NIOS Syllabus Class 12: Subjects, Rules and Lesson Lists

How the NIOS syllabus class 12 is assessed

NIOS works differently from a regular school board. You study mostly on your own from printed or online self learning material, attend personal contact sessions at your study centre if you can, and then face three kinds of assessment.

• Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA): one handwritten assignment per subject, worth 20 marks, which carries 20% weightage of the theory part. It is compulsory for Stream 1 learners and must be submitted within the stated window.
• Practical exam: held only in subjects that have a practical component, such as physics, chemistry, biology, geography, home science and computer science.
• Public examination: the written theory paper, held twice a year in April to May and October to November. An on demand exam is also open for the subjects you are admitted in.

NIOS splits most subjects so that some lessons are tested only through the TMA and the rest through the public exam. Knowing that split saves you weeks of reading lessons that will never appear in the theory paper.

Choosing subjects: the five subject rule

To get the Senior Secondary pass certificate you must clear at least five subjects. One or at most two of them must be languages from Group A, and the remaining three or four come from the other subject groups. You may add up to two extra subjects, so the maximum is seven.

The grouping of subjects decides which combinations are allowed, and it is revised from time to time. NIOS regional centre pages and the national site do not always show the same list, so treat the current prospectus as the final word.

Pass marks, credits and the two year gap

Every subject is marked out of 100. At Senior Secondary level you need 33% separately in theory and in practical (where a practical exists), and 33% in the aggregate of that subject. The split between theory and practical marks differs from subject to subject.

• Credit accumulation: subjects you pass are banked, so you can clear the rest in later sittings.
• Chances: admission gives you nine chances to appear in public exams over five years.
• Theory and practical kept separately: if you pass the practical but fail theory, the practical result stays, and the reverse is also true.
• Two year gap: the class 12 certificate needs a two year gap after passing class 10. Without it you can take at most four subjects in the early sittings and the rest only after the gap is complete.

NIOS English syllabus class 12 (code 302)

English 302 has 27 lessons spread over two books: stories, poems, essays, reading with understanding passages and practical writing. NIOS has published a split of roughly 40% of the syllabus for the TMA and 60% for the public exam.

Lessons tested in the public exam

• Prose and fiction: An Astrologer's Day, Bholi, After Twenty Years, The Necklace, Three Questions, Of Studies
• Poetry: Where the Mind is Without Fear, If, Kabir and Thiruvalluvar
• Reading with understanding: Stress before Examination, Nation Builders of India, International Fight Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
• Writing skills: Writing Letters, Writing Emails, Writing Reports, Writing Job Applications

Lessons covered through the TMA

The Crow and the Deer, Mary Kom's Interview, Ecology and Environment, Andha Yug, Night of the Scorpion, The Bazaars of Hyderabad, Kalidas, the Thimmakka and biomedical waste reading, the Losar and Bihu reading, Face to Face Communication and Appearing for an Interview.

Four writing lessons carry steady marks in the theory paper because the formats repeat. Practise one letter, one email, one report and one job application every week rather than rereading the stories.

NIOS Hindi syllabus class 12 (code 301)

Hindi 301 is a literature heavy course with 25 lessons in two books. Book 1 runs through the history of Hindi poetry and modern prose; Book 2 adds a play, travel writing and functional Hindi.

• Poetry by movement: Nirgun and Sagun Bhakti (Kabir, Jayasi, Tulsidas, Surdas, Meerabai), Ritikal (Bihari, Padmakar), Chhayavad (Nirala, Prasad), post Chhayavad (Dinkar, Bachchan), Nayi Kavita and later poetry up to contemporary poets.
• Prose: stories, satire, a memoir and essays, including Chief ki Dawat, Do Kalakar, Kutaj and Thes.
• Book 2: the one act play Reedh ki Haddi, Andaman Diary, Yaksh Prashn, and skill lessons on paragraph and feature writing, office letters, noting and drafting, anchoring and announcements, Hindi in mass media and Hindi with technology.

The TMA and public exam split for Hindi is published in the NIOS course bifurcation for that subject, so download it along with the books.

NIOS ka syllabus class 12 in Hindi

एनआईओएस कक्षा 12 में पास होने के लिए कम से कम पाँच विषय पास करने होते हैं, जिनमें एक या दो भाषाएँ होनी चाहिए। आप अधिकतम सात विषय ले सकते हैं। हर विषय में एक ट्यूटर अंकित असाइनमेंट (टीएमए) होता है, जिसका सैद्धांतिक अंकों में 20 प्रतिशत भार है। लिखित परीक्षा साल में दो बार, अप्रैल मई और अक्टूबर नवंबर में होती है। पास होने के लिए थ्योरी और प्रैक्टिकल दोनों में अलग अलग 33 प्रतिशत अंक चाहिए। प्रवेश पाँच साल तक मान्य रहता है और इसमें नौ अवसर मिलते हैं।

A study plan for one NIOS sitting

Because you sit public exams on a fixed cycle, plan backwards from your exam month and keep the TMA deadline as your first milestone.

1. First month: download the course bifurcation for each subject, mark the public exam lessons in your books and finish all TMAs in your own handwriting.
2. Next two months: study only the public exam lessons, one subject per day in rotation, making short notes of definitions, formats and diagrams.
3. Practical subjects: keep your practical notebook updated and attend the practical sessions at your study centre, since you must pass practical separately.
4. Last month: solve past question papers and sample papers from the NIOS site against the clock.

Where your NIOS study material comes from

For the syllabus of NIOS class 12, the self learning material written by NIOS is the syllabus itself, and questions are framed from it. You get printed books at admission, and every subject's lessons are also available free on the NIOS online course material pages. For science and maths, NCERT class 11 and 12 textbooks are useful for extra practice, but do not replace the NIOS lessons, because the theory paper follows the NIOS book's scope.

If you are comparing boards, see the CBSE class 12 syllabus; for the stage before this one, read the NIOS class 10 syllabus. Learners heading to central universities after NIOS should also look at the CUET syllabus. Other boards sit together on our school boards page.