Alerts and Updates for UP PGT History

The UP PGT History paper at a glance

The general studies block itself contains Indian history and culture, so a History candidate effectively meets the subject twice — but at two different levels, postgraduate in the 90-question section and general-awareness in the 30. Note that both the History paper and the general block draw on Indian history, which makes overlap a real scoring advantage here that Mathematics or Home Science candidates do not enjoy.

Dates and windows

The schedule is common to the whole recruitment: History has no separate application or examination date, and every subject in Advertisement 06/2026 sits within the same 15 to 16 December window. The minimum age is 21 years as on 1 July 2026 and the reported maximum is 62 years.

What this means for your preparation

History candidates most often prepare the period they took at postgraduate level and assume the paper will follow suit. It does not. Eligibility accepts a postgraduate degree in Ancient, Medieval or Modern History interchangeably, but the syllabus runs across all three, and published breakdowns describe the paper as weighted towards Ancient Indian History in particular. A Modern History postgraduate who has not revisited prehistory, the Indus-Saraswati cities, the Mahajanapadas and the Gupta period is preparing for a paper that does not exist.

Ancient India carries the heaviest load

Published syllabus breakdowns list Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures, the Indus-Saraswati civilisation with its town planning, society, economy, art and religion, Vedic literature and social organisation, the sixteen Mahajanapadas and the republican states, the religious movements of the sixth century BCE including Jainism, Buddhism, Vaishnavism and Shaivism, the Mauryas with Kautilya's Arthashastra, the post-Mauryan Shunga, Shaka, Satavahana and Kushana dynasties, and the Guptas with temple architecture and the Ajanta and Ellora caves. That is a long list for one part of a 90-question paper and the descriptions single it out as the primary focus, so it deserves the first and the longest pass in a revision cycle rather than a refresher at the end.

Early medieval and regional dynasties are the neglected middle

The syllabus continues through the Gurjara-Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas, the Arab and Turkish invasions, and the southern and western regional kingdoms — Chalukya, Pallava and Chola. This band between the Guptas and the Delhi Sultanate is where most candidates are weakest, because general-studies preparation skips it and postgraduate courses often treat it as a specialism. It is also where factual questions are easiest to set: dynastic sequences, capitals, temple styles, administrative terms and the naval and trading reach of the Cholas. Securing this section is a cheap way to separate from a field whose knowledge is bunched around the Mughals and the freedom movement. Fix the dynastic sequence north and south in parallel, because questions often pair a northern and a southern contemporary, and keep the temple-style vocabulary — Nagara, Dravida, Vesara — attached to the dynasties that built in each.

Do not let the general block duplicate your effort

The 30-question general studies section covers Indian history and culture, geography, polity, economy, science and technology, Uttar Pradesh-specific material and current affairs. For a History candidate the history part of that block is already covered, which frees revision time — but the trap is spending it on more history instead of on the parts that are genuinely new, notably Uttar Pradesh awareness, polity and current affairs. Those 30 questions are worth 90 marks, a quarter of the written paper, and they are the only place where a History specialist can lose ground to a Mathematics or Home Science candidate who took the general block seriously. Treat the general block as a fixed 90-mark target and test it separately in mock papers, so its score is visible rather than buried in the total.

The reported History cut-off is the highest of this group

A cut-off compilation published by Adda247 for an earlier PGT cycle gives History 459.53 for unreserved, 455.73 for OBC and 453.13 for EWS. Those numbers exceed the 400-mark total used in Advertisement 06/2026, so they come from a cycle with a different marks base and are not a score to aim at. Their value is comparative: on the same base the compilation puts Mathematics above 417 and Hindi above 404, which places History at the top of the four subjects considered here. A History candidate should therefore plan for a field that answers accurately, and should treat unnecessary negative marking as more costly than in a low-cut-off subject.

112 posts, and only 18 of them in girls' institutions

History's 112 vacancies split 94 to boys' institutions and 18 to girls' institutions. The girls' roster is small enough that a few category reservations determine most of its outcomes, so women candidates should check which roster their application is counted against and how many posts in their category actually exist before the correction window closes on 21 October 2026. Across the advertisement as a whole only 278 of 2,607 posts are in girls' institutions. The same arithmetic applies to district or institution preferences: with a roster this size, a preference entered casually is not easily undone after 21 October. Where the advertisement's reservation table shows no post in a candidate's category for the girls' roster, the sensible reading is that the application is effectively against the boys' roster of 94, and expectations should be set accordingly.

Common questions

How many UP PGT History posts are there in Advertisement 06/2026?

There are 112 History posts, made up of 94 in boys' institutions and 18 in girls' institutions, within a total of 2,607 Post Graduate Teacher vacancies. That places History level with Mathematics and well behind Hindi, which carries 374. The count comes from the subject-wise table circulated with the advertisement rather than read here from the commission's own PDF, so candidates should confirm it against the official table on upessc.up.gov.in before applying.

Does UP PGT History cover ancient, medieval and modern history?

Yes, and the published breakdown describes the paper as focusing principally on Ancient Indian History. Listed topics run from the Palaeolithic through the Indus-Saraswati civilisation, Vedic culture, the Mahajanapadas, the Mauryas, the post-Mauryan dynasties and the Guptas, then into the early medieval Gurjara-Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas, the Arab and Turkish invasions and the Chalukya, Pallava and Chola kingdoms. Candidates whose postgraduate specialism was Modern History should not assume their period dominates the paper.

What postgraduate degree is accepted for UP PGT History?

A postgraduate degree in Ancient History, Medieval History or Modern History is reported as acceptable, together with a B.Ed recognised by the NCTE. All three routes qualify for the same post and sit the same paper. The minimum age is 21 years as on 1 July 2026 and the reported upper limit is 62 years. Application fees are 1,500 rupees for general, OBC and EWS candidates, 750 for SC and ST and 500 for persons with disabilities. Verify the exact wording in the official advertisement.

How many History questions are in the UP PGT written paper?

Ninety of the 120 objective questions come from History and 30 from general studies. At three marks per question that is 270 History marks out of a 360-mark written paper, with one mark deducted for each wrong or multiply-marked answer. The paper is offline OMR and runs two hours. A 40-mark interview follows the written stage, so final selection is out of 400 marks in total.

What was the previous UP PGT History cut-off?

A compilation published by Adda247 reports History cut-offs of 459.53 for unreserved, 455.73 for OBC and 453.13 for EWS in an earlier cycle. Those figures are above the 400-mark maximum of the current advertisement, so they belong to a cycle scored on a different base and cannot be used as a target. Read as relative positions they show History cutting higher than Mathematics or Hindi. The commission has not published a cut-off for the December 2026 examination.

Is UP PGT History conducted by UPSESSB or UPESSC?

By the Uttar Pradesh Education Services Selection Commission. The UP Education Service Selection Commission Act, 2023 received assent on 17 August 2023 and repealed the UP Secondary Education Service Selection Board Act, 1982, bringing secondary-school teacher recruitment into the unified commission along with higher education, basic education board schools and Government ITI instructors. Reports on the 2025 PGT cycle still used the UPSESSB name while pointing to upessc.up.gov.in, so material under either name may be relevant.