The treadmill just got faster.

If you thought the Indian education system couldn’t squeeze more sweat out of a fifteen-year-old, you haven’t been paying attention. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) just dropped the other shoe. Under the new two-test system, the first Class X board exam isn't an "option" you can sleep through. It’s mandatory.

It’s a classic bait-and-switch. When the talk of biannual exams first started circulating, it was wrapped in the fuzzy language of "student-centricity." The idea was simple: give the kids two bites at the apple. If you bomb the first one, you’ve got a backup. It sounded like a safety net. It felt like progress.

It isn’t.

By making the first exam mandatory, the CBSE hasn't halved the pressure. They’ve doubled the season. We’ve moved from a high-stakes finale to a grueling, year-long miniseries where the stakes stay high from the first frame. It’s the academic equivalent of a software update that claims to fix bugs but actually just consumes twice the RAM and kills your battery life.

Let’s talk about the friction. You don't just "hold an exam." You mobilize an army. We’re talking about thousands of schools, tens of thousands of invigilators, and a logistics chain that would make a NATO general weep. Printing secure papers, managing centers, and the inevitable "best of two" data crunching. Who picks up the check? Not the board. Parents will see it in "assessment fees" and "administrative charges." Schools will see it in a calendar that has no room left for anything that isn't a mock test.

And then there’s the Kota factor. The coaching industry—a multi-billion dollar behemoth fueled by parental anxiety—is likely popping champagne right now. A two-exam system is a gift from the gods for the EdTech vultures. They won’t sell you a "crash course" anymore. They’ll sell you a "Continuous Mastery Subscription." They’ll tell you that if you don't crush the first exam in January, you’re already behind the curve for April.

It’s A/B testing with human lives.

The CBSE logic is that this reduces the "fear" of a single day deciding your future. But anyone who’s ever worked a job with quarterly KPIs knows that more frequent reporting doesn't lower stress. It just eliminates the downtime. It creates a perpetual state of "crunch." In the old system, a student had a few months of intense pressure followed by a release valve. Now, the valve is welded shut. You finish the first board, wait for the results, analyze your "areas of improvement," and immediately pivot to the next one.

There’s no room for a kid to just be bad at something for a while. There’s no time to be a slow learner. The system is being optimized for data throughput, not for actual comprehension. We’re turning 15-year-olds into high-frequency traders of their own grades.

What happens to the kids who don't have the "premium" support? The students in rural schools where the internet is spotty and the teachers are already overworked? They’re now tasked with navigating a more complex, more demanding schedule with the same meager resources. This isn't leveling the playing field. It's just adding more hurdles and calling it "flexibility."

The board claims this will stop the "coaching culture." That’s a laugh. You don't stop a fire by giving it twice as much oxygen. As long as the seat-to-student ratio in top colleges remains a joke, the pressure will find a way to vent. Usually, it vents right through the mental health of the teenager sitting at the desk.

We’re obsessed with the "Board Exam" as a cultural milestone, a rite of passage that identifies who’s "useful" to the economy. By doubling down on the testing frequency, we’re admitting that we don't know how to measure intelligence without a OMR sheet and a timer. We’ve taken the most stressful year of a child’s life and turned it into a permanent lifestyle.

It’s all very "agile," isn't it? Fail fast, iterate, move on. But these aren't lines of code. They’re kids. And when you keep pushing the "test" button over and over again, eventually, something is going to break.

The board says the first exam is a "must." They say it’s for the students' own good. They say it’s about choice and flexibility. But when the choice is between "stress now" and "stress later," is it really a choice at all?

I wonder if anyone at the CBSE remembers what it’s like to have a summer that doesn't feel like a countdown.