NTSE Syllabus 2022

The NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) does not prescribe a syllabus for the NTS (National Talent Search) Exam or NTSE. Generally speaking, students are tested on the topics covered in Class IX and Class X. NTSE Stage 1 exam syllabus and NTSE Stage 2 exam syllabus are the same.

NTSE Exam Format

NTSE is a two-stage examination. The first stage is conducted at the state level while the second stage is conducted at the national level. Students who clear the first stage are eligible to appear for the second stage of the exam.

Both NTSE Stage 1 and Stage Exams have two papers - MAT and SAT - which contain multiple-choice questions. Each question has four alternatives. The students have to choose the correct alternative and mark it on the given OMR sheet.

Each question is of one mark. There is no negative marking on the test. The merit list is drawn based on the total score of candidates in both the papers taken together.

But there's one catch. Students have to pass both tests to be considered for the merit list.

At both levels, the NTSE exam pattern is the same.

1. Mental Ability Test (MAT) has 50 questions, carries a maximum of 50 marks, and you get 45 minutes to complete it.

2. Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) has two sections:

   1. Language Test has 50 questions, carries a maximum of 50 marks, and you get 45 minutes to complete it.

   2. Science, Mathematics & Social Sciences section has 100 questions, carries a maximum of 100 marks, and you get 90 minutes to complete it.

In total, SAT has 150 questions, carries a maximum of 150 marks, and you get a total of 2 hours 15 minutes.

Mental Ability Test (MAT) Syllabus

This test assesses students on their:

1. power of reasoning,
2. thinking ability,
3. ability to judge, evaluate and discriminate,
4. spatial orientation, and 
5. visualization ability.

The questions included in this test include:

• analogies,
• assembling blocks,
• classification,
• coding-decoding,
• hidden figures,
• problem-solving,
• pattern perception,
• series, etc.

Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Syllabus

The Language Test assesses students’ language skills, such as their power of reading, comprehension, logical sequencing, and creative, evaluative, interpretative and predictive language components.

At the national-level or Stage 2 NTSE exam, students can only choose English or Hindi for the language test.

The Social Science questions are from the NCERT syllabus for Classes IX and X that is designed to help students understand their environment holistically and develop a broader, humane, empirical and reasonable outlook of the society that can empower them to the development of the country and world in general. The topics are drawn from History, Geography, Political Science, Economics and even Sociology and Commerce.

The Science syllabus covers seven broad themes:

1. Food
2. Materials
3. The World of the Living
4. How Things Work
5. Moving Things, People and Ideas
6. Natural Phenomenon
7. Natural Resources

The Science concepts for Class IX and X are drawn from the disciplines of Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

The Mathematics syllabus includes topics like:

• Number System
• Algebra
• Geometry
• Coordinate Geometry
• Graphs
• Mensuration
• Statistics,
• Trigonometry, etc.

All questions asked in the NTSE are of Class IX and Class X levels. You can check the sample questions here.

How to prepare for NTSE Mental Ability Test?

AskIITians experts suggest that to prepare for the NTSE MAT paper, students should:

1. Start with closely understanding the NTSE exam pattern and syllabus.
2. Focus on understanding the concepts and solving questions from various topics in the syllabus.
3. Practice as many sample papers and previous year question papers as possible to get an idea of the type of questions asked in the exam.
4. Take mock tests to improve your time management and precision skills.
5. To solve questions on analogies, students should have a clear understanding of the various types of relationships, such as synonyms, antonyms, cause and effect, etc.
6. Similarly, for solving questions on series and pattern perception, students need to understand the concepts of the odd one out and figure matrix well.
7. For solving coding-decoding questions, students need to be familiar with the various coding techniques, such as letter-number, direction, etc.

We offer the best study material and mock tests for the NTSE exam. You can also avail of our personalized mentorship program to score high in your upcoming exams.

How to prepare for NTSE Scholastic Aptitude Test?

To prepare for NTSE SAT Language Test section, students should:

1. Be well-versed with the grammar of the chosen language, i.e., English or Hindi.
2. Focus on improving their reading comprehension skills by reading as much as possible from various genres. Objective-type questions in the Language Test will assess students’ understanding of the passages given.
3. Students will need to learn and practice parts of speech, tenses, active and passive voice, direct and indirect speech, etc.
4. Solve questions from the previous year’s question papers and sample papers to understand the types of questions asked in the exam.

To prepare for NTSE SAT Social Sciences, Sciences and Mathematics section, students should:

1. Prepare notes while studying the NCERT Class IX and X textbooks so that they can revise the topics quickly before the exam.
2. Make sure to solve all the exercise questions given at the end of each chapter in the textbook.
3. Practice solving as many sample papers and previous year's question papers as possible.
4. Focus on understanding the concepts rather than mugging up the theory.
5. Understand the application of concepts by solving various types of questions.

Our NTSE instructors help students score high marks on the exam and get the scholarship by providing them with the best study material, mock tests, and personalized mentorship.