NTSE 2020 Exam Pattern, Exam Duration and Marking Scheme

The state education boards and NCERT prescribe NTSE 2020 Exam Pattern on their official websites. The exam pattern will help candidates in preparing for the national level exam. The examination is conducted every year at 2 levels: Stage – 1 (State level) and Stage – 2 (National level). Stage 1, exam will be held in November 2020 and stage 2, exam will be conducted on June 2021. For both stages, exam is divided into two parts i.e. Mental Ability Test (MAT), and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).

NTSE is organized in offline or pen paper-based mode. The paper is available in both the Hindi and English medium. Students need to select any one language from both the languages. Every correct answer will fetch 1 mark while there is no negative marking for wrong attempts. The total time to answer the paper is 120 minutes for each part. Only those who clear stage-1 will be shortlisted for stage-2 exam.

NTSE 2020 is a national-level scholarship program for class X students in India. Every year around 10,000,000 students appears in the scholarship test out of which only 1000 get scholarships. Find all important details regarding NTSE 2020 Exam Pattern, syllabus and recommended books.

NTSE 2020 Stage-I Exam Pattern

Stage-I is conducted at State/UT level by the concerned State/UT authorities. Candidates have to select 1 language from English or Hindi to solve the paper. Each correct answer is awarded 1 mark and there is no negative marking at this stage. The paper is divided into two parts:

Part 1 – Mental Ability test (MAT): This part contains logical and analytical reasoning based questions. This section tests the candidate’s reasoning, ability to think, evaluate, ability to discriminate and visualize. A total of 50 questions is to be answered under this section.

Part 2 – Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT): This part consists of 150 questions from Science, Mathematics, Social Science and English Language. This section judges the student’s reading abilities, interpretation, evaluation and general awareness of the subjects.

NTSE 2020 Stage-II Exam Pattern

Stage-II is conducted at National Level, where shortlisted students from Stage-I (State-level) exam appear to compete for the scholarship. The paper is divided into two parts – MAT and SAT, like that in Stage-I. There will be 100 questions in both MAT and SAT (Science-40, Maths-20, Social science-40).

The duration of both the exams is 2 hours or 120 minutes. In NTSE Stage 2 exam, there is no negative marking. Only candidates qualifying in both the papers separately will be considered for merit. Selection of the awardee will be made on the basis of total marks scored in MAT and SAT based on merit.

NTSE 2020 Exam Pattern of Stage I and Stage II is given below:

TEST	No. Of Questions	Maximum Marks	Time Allotted
MAT	100	200	120 Minutes
SAT - Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences	100

Indian Students Studying Abroad in class X can directly appear for Stage - II of NTSE 2020 if they qualify for the condition mentioned in the NTSE brochure available at NTSE Official Website.

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NTSE 2020 Syllabus

NTSE Syllabus enables candidates to carefully plan and prepare for the exam. NTSE syllabus 2020 would be based on the syllabus of class X prescribed by NCERT. Candidates should focus on all the units while preparing for NTS Examination.

The subject-wise syllabus as prescribed by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is given below.

Mathematics - There are 22 chapters to be covered in the NTSE 2020 Mathematics Syllabus

Algebraic Expressions	Arithmetic	Arithmetic Progressions
Basic Geometry	Circles	Coordinate Geometry
Direct& Inverse Variations	Exponent	Linear Equation
Mensuration	Number System	Percentage& Its Application
Playing with Number	Probability	Quadratic Equations
Rational Numbers	Simple & Compound Interest	Square & Cube Roots
Statistics	Surface Areas and Volume	Triangles
Trigonometry	--	--

Science - There are 29 chapters to be covered.

Acid Bases and Salts	Air	Carbon and its Compound
Cellular Level of Organization	Diversity in Living organisms	Fibers and Plastics
Food Production &Management	Heredity and Evolution	Human Body
Life Processes	Light	Magnetic & Electricity at Work
Measurement	Metals & Non-Metals	Micro-Organisms
Motion and Force	Our Environment	Periodic Classification of Elements
Reproduction	Soil	Some Common Diseases
Sound	Sound of Energy	Structure of Atom
The Universe	Water	Work and Energy

Social Science - There are 43 chapters to be covered in the NTSE 2020 Social Science Syllabus:

Agriculture	Atmosphere	Biosphere
British raj	Culture, Science and Literature	Democracy and Elections
Diversity and Livelihood	Early Medieval Period	Early States
Eighteen Century Political Formation	French Revolution	India and its Neighbours
Indian Constitution	Indian Economics	Indian Freedom Struggle
Indus Valley Civilization	Industrial Revolution	Industries
Internal Structure of the Earth and Rocks	Introduction and Sources of Ancient Indian History	Jainism, Buddhism and Conquerors from Distant Lands
Local and State Government	Medieval Architecture and Culture	Motion of the Earth
Nationalism in Various Countries	Natural Vegetation	New Empires and Kingdoms
Our Country- India	Popular Movements and Social Reforms	Population
Resources and Development	Solar System	The Delhi Sultanate
The Judiciary	The Maurayas	The Mughal Empire
UN and International Agencies	Union Government	Vedic Period
Water Resources	World History	--

English Language - There are 8 chapters to be covered in the NTSE 2020 English Language Syllabus:

Antonyms	English Grammar
One Word Substitution	Paragraph Completion
Reading Comprehension	Rearrangement of Jumbled Words
Sentence Completion	Synonyms

General Knowledge - There are 6 chapters to be covered in the NTSE 2020 General Knowledge Syllabus:

Abbreviations	Awards and Recognitions
Books and Authors	India
Sports	World

Mental Ability - There are 20 chapters to be covered in the NTSE 2020 Mental Ability Syllabus:

Alphabets and Number test	Analogy (Non-Verbal)
Analogy(Verbal)	Blood relations
Calendar, Time and Clock	Classification
Coding-Decoding	Cube and Dice
Direction Sense	Embedded Figure
Figure Partition and Dot Situation	Mathematical Operations
Missing Character	Paper Folding and Cutting
Ranking and Arrangements	Series (Verbal)
Series(Non Verbal)	Venn Diagrams
Water and Mirror Images	Word Problems