CUET UG syllabus and exam pattern (Section I, II and III)

CUET UG is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission to undergraduate programmes in central universities such as Delhi University, BHU, JNU, Jamia, Allahabad University and many state, deemed and private universities.

Every university and course sets its own subject requirements. Before registering, open the admission bulletin of each university you want and list the exact language, domain subjects and whether the General Test is mandatory. For example, many DU B.Com (Hons) seats need Mathematics/Applied Maths plus Accountancy or Business Studies.

A candidate can take a limited number of subjects in total across sections. Pick subjects you studied in Class 12 — your board preparation then doubles as CUET preparation. Unanswered questions carry no penalty, so accuracy matters more than attempting everything.

Reading comprehension forms the largest share: factual passages (reports, articles), literary passages (prose, poetry extracts) and narrative passages. Practise reading one editorial daily and summarising it in two lines.

Verbal ability: sentence rearrangement, error identification, fill in the blanks, cloze passage, active-passive voice and direct-indirect speech.

Vocabulary: synonyms, antonyms, one-word substitution, idioms and phrases, homonyms and commonly confused words. Keep a personal word list and revise it every week.

English and Hindi are the most chosen languages; regional languages follow the same structure.

Physics: electrostatics, current electricity, magnetism, EMI and AC, optics, dual nature, atoms and nuclei, semiconductors. Chemistry: solutions, electrochemistry, kinetics, d- and f-block, coordination compounds, haloalkanes to amines, biomolecules.

Mathematics: relations and functions, inverse trigonometry, matrices and determinants, continuity and differentiability, applications of derivatives, integrals, differential equations, vectors, 3D geometry, linear programming and probability. Applied Mathematics adds numbers, quantification, financial maths and statistics.

Biology: reproduction, genetics and evolution, biology and human welfare, biotechnology, ecology. Accountancy: partnership accounts, company accounts, analysis of financial statements, cash flow. Business Studies: principles of management, marketing, financial management. Economics: macroeconomics and Indian economic development.

Humanities: History (themes in Indian history parts I–III), Political Science (contemporary world politics and politics in India since independence), Geography (human geography and India: people and economy). Questions are directly NCERT-based — read the textbook line by line before any reference book.

General knowledge and current affairs: national and international events of the last 12 months, awards, sports, books and authors, important days, government schemes, basic polity, history and geography.

Numerical ability and quantitative reasoning: percentage, ratio, profit and loss, simple and compound interest, averages, time and work, speed and distance, mensuration and basic algebra — at roughly Class 8 level.

Logical and analytical reasoning: series, analogy, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, seating arrangement, syllogisms, statements and conclusions, and non-verbal figure questions.

The General Test is needed mainly for some integrated and vocational programmes — check whether your target course requires it before investing heavy time.

Weeks 1–6: finish NCERT chapters for every domain subject alongside board revision, and spend 30 minutes a day on language reading comprehension.

Weeks 7–9: solve chapter-wise MCQs and NTA previous year papers; start General Test reasoning and current affairs if required.

Weeks 10–12: full-length timed mocks every two days. After each mock, note topic-wise accuracy and the questions you guessed — with −1 negative marking, cutting wrong guesses is the fastest way to raise your normalised score.