DSSSB TGT Exam Pattern: 200 Questions, Marking, Qualifying Marks, Syllabus

DSSSB TGT is one online paper: 200 multiple-choice questions, 200 marks, 2 hours, with a deduction of 0.25 for every wrong answer. That is the "One Tier (Technical / Teaching)" scheme, exam code I-T-T, printed in Advertisement No. 02/2024 for post codes 803/24 to 811/24. It has two sections of 100 marks each. Section A is the same general paper every DSSSB combined exam uses: five areas of 20 marks each. Section B is the subject paper, with questions on the subject concerned and on teaching methodology. The part that surprises most candidates is the qualifying rule: the minimum qualifying marks apply only to Section B, while the merit list is made on the combined 200.

All four are printed in the advertisement (paras 4 and 6); only the 36 seconds is our arithmetic.

Two details connect to results you can check. The post preference paragraph says candidates choose departments only at the e-dossier stage, which is why the exam itself carries no department choice. And "Skill Test / Endurance Test will be taken as per requirement of job" is listed in the scheme but, for the TGT posts, no result notice we read calls a skill or physical test; the notices go straight from the Tier-I marks to the e-dossier and preference form, covered in the result guide.

Section A is the same across DSSSB's one-tier teaching and technical papers, so previous Section A papers of DSSSB's one-tier teaching and technical posts are legitimate practice for it (other DSSSB schemes, such as the general one-tier paper, are laid out differently). It is also where a subject specialist loses marks he or she should not: 100 marks of reasoning, arithmetic, awareness and two languages for a candidate who has spent three years on a degree subject. The marks are not qualifying (see below), but they count in the total of 200, and the cut-off tables in the result guide show that the last selected general-category candidate in the Directorate of Education scored between 80.47 and 158.82 of 200, depending on the post code.

The subject is the graduation subject. The eligibility column of each post says what the subject is: Mathematics, English, Social Science (history, political science, economics, business studies, sociology, geography or psychology as the main subject), Natural Science (physics, chemistry, biology, botany or zoology), or a language (Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Punjabi). DSSSB's syllabus page ties the section to the graduation qualification, which is a degree-level anchor even though the posts teach school classes. Teaching methodology and B.Ed. is named in the scheme, so some of the 100 marks are on pedagogy; how many is not stated. The language papers are in their own language. The scheme says the questions are bilingual "except for the Language papers which will be in the language concerned only", which governs Section B for Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu and Punjabi.

Negative marking is 0.25. A wrong answer costs a quarter of what a right one earns, so a blind guess among four options has an expected value of +0.0625 mark (our arithmetic: 0.25 x 1 minus 0.75 x 0.25). That is positive but tiny; the real gain comes only when you can rule out one or two options. Normalisation. The advertisement says computer-based scores "will be normalized (if required)" by the formula in DSSSB's notice of 11 July 2018 (its Annexure-III, which is image-only in the PDF), and normalised scores determine merit. The Mathematics and Drawing Teacher notices use the word "normalized" in their cut-offs; the Urdu notices say "prorated". Objections. Draft answer keys are displayed after the exam and online objections are accepted within a time limit; the Board's decision is final and there is no re-evaluation. Invalid questions are not evaluated and marks are prorated. Tie-breaks. Equal marks in the same category are broken by the higher Section B marks, then by seniority in age, then alphabetically by first name.

If you are weighing which subject to take given what the combined examination scheme allows (one subject per application, as the eligibility rules in the eligibility guide show), compare the competition ratios in the vacancy guide with your degree. And if you are working out how many marks a seat took, the cut-offs are in the result guide.