Kota in January is cold in the morning and dusty by afternoon. I went to a coaching counter near Talwandi with two papers in a plastic file. 10th marksheet from RBSE. 12th from the same board, different year. The boy at the desk did not even look at the pages. He said one pdf. One. Not two photos. Not two emails.
I had both scans on my phone already. Uncle at the xerox shop near my PG made them last week. Each scan was its own file. I thought I will just send both. That is not how these forms work. They have one upload box. If you put two files they bounce you or they ignore the second one.
So I sat on a plastic chair outside, opened Chrome, and merged them. Took maybe three minutes. I still tell people this story because every year some student from Ajmer or Udaipur comes with the same two files and the same confused face.
The coaching desk wanted one file, not two
The form was for a classroom batch. Physics, chemistry, maths. They collect documents so later nobody fights about eligibility. 10th for date of birth and name spelling. 12th for the stream. They do not want to click twice. Fair enough. Counter is busy. Queue goes till the gate.
I asked if WhatsApp is ok. He shook his head. Portal only. One pdf. My two scans were not huge. They were two files. That was the actual problem. A friend said use a merge site. I was worried because marksheets have name, roll number, marks.
That is why I use Merge PDF on this site. It runs in the tab. Your file is not uploaded to our server. I drop the 10th file first, then 12th. Download one pdf. Done. If the phone is old, I do it on the PG laptop after dinner. Same tool.
A few things I keep in mind before I even open the tool. Name spelling merge will not fix. Dark xerox with a thumb on the corner stays muddy. Order: 10th on top, 12th after, unless the form wrote 12th first. Password pdfs may fail. I ask the shop for a normal file, no lock. Keep each file under 20 MB. Browser tab can freeze. Shop guys love 600 dpi for no reason. 200 or 300 is enough.
How I merge 10th and 12th in the browser
I open Merge PDF. Big drop area. I put 10th first. Then 12th. If I drop them in the wrong order, there are arrows. I use the arrows. I do not start over unless I really mixed four files.
Two files is the simple case. Sometimes I also have a migration certificate or a caste certificate from the tehsil. Same method. Drop in the order the form listed. First file stays on top. That is how this tool works. I treat it like stacking papers on a desk. Top page is first.
Then I download. I do not upload straight to the coaching portal from the tool. I save the pdf, open it once, pinch zoom on the name and the roll number. If page 2 is blank, I messed the scan, not the merge. If page 2 is 10th again, I dropped the same file twice. Happens when both files are named scan001.pdf from the same shop machine.
After I am happy, I rename the file. Something like rahul-10-12-marksheet.pdf. Not final.pdf. Not document.pdf. Later in May when another form asks, I find it in Downloads without crying.
If the merged file looks too heavy, I do not merge again hoping it shrinks. Merge joins pages. For photos I use Compress Image first, then JPG to PDF. Heavier is usually the image inside, not the “two files” part.
On a laptop this is easy. On phone Chrome it also works if the files are not huge. I close other tabs. Kota PG wifi dies at 8 pm sometimes. Two marksheets are not a movie.
Two scans should become two pages. If I get four, the shop pdf had a blank back. Some scanners save both sides. Then I use Split PDF for the printed sides, then merge those. Better to tell the shop “one side only” next time. Colour 12th and black white 10th still merge. Clerks rarely care if text is readable.
What went wrong the first time
First try I dropped 12th first because that file was on top in the gallery. Gallery sorts by date. 12th was scanned yesterday, 10th last week. So 12th came first in the picker. I did not look. I uploaded. Coaching whatsapp group admin said your 10th is missing. It was not missing. It was page 2. They only opened page 1.
So now I always open the merged pdf. Page 1 must be what they asked first. If the form says “class 10 and 12 marksheet (single pdf)”, I still put 10 then 12 unless they wrote 12 first.
Second mess. I merged at the xerox shop computer. Their “free merge” site wanted a login. I walked out. Do this on your own phone. Nobody else needs a copy of your marks.
Third mess. File name had Hindi characters from the scanner. Portal showed error. I renamed to English letters. Small thing. Wasted twenty minutes in a cyber cafe near the coaching because I thought the merge was broken.
Fourth. I tried to merge a photo jpg and a pdf together. Merge PDF wants pdf files. Jpgs go to JPG to PDF first. Then those pdfs go into merge. Two step. I do this when one marksheet is a camera photo.
If the tool sits there, I check size. 20 MB is the ceiling. A fat colour scan of a laminated marksheet can cross that. Then I go back to the shop for a lighter file. I do not keep tapping download. If the pdf asks a password on the phone, this merge will likely fail. Fresh scan is faster than hunting some old password uncle set as 1234 and then forgot.
After I download, I still check the pages
I open the file. I check both names. I check both years. I check that the photo on the marksheet, if any, is not a black box. Some cheap scans crush the photo. Coaching may not care. A university later might.
I send a copy to my own email. Subject: 10 12 merge kota. So if the phone dies I am not standing in another queue. I do not put it on a random drive link with public access. Email to self is enough.
When the portal finally opens, I upload once. If it fails, I check their size limit with File Size Checker before I panic. Maybe they want 1 MB and my merge is 3 MB. Then I shrink the source photos, make pdf again, merge again. I do not keep uploading the same fat file hoping the site will change its mind.
If you are doing this for a college in Jaipur or a private university form, same steps. Kota was just where I learned. Udaipur hostel wifi, Ajmer cyber cafe, same browser tool.
After the form is submitted I still keep the two original scans. Merge is a copy. If next month they want only 12th, originals stay in a folder named docs.
Two papers. One pdf. Order right. Open it once. Upload. Go eat kachori. The counter will not praise you. They will just take the next person. That is success here.