REET Exam: Levels, Pattern, Validity & Eligibility

This is the point that decides how you should plan your year, so it is worth setting out plainly.

Three consequences follow.

First, a bare pass in REET is enough for the certificate, but your REET score may carry weight in the recruitment stage depending on the rules in force for that cycle. That has been treated differently across cycles, so read the recruitment notification rather than assuming.

Second, the recruitment examination has its own syllabus, with a heavier Rajasthan-specific component and subject content at greater depth than REET. Candidates who stop studying after clearing REET are unprepared for the paper that actually selects.

Third, the two examinations are not always held close together. A candidate may clear REET in one year and face recruitment in another, which is precisely why the lifetime validity of the certificate matters so much.

The comparison worth keeping in mind is with CTET, the national teacher eligibility test. Both are eligibility tests rather than recruitments, both split into a primary and an upper-primary level, and both now carry lifetime validity. The difference is jurisdiction: REET applies to teaching posts in Rajasthan, and it carries a substantial Rajasthan-specific layer that CTET does not.

The two levels are separate papers with separate qualifications, and a candidate meeting both sets of requirements may appear for both.

The professional qualification is what separates the two levels, and it is not interchangeable. A B.Ed does not qualify you for Level 1 under the usual conditions, and a D.El.Ed does not qualify you for Level 2. The position of B.Ed holders at the primary level has been litigated and revised over the years, so read the qualification clause of the current notification rather than relying on an older account.

Candidates in the final year of a D.El.Ed or B.Ed are permitted to appear in some cycles and not in others, so that too is a clause to check rather than assume.

The qualifying mark has generally been 60 per cent, with lower thresholds for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, persons with disabilities, widows, divorced women and certain other categories under state rules. The exact relaxations are set out in each notification.

Since both levels carry the same fee structure in most cycles and the syllabuses overlap in child development and language, a candidate eligible for both usually gains by appearing for both.

Each level is a single objective paper of 150 questions for 150 marks, generally over two and a half hours.

Level 1 — classes I to V

Level 2 — classes VI to VIII

Three things about this table decide preparation.

The subject block in Level 2 is 60 questions — more than a third of the paper — and you choose between the mathematics-science combination and social studies at the application stage. Choose on what you actually studied, since it cannot be changed later.

Two language papers appear at both levels, chosen from a prescribed list that includes Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi and Gujarati. Language I and Language II must be different, and both test the language itself along with its pedagogy rather than only grammar.

Child Development and Pedagogy is 30 questions at both levels, and it is the section candidates from a non-teaching background consistently underestimate. It is also the section that transfers directly to CTET and to the recruitment examination, so the effort returns three times.

Negative marking has been introduced in recent cycles after earlier cycles were conducted without it — a change that catches candidates practising on old papers. Confirm the marking scheme, the number of options and the duration from the current notification.

The REET certificate is now valid for lifetime. Under the earlier rule it lapsed after a fixed period, which meant candidates re-appeared simply to keep their eligibility alive. That is no longer necessary, and it changes the calculation: one qualifying attempt covers every future recruitment cycle you are otherwise eligible for.

Candidates who hold an older certificate issued under the earlier rule should check how the change applies to them, since transitional provisions have been stated in the notifications rather than assumed.

The Rajasthan layer runs through the paper and grows heavier at the recruitment stage. What recurs includes state history and the princely states, the freedom movement in Rajasthan, geography, districts, rivers and desert ecology, folk culture, fairs, festivals, dances and folk deities, and the state's education schemes and administration. No national study material covers it, and since child development and language cluster candidates together, this is where the spread appears.

A plan that fits the two-step structure:

• Build Child Development and Pedagogy properly, not as revision. Thirty marks here, thirty in CTET, and more in the recruitment paper — the same material three times over.
• Choose your Level 2 subject block early and your two languages carefully, since neither can be changed after the application.
• Start the Rajasthan layer from the first month as its own subject with its own notes.
• Prepare for the recruitment examination while preparing for REET, not after. The syllabuses overlap, the recruitment paper is deeper, and the gap between the two is often short.
• Practise with the current negative marking applied, since papers from cycles without it built an attempt habit that now costs marks.

Candidates preparing for teaching posts should also see CTET, the national eligibility test, along with DSSSB PRT and DSSSB TGT, which show how eligibility feeds into recruitment elsewhere. Those writing other Rajasthan examinations can see Rajasthan Patwari. For General Studies preparation, see the Crazy GkTrick course catalogue.