This blog post of mine provides you the prep materials for NSTSE (National Science Talent Search Examination) which is also called as Nat...
This blog post of mine provides you the prep materials for NSTSE (National Science Talent Search Examination) which is also called as National Maths and Science Olympiad. It would tell you about the syllabus and pattern of NSTSE as an exam and point you to the sample papers and prep books for NSTSE.
If you do now know what is NSTSE, you may chose to go through my earlier blog article titled: NSTSE: An introduction which tells you what is NSTSE and why you should appear in the same. Another blog post titled: NSTSE 2013 Notification, Form & Eligibility helps you to apply for NSTSE.
Let me begin this with the information that NSTSE is a capability building test – it tests how much concepts of the subjects (maths & science) in your class you have understood. You do not pass or fail in NSTSE – the marks that you score are evaluated to find what are your weak or strong areas in that subject. This helps you to find where you lack, so that you can focus on the same and do better.
NSTSE exam pattern:
What is the pattern of NSTSE – questions from what subjects are asked, how many questions are asked and for what marks? These are the questions which you might having now.
You can find the NSTSE exam pattern corresponding to your class in the table at right. As you can see, the test sections (and hence the number of questions and marks) are gradually increased for higher sections. GK is introduced from Class-IV onwards and science subjects are divided into PCM subjects from Class-VI onwards. In Class-XI & XII, you have to appear either Biology (for PCB) or Maths (PCM). Irrespective of your class, you have 90 minutes (1-n-half hour) to answer the NSTSE paper. Therefore, you have less time to answer per question as you attempt NSTSE for higher classes – 108 seconds for Class-II, 72 seconds for Class-III & only 54 seconds for higher classes as you can see in TPQ (Time per question) in the table.
NSTSE Syllabus:
There is no separate syllabus for NSTSE. As given in NSTSE brochure, 75% of the NSTSE Syllabus is based on CBSE (i.e. NCERT) syllabus. The syllabus has been carefully selected so that students from ICSE/ISC and other State Boards are not put at a disadvantageous position.
NSTSE Sample & Previous years papers:
So how can you find what are the standard of NSTSE questions i.e. NSTSE question types? You can find it easily in the free NSTSE sample question papers for all subjects, all classes in this page of Unified Council website.
In addition, these NSTSE Sample question papers should help.
You can also order last three years NSTSE Exam papers for Rs. 50/= through this online order page.
Prep books for NSTSE:
Unified Council which conducts NSTSE, says in its FAQ for students that there are no specially prescribed book for preparation of NSTSE - NCERT (i.e. CBSE text books) are sufficient for the preparation for NSTSE. However, Unified Council also says that Talent exams/ Olympiad are published by Brain Mapping Academy may be used for reference. In fact. these books may give the extra edge over other students.
What are these NSTSE books and from where can you buy them?
Since not in every book shop you can find these books, I searched on net and found that Flipkart.com is offering these books at a huge discount (upto 10%) apart from free shipping if the order exceeds Rs. 300/=. You can buy these NSTSE prep books directly by clicking the links below. In addition to discount & free shipping, Flipkart also offers Cash-On-Delivery (i.e. pay only when you receive the books) in many towns/cities:
Hope above prep materials for NSTSE helps in your preparation. Best wishes!
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