On this page
You ask an AI chatbot a Class 10 question and the answer looks right, but it uses a method your teacher never taught or a formula written differently from your book. Here is why that happens to ICSE and state board students, what to type, and how to check any answer against your textbook.
Why does AI give CBSE or foreign answers to ICSE and state board questions?
A chatbot learns from huge amounts of text and tends to lean towards whatever that text contains most. Unless you tell it, it has no idea which board you study under.
A 2024 study in PNAS Nexus by Yan Tao, Olga Viberg, Ryan Baker and René Kizilcec compared five OpenAI models with nationally representative survey data and found that all of them showed cultural values resembling those of English-speaking and Protestant European countries. The same study found that naming the country in the prompt brought the three later models (GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo and GPT-4o) closer to local values for 71–81% of countries and territories. It measured cultural values, not syllabi, but the lesson carries over: the model drifts towards the most common material, and saying where you are can pull it back.
For Indian school topics, the most common material online is likely to be CBSE and NCERT, and boards really do differ. CBSE's official Class 10 maths curriculum for 2026-27 has seven units: number systems, algebra, coordinate geometry, geometry, trigonometry, mensuration, and statistics and probability, with no commercial maths unit. The ICSE Class 10 maths syllabus for 2026-27 has a commercial mathematics section covering GST, recurring deposits, and shares and dividends. A chatbot that assumes CBSE may give a generic answer to a topic your board teaches its own way.
How do I tell the AI my board and class?
Put your context at the start of the chat, before your question. Copy this and fill in the brackets:
"I am a Class [10] student under the [ICSE / Maharashtra State Board / Tamil Nadu State Board] for the [2026-27] session. My textbook is [book name]. Answer only using methods, formulas and notation from this board's syllabus. If a topic or method is not in my syllabus, say so. Use rupees and Indian number names (lakh, crore) in money questions. Show the steps as they would earn marks in my board exam."
Then type the textbook's definition or formula and add: "Use this exact form." For more setup ideas, see our guide to writing better ChatGPT prompts for physics.
Worked example: an ICSE recurring deposit question
Question: Riya deposits ₹1,000 every month in a recurring deposit for 12 months at 6% per year. Find the interest and the maturity value.
The ICSE syllabus gives the simple-interest form I = P × n(n + 1) / (2 × 12) × r / 100. Asked without context, a chatbot may use a compound-interest formula instead and give a different figure. With the board stated, check that it works like this:
n(n + 1) / (2 × 12) = 12 × 13 / 24 = 6.5
I = 1,000 × 6.5 × 6 / 100 = ₹390
Maturity value = total deposited + interest = ₹12,000 + ₹390 = ₹12,390
If the AI's steps or final answer differ from this, follow your textbook's method in the exam. Our guide to the ICSE Class 10 maths paper covers how the paper is set out.
How can I check AI answers against my textbook?
Keep your textbook open and run six checks before copying anything:
Topic: Is it in your board's official syllabus for your exam year? Syllabi change.
Formula form: Does it match your book, symbol for symbol?
Notation and units: Same symbols, units and way of writing answers?
Definitions: Is the wording close enough to your book's to earn the marks?
Conventions: In physics and chemistry, are the sign conventions and naming rules your book's?
Depth: Is it far beyond, or short of, what your board asks?
If a check fails, tell the AI which line differs and ask it to redo the answer your book's way. Then test yourself without it, as in our post on checking that you understood after using AI.
What if the method still doesn't match?
Sometimes the AI's answer is correct but takes a different route. When you can't see which step differs, the Fermi Problem Library has worked problems with a step-by-step solver that explains the reasoning rather than printing an answer, so you can compare it with your book line by line. If the gap is a concept rather than a method, Fermi's AI tutor works out what you already know and builds a plan for the session.
Whichever tool you use, your textbook and your board's official syllabus have the final word. Try your setup lines in your next chat tonight.
