The syllabus, head by head

Special Advertisement No. 51/2026 notifies eight heads and no weighting between them. The two question papers this recruitment has actually produced do carry a weighting, and it is not the same in both. Counted item by item below, alongside the 5,847 questions in this library that cover each head.

Head	Notified as	2022 VP	2022 Principal	Chapters here	Questions
(i)	General Knowledge, incl. contemporary social, economic and cultural issues	10	12	GK & Education Current Affairs	55
(ii)	Hindi and English language skills	20	16	English Language Skills · सामान्य हिंदी	120
(iii)	Reasoning ability and Quantitative Aptitude	23	10	Reasoning & Quantitative Aptitude	50
(iv)	Educational policies & Educational measurement and evaluation	62	58	Measurement & Evaluation: Foundations · Item Analysis & Test Construction · Educational Statistics · Educational Policies I (1813–1978) · Educational Policies II (1986–2020) · Education & Child-Rights Law · National Education Policy 2020 · The Right to Information Act, 2005	484
(v)	Management and Financial administration	3	12	Educational Management & Administration · Financial Administration	112
(vi)	Office Procedure	0	11	Office Procedure & School Records	50
(vii)	Pedagogy in Education	0	0	Pedagogy I: Thinkers & Learning · Pedagogy II: Development & Methods	125
(viii)	Digital Literacy	2	1	Digital Literacy & IT Law	50

"2022 VP" and "2022 Principal" are counts from the two real papers, measured by us. UPSC publishes no head-wise weighting; treat these as evidence of emphasis, not as guidance.

What the two papers disagree about

Head (iv) — policy together with measurement and evaluation — is the largest block on both papers and roughly half of each. After that they part company. The Principal paper put 23 questions on management, finance and office procedure where the Vice Principal paper put 3, and asked 10 reasoning items to the Vice Principal paper's 23. If you are sitting for Principal, the administrative rules are not a footnote.

Neither paper drew a clearly identifiable item from head (vii), Pedagogy in Education. Pedagogy was examined through assessment questions instead, which is why the measurement chapters carry it here.

How it is examined

One paper, 120 questions, 300 marks, two hours, every question printed in English and Hindi. Negative marking is −1/3 of the question's marks. The full pattern, the marking arithmetic and the attempt rule are on the exam guide; the two solved papers are on papers.

Start your VP & Principal 2026 preparation → All 18 chapters