PSTET syllabus for Paper 1 and Paper 2

PSTET paper pattern side by side

You sit Paper 1, Paper 2 or both, depending on the classes you want to teach. You get 150 minutes for each one, and a wrong tick costs you nothing beyond the lost mark.

The content is based on what Punjab schools teach in classes 1 to 8, yet the notice cautions that questions may be pitched as high as class 11 and 12.

The pedagogy section both papers share

This 30 mark section is identical in shape for both papers, though Paper 2 frames questions around learners aged 11 to 14.

• Child development: stages of growth, the pull of nature versus nurture, how children are socialised, the theories of Piaget, Kohlberg and Vygotsky, multiple intelligences, gender as a social construct, and assessment for learning.
• Inclusive education: learners from diverse backgrounds, children with special needs, the gifted and the struggling.
• Learning and pedagogy: the way a child builds ideas, reasons behind poor school performance, motivation, the misconceptions pupils bring to class, and conditions in a classroom that speed up or slow down learning.

Punjabi and English sections

Each language section splits into roughly half comprehension and half teaching method.

• Comprehension: a passage you have not seen, in prose, verse or drama form, followed by items testing inference, usage and word sense. Language II normally gives two prose passages.
• Language pedagogy: how a mother tongue and an additional language are picked up, the four skills of a language classroom, the role of grammar, teaching aids, evaluating language ability, and remedial work for a multilingual class.

Punjabi is not optional here. Candidates from outside the state who cannot read Gurmukhi script easily should start this section months ahead.

Content areas: maths, EVS and the Paper 2 streams

Primary maths asks about shapes and space, numbers and the four operations, measuring things around us, money, patterns and simple data. Its teaching half deals with why children make particular errors, how to spot them early and how to help a child who has fallen behind.

Primary EVS is built on everyday themes: the people in a child's life, meals, the places we live, water, journeys and the objects people make. The method questions cover what EVS should achieve, learning through activity, simple experiments and low cost teaching aids.

Paper 2 asks you to choose one stream:

• Mathematics and science: number systems, algebra, geometry, mensuration and data handling; then science topics from the upper primary books on food, materials, living things, motion, electric current, magnets, natural events and resources, plus questions on how to teach each.
• Social studies: history from early societies to the medieval period, geography of the earth and resources, and social and political life, with pedagogy around sources, projects and critical thinking.
• Other options: the notice also lists specialist streams for subjects such as physical education, art, music and some languages. Their topic lists sit in the notice annexure.

Qualifying marks and certificate

Under the latest notice, general category candidates needed 90 of 150 (60 percent), while reserved groups and candidates with disabilities got a lower bar of 55 percent. The certificate is a qualification for recruitment in Punjab. Reports indicate lifetime validity following the NCTE change, though the wording printed on your own certificate is what counts.

Using the PSTET syllabus to plan your study

Pedagogy runs through every section, not only the child development part. Roughly half the questions in maths, EVS and the language sections ask how to teach, not what the answer is.

• Go through the state board books your future pupils would use, since content questions lean on them.
• Keep a notebook of teaching terms: formative assessment, scaffolding, zone of proximal development, constructivism.
• Practise Gurmukhi reading speed with short newspaper passages, then answer five questions on each.
• Each Sunday, attempt a complete practice set against a 150 minute clock and note the section that slowed you most.

Related teacher tests

The PSTET follows the same broad design as the national test, so material for the CTET syllabus overlaps strongly, apart from the Punjabi section and the state textbooks. To see how other states build their tests, read the general TET syllabus guide or the HTET syllabus for neighbouring Haryana, or step back to our teaching exams section for every option.