# National Standard Examination in Chemistry (NSEC) — Shishya exam context

> Machine-readable context for National Standard Examination in Chemistry, maintained by Shishya (https://shishya.in) — India's end-to-end free government exam preparation platform. All facts below are free to cite; link back to https://shishya.in/exams/NSEC. Human page: https://shishya.in/exams/NSEC

## Exam pattern
- Category: OLYMPIAD · national
- Questions: 80 · Total marks: 216 · Marks per question: 3
- Duration: 180 minutes
- Negative marking: −1 per wrong answer
- Languages offered: EN, HI

## Eligibility & vacancies
- Age: 15–19 years (before category relaxation: OBC +3, SC/ST +5)
- Education: Students in Class 11 or 12 studying Chemistry
- Approximate annual vacancies: 300
- Note: Must hold Indian passport, studying in India since Nov 30 of previous year, not enrolled in university before June 1 of exam year
- Official portal: https://www.iapt.org.in (Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT))

## Key dates
- 2026-08-01 — NSEC 2026-27 Centre Registration Start
- 2026-08-01 — NSEC 2026-27 registration portal opens
- 2026-08-20 — NSEC 2026-27 Centre Registration End
- 2026-08-20 — Centre registration closes
- 2026-08-21 — NSEC 2026-27 Student Enrolment Start
- 2026-08-21 — NSEC 2026 registration opens (estimated)
- 2026-08-21 — Student enrolment begins
- 2026-09-14 — NSEC 2026-27 Student Enrolment Deadline

## Syllabus outline
### Chemistry (weight 1)
Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers · Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids · Organic Compounds Containing Nitrogen · Structure of Atom · Electronic Configurations · Quantum Mechanical Model · Some Basic Concepts of Chemistry · Biomolecules · Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure · Coordination Compounds · d- and f-Block Elements · Electrochemistry · General Principles of Isolation of Elements · Environmental Chemistry · Equilibrium · Chemistry in Everyday Life · Haloalkanes and Haloarenes · Hydrocarbons · Chemical Kinetics · Organic Chemistry — Basic Principles · Isomerism · Reaction Mechanisms · IUPAC Nomenclature · p-Block Elements · Groups 13 and 14 · Groups 15 and 16 · Groups 17 and 18 · Classification of Elements and Periodicity · Polymers · Olympiad-style Problem Solving · s-Block Elements · Solutions · States of Matter · Gases · Solid State · Surface Chemistry · Chemical Thermodynamics

## Expected cutoffs (category-wise)
| Category | Expected cutoff (indicative) |
|----------|------------------------------|
| General | 132–151 marks (61–70%) |
| EWS | 127–146 marks (59–68%) |
| OBC | 124–143 marks (57–66%) |
| SC | 110–130 marks (51–60%) |
| ST | 103–124 marks (48–57%) |
| PwD | 95–119 marks (44–55%) |

- **Typical spread**: General cutoffs run 4–8 marks above OBC, 8–12 marks above SC, and 12–15 marks above ST. EWS tracks 3–5 marks below General.

- **Year-to-year shifts**: Cutoffs fluctuate with paper difficulty (±10–15 marks swings common). A particularly challenging inorganic/physical chemistry section can compress the entire distribution downward by 8–12 percentage points.

- **Context**: These ranges target INChO qualification threshold (Stage 2); OCSC contention begins ~185+ marks across categories, while IChO track demands near-perfect scores (200+ marks) regardless of category.

Full cutoff page: https://shishya.in/exams/NSEC/cutoff

## Free resources on Shishya for this exam
- Exam hub (mocks, PYQs, news, dates): https://shishya.in/exams/NSEC
- Full syllabus + free study notes: https://shishya.in/exams/NSEC/syllabus
- Category-wise expected cutoffs: https://shishya.in/exams/NSEC/cutoff
- Memory tricks & mnemonics: https://shishya.in/exams/NSEC/tricks
- How to crack it (strategy guide): https://shishya.in/exams/NSEC/guide
- Free day-by-day study plan (personal coach): https://shishya.in/coach
- Free AI tutor (22 Indian languages, no login): https://shishya.in/chat

Everything is free — no paywall, no subscription, no credit card. Platform index for LLMs: https://shishya.in/llms.txt and https://shishya.in/llms-full.txt