators had limited prior exposure to the system before implementation," said another CBSE teacher from a private school in Saharanpur who has been a CBSE board examiner for past past 5 years.

"Additionally, several teachers highlighted difficulties related to prolonged screen usage and visibility issues, which may have affected their experience with the OSM system," she added.

These kinds of reports have further intensified concerns online about whether technical disruptions may have affected the overall evaluation process.

This has further intensified concerns online about whether technical disruptions may have affected the overall evaluation process.

THE PORTAL THAT KEPT BREAKING

The technical chaos only made things worse.

Soon after the application window for scanned copies opened on May 19, students reported login failures, "service unavailable" errors and frozen pages. Even after CBSE repeatedly assured students that technical experts were fixing the issue, complaints continued for days.

On May 20 at around 8 pm, CBSE posted on X that the portal was "functioning smoothly" and said over 1.27 lakh applications for nearly 3.87 lakh scanned answer books had already been submitted within three hours.

The board also warned students not to submit repeated requests because heavy traffic could delay payment updates.

But even after that announcement, social media remained flooded with angry posts.

One student wrote: "My payment is deducted from my account, but it still shows payment unsuccessful after 14 hours."

Another posted: "Paid successfully for photocopy application, amount deducted, but portal is again asking for payment."

A third user summed up the mood online: "Third day of this mess. Website crashes just to access our own answer books. We’re mentally frustrated."

Another user showed with screenshots how the fee amount had changed from Rs 100 to Re 1 to Rs 69.67 within a span of a few hours.

STUDENTS SAY THE TIMING COULD NOT BE WORSE

What makes the situation especially brutal is the timing.

This is not a quiet academic period. Students are already dealing with entrance exams, counselling stress, college cut-offs and gap-year fears.

Many Class 12 students have just emerged from the pressure cooker of JEE and are preparing for NEET retests or appearing for CUET papers simultaneously. For them, the rechecking process was supposed to offer clarity. Instead, it has become another source of panic.

Parents too are openly asking why students are being forced to "fight the system" just to access their own answer sheets.

One social media user wrote: "If CBSE can’t even maintain a stable website, how can we trust them to accurately check answer sheets of lakhs of students?"

There are claims on social media of the website being vibe-coded.

Another questioned why students must pay extra money to identify possible evaluation mistakes made by the system itself.

TRUST IN THE SYSTEM IS NOW THE BIGGER ISSUE

CBSE has extended the deadline for obtaining scanned copies till May 23 and maintains that the OSM process follows proper quality checks and supervision.

But the problem is no longer just technical.

The larger issue now is confidence.

When students cannot access portals properly, payments fail repeatedly, and scanned answer sheets appear unreadable, even genuine reassurances begin losing credibility.

The outrage online shows that many students no longer see the rechecking process as a safety net. They see it as another exhausting exam.

And for thousands already stretched by India’s relentless entrance exam cycle, that may be the most damaging part of all.