Unified Council · Science · Class 6
National Level Science Talent Search Examination (NSTSE) Class 6: syllabus, dates and exam pattern (2026–27)
Everything you need in one place — the exact NCERT chapters this paper tests, all 3 exam dates, the registration window, and the full marking scheme. Updated for the 2026–27 session.
Last verified against Unified Council's own site on 12 August 2026.
2026–27 exam dates
Through school — date 1
20 November 2026
Through school — date 2
2 December 2026
NSTSE-online (direct)
24 January 2027
The two November-December dates are the school paper; the school picks one of them for its cohort. The January date is NSTSE-online, a separate sitting for students who register directly rather than through a school. Unified Council does not publish an application cutoff for either route.
Registration: NSTSE is the rare school-conducted olympiad a parent can also enter alone. Unified Council states it accepts direct or individual applications for NSTSE, at ₹350 through its own site — a fee that includes the Student Performance Report, two past or model papers and the Success Series book as downloadable e-books. Through the school the fee is ₹150 and the school sends one consolidated list and demand draft. No cutoff date is published for 2026-27, so ask your coordinator in September or October for the school paper rather than assuming a month is in hand; the direct route stays open into the new year for the January online sitting.
The deadline is set by your school, not by you
Most parents find the exam date and assume they have until then. The registration window closes long before it, and for some papers it has already started closing. Here is how it actually works.
- Your school registers your child and your school picks which of the 2–3 dates the class sits. The family does not choose.
- For SOF papers, registrations must reach SOF exactly 30 days before that chosen date — and once the school has chosen, the date cannot be changed.
- CREST is the exception: it registers students directly, online, with no school involved. It is the one body a parent can act on alone.
Closing next
Indian Talent Olympiad — Set A
Registration closes 31 August 2026 · all five subjects
SOF IEO (English)
If your school picks 30 September 2026, registration closes 31 August 2026 · English
SOF IMO (Maths)
If your school picks 23 October 2026, registration closes 23 September 2026 · Maths
Every deadline in this box was checked against that exam body's own website on 11 August 2026. Bodies do move dates — we re-check every Monday.
Exam pattern
How the NSTSE paper is structured
| Section | Questions | Marks per question | Section total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physics | 15 | 1 | 15 |
| Chemistry | 15 | 1 | 15 |
| Biology | 15 | 1 | 15 |
| Mathematics | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Critical Thinking | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| Total | 60 questions | — | 60 marks · 60 minutes |
Unified Council publishes the section split as marks rather than question counts. The Class 3 to 10 paper is 60 questions for 60 marks with no weighted section anywhere on it, so each mark above is also one question — 60 questions in 60 minutes, a minute each. Every question is objective-type with no negative marking for a wrong answer, in the body's own words.
Syllabus
Science syllabus mapped to NCERT Curiosity (Class 6, 2026-27)
Ch 1. The Wonderful World of Science
Olympiad syllabus label: Physics strand — measurement, scientific method, science in everyday life
Ch 2. Diversity in the Living World
Olympiad syllabus label: Biology strand — living organisms and their surroundings
Ch 3. Mindful Eating: A Path to a Healthy Body
Olympiad syllabus label: Biology strand — food, its components and healthy habits
Ch 4. Exploring Magnets
Olympiad syllabus label: Physics strand — fun with magnets
Ch 5. Measurement of Length and Motion
Olympiad syllabus label: Physics strand — motion and measurement of distances
Ch 6. Materials Around Us
Olympiad syllabus label: Chemistry strand — sorting materials into groups
Ch 7. Temperature and its Measurement
Olympiad syllabus label: Physics strand — heat and thermometers
Ch 8. A Journey through States of Water
Olympiad syllabus label: Chemistry strand — water and states of matter
Ch 9. Methods of Separation in Everyday Life
Olympiad syllabus label: Chemistry strand — separation of substances
Ch 10. Living Creatures: Exploring their Characteristics
Olympiad syllabus label: Biology strand — body movements, characteristics of living things
Ch 11. Nature's Treasures
Olympiad syllabus label: Chemistry / Biology strands — air around us, natural resources
Ch 12. Beyond Earth
Olympiad syllabus label: Physics strand — the solar system and stars
Three honest notes on this list. First, the strand tags above are ours, not Unified Council's: it publishes the 15/15/15/10/5 split but no map from chapters to physics, chemistry and biology — and the Class 6 Curiosity book is one integrated science book with no such divisions in it, so somebody has to draw the line. Ours is drawn against the body's own split so you can see which chapters feed which 15 marks. Second, a quarter of this paper is not science at all: 10 marks are mathematics from the Class 6 Ganita Prakash book, and 5 more are Critical Thinking. A child who revises only the science book has left 15 marks unprepared before the paper starts. Third, four topics that Class 6 olympiad papers still ask about are missing from the 2026-27 Curiosity book: light, shadows and reflections; electricity and simple circuits; fibre to fabric; and reversible versus irreversible changes. The first two are physics — the strand carrying 15 marks here — and both were chapters in the previous Class 6 NCERT. Our Class 6 science practice keeps all four in scope for exactly that reason.
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