Marks and GradesThe 75% attendance rule
Boards and universities require a minimum attendance before a student may sit the examination. The figure most often met is 75%.
What the documents say
- CBSE. The Board's FAQs of 2016 state that at least 75% attendance in an academic session is required to be eligible to appear for the classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 examinations, and that candidates taking a subject with practical examination must also have at least 75% of the attendance for practical work in that subject.
- CISCE. The ICSE and ISC regulations for the year 2028 say that candidates whose attendance is below 75% of the working days are ordinarily not eligible to appear. The Chief Executive and Secretary may condone a shortage where attendance is not less than 60% of the working days in each year of the two-year course.
- Anna University. Its Regulations 2021 say that students with less than 65% overall attendance are not permitted to write the university examination, and that those between 65% and 74% may be permitted on medical or sports grounds with the stated certificates.
We read these on 12 November 2026. Your own school, college or university may count attendance subject by subject, and may have different limits. Its rule is the one that binds you.
The formula
attendance % = classes attended ÷ classes held × 100
Example. 132 attended out of 180 held: 132 ÷ 180 × 100 = 73.3%.
How many more classes must I attend?
If you are below the line, every class you attend from now adds one to both numbers. To reach 75% you need (attended + x) ÷ (held + x) to be at least 0.75. Solving gives:
x = (0.75 × held − attended) ÷ 0.25, rounded up
For 132 out of 180: 0.75 × 180 = 135; 135 − 132 = 3; 3 ÷ 0.25 = 12. Attend the next 12 classes without a miss and you reach 144 out of 192, exactly 75%.
The surprise is the size of the answer. You were only 3 classes short, yet you must attend 12. Each class attended also increases the number held, so at 75% it takes four classes to make up one.
How many classes can I miss?
If you are above the line, each class you miss adds one to the number held only. You stay at 75% while attended ÷ (held + y) is at least 0.75:
y = attended ÷ 0.75 − held, rounded down
For 150 out of 180: 150 ÷ 0.75 = 200; 200 − 180 = 20. You could miss the next 20 classes and still be at exactly 75%, though that leaves no margin for illness.
If the total for the term is known
When you know how many classes the whole term will have, the sum is simpler. With 240 classes in the term you need 0.75 × 240 = 180. If you have attended 132 and 60 classes remain, you need 48 of the 60 and can miss at most 12.
Good practice
- Check your count against the teacher's register from time to time. Mistakes are easier to correct early.
- Keep medical certificates and leave letters, and submit them when the absence happens, not at the end of the year.
- Do not plan to sit exactly on the line. A single unexpected absence would take you below it.
- Ask whether attendance is counted overall or in each subject and in practicals separately.
The attendance calculator gives your percentage, the classes you must attend, or the classes you can afford to miss, for any required percentage.
Check with your board or university. The rules quoted on this site were read in the official documents on 12 November 2026. Boards and universities revise them, and yours may differ. For anything that decides an admission or a job, use the rule printed on your own mark sheet or in your institution's regulations. This is an independent site.