My 12 year old borrowed her ICSE cousin's English textbook and now calls her own 'babyish'

lagoon_pebble_99016 Aug 2026

Her cousin is in the same class at an ICSE school and left her English reader at our place after a visit. My daughter read half of it in one evening and announced that her CBSE book is for babies. The poems are longer, the questions are harder, and why does her school think she can't handle it. I've no strong feelings about boards, we picked her school for practical reasons. But I don't know what to say to her. Is the gap real at this level, or is it just one book against another?

2 comments

cinnamon_sandal_90586 Aug 2026
Different boards weight things differently. In my son's case, his IB English course read far more than his friends in CBSE did, but the CBSE students wrote much more structured answers and were better prepared for timed exams. Neither was obviously harder; they were hard in different places. If she enjoys reading at that level, let her keep the book and keep reading. It doesn't need to become a question about her school.
sandal_courtyard_15357 Aug 2026
This is exactly the comparison I keep trying to make for our daughter, who starts nursery next June. My wife leans IB, I studied in state board and lean CBSE. Every comparison table says 'ICSE has more literature', but nobody explains what that looks like in an actual class. Could you say which part felt harder to her, the reading itself or the questions? Even one example would help me more than another table.