What is in each paper — USS revision

What this page is for

Revising everything equally is the commonest way to waste the last month. This page shows where the marks actually are, so you can spend your time in proportion. The numbers are the same ones the mock papers on this site are drawn to.

Paper I — Language & Social Science, 50 marks, 90 minutes

Topic	Marks	Revise
History	9	Open
Geography	8	Open
Civics & economics	8	Open
മലയാളം — വ്യാകരണം	7	Open
മലയാളം — സാഹിത്യം	6	Open
English — grammar	6	Open
English — comprehension	6	Open

Paper II — Mathematics & Basic Science, 50 marks, 90 minutes

Topic	Marks	Revise
Arithmetic	8	Open
Physics	8	Open
Chemistry	7	Open
Biology	7	Open
Algebra	6	Open
Geometry & mensuration	6	Open
Data & reasoning	5	Open
GK & current affairs	3	Open

Reading the weights

Social science is 25 of Paper I's 50. History, geography and civics together outweigh both languages. A student who is strong in Malayalam and weak in history is losing more than they think.
Maths is 25 of Paper II's 50, and science is 22. Arithmetic alone is 8 — the single heaviest topic in either paper.
GK is only 3 marks. It feels endless and it is worth less than geometry. Do not spend a week on it.
Twenty minutes on Arithmetic is worth more than twenty minutes on GK by a factor of nearly three. Spend accordingly.

Both papers at a glance

	Paper I	Paper II
Marks	50	50
Time	90 minutes	90 minutes
Per question	1 min 48 s	1 min 48 s
Negative marking	None	None
Heaviest topic	History, 9	Arithmetic and Physics, 8 each
Lightest topic	English, 6 each	GK, 3

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