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If your evenings go to JEE or NEET coaching, school can feel like something to sit through. You are not alone: the government's Comprehensive Modular Survey: Education 2025 found that 27.0% of school students were taking or had taken private coaching in the current academic year, rising to 30.7% in urban areas (PIB, Ministry of Statistics).
But your school teachers still handle what coaching does not: your practicals, your lab record and how board answers are marked. Here is how to use them without adding hours to your week.
What can school teachers help with that coaching can't?
Entrance tests such as JEE Main use multiple-choice and numerical questions, so only your final answer counts. Board exams reward different things, and your school teaches and assesses them.
Practicals. In CBSE's 2026-27 physics curriculum, Class XII physics is 70 marks of theory and 30 marks of practical (CBSE physics curriculum 2026-27). Of those 30 practical marks, 5 are for your practical record, 5 for the viva and 3 for an investigatory project, and the record must include at least 8 experiments and 6 activities (same document). You do those experiments in your school lab.
Board-style answers. CBSE's 2026-27 sample marking scheme for Class XII physics splits marks across steps (CBSE marking scheme).
The textbook. The same curriculum lists the NCERT physics textbooks and the NCERT lab manual as the prescribed books, and your school teacher teaches from them.
How are board answers marked step by step?
In question 19 of that marking scheme, you work out the potential at the midpoint between two charges and the work done to bring a charge there. The 2 marks are split into four half-marks: the distance d/2, the potential from one charge (2kq/d), the potential from both (4kq/d), and the work done (4kq²/d) (CBSE marking scheme). Only the last half-mark is for the final answer, so 1.5 of the 2 marks are tied to the working. A school teacher can check your working and show you which steps an examiner expects.
Do you have to attend school if you go to coaching?
If you are in a CBSE school, yes. CBSE's circular of 4 August 2025, reiterating its exam bye-laws for the 2025-26 session, says a minimum of 75% attendance is mandatory to appear for the Board examinations, with relaxation only for documented exigencies such as medical emergencies or national sports events (CBSE circular). The same circular says students found absent without proper leave records during a surprise CBSE inspection may be treated as "non-attending/dummy candidates" and not allowed to sit the board exams. Other boards set their own rules, so check with your school office.
How do you ask a school teacher for help?
The kind of help you ask for matters. A 2023 meta-analysis by Carlton Fong and colleagues in the Journal of Educational Psychology pooled 108 studies of college and university students. Seeking help to understand, and help from instructors, went with better achievement; asking to have the task solved for you went with worse (Fong et al., 2023; Texas State University summary). The links were modest, and the students were in college, but the lesson carries over: ask for the explanation, not the answer.
Ask at a fixed time: after class or in a free period, not in the middle of a lesson.
Bring one written question, not "I didn't get this chapter".
Show your attempt, even if it is wrong.
Ask how it would be marked, not only what the answer is.
A script you can adapt: "Ma'am, I tried question 19 from the CBSE sample paper. I got the final answer, but I'm not sure which steps the examiner wants to see. Could you look at my working for five minutes after the period on Thursday?"
For more ways to frame a question, see our guide on asking better questions in class.
What does a weekly plan around coaching look like?
Every lab day: complete the record entry the same evening, and ask the teacher to glance at your observations before you leave the lab.
Once a week: take your school doubts page to one teacher, rotating subjects.
Every two weeks: write one long answer from the CBSE sample paper and ask a teacher to mark it against the marking scheme.
A month before practicals: ask your teacher what the viva tends to cover, then use our practical exam and viva guide to prepare.
If a doubt comes up late at night when no teacher is around, the Fermi Problem Library has worked problems with a step-by-step solver that explains the reasoning rather than printing an answer. Take anything still unclear to your teacher the next morning.
If juggling both is wearing you down, say so to a teacher, your school counsellor or a parent. To talk to a counsellor, you can also call Tele MANAS, the government's 24x7 tele-mental health helpline, on the toll-free number 14416 (Ministry of Health, via PIB).
For how to split your week between the two exams, read our guide to balancing Class 12 boards with JEE preparation.
