Every NORCET Prelims paper shifts a little from cycle to cycle. Foundation of Nursing might carry 26 questions in one exam and drop to 12 in the next. That makes it hard to answer a simple question: how many questions should you actually expect from each subject?
This article gives you one working number per subject, built by averaging six recent NORCET Prelims cycles and rounding so the totals stay true to the exam’s real structure. It is meant as a planning tool, not a guarantee.
A Quick Note Before You Read This
AIIMS does not publish an official subject-wise question breakdown for NORCET Prelims. The numbers below come from compiled, memory-based exam analysis shared by coaching platforms after each cycle, primarily cross-referenced from Utkarsh Classes’ NORCET exam-analysis data covering NORCET 5 through NORCET 10. This is the most internally consistent dataset available, since every cycle’s row adds up correctly to the official total of 100 questions. Even so, treat these as informed estimates, not confirmed AIIMS figures.
AIIMS NORCET Prelims Exam Pattern
Before looking at subject weightage, here is the confirmed exam structure.
| Exam Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total Questions | 100 |
| Total Marks | 100 |
| Nursing Subjects | 80 questions |
| General Knowledge and Aptitude | 20 questions |
| Question Type | Multiple Choice Questions |
| Marking Scheme | +1 for each correct answer |
| Negative Marking | 1/3 mark deducted for each wrong answer |
The 80:20 split between nursing and non-nursing content has held steady across every recent cycle. That part you can rely on with confidence.
Expected Subject-Wise Weightage in NORCET Prelims
Here is the averaged, rounded weightage for each subject, based on six cycles of exam data.
| Subject | Expected Questions |
|---|---|
| Foundation of Nursing | 22 |
| Medical-Surgical Nursing | 20 |
| Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OBG) | 10 |
| Pediatric Nursing | 8 |
| Psychiatric Nursing | 7 |
| Pharmacology | 5 |
| Community Health Nursing | 4 |
| Nutrition | 2 |
| Nursing Research and Administration | 2 |
| Nursing Subtotal | 80 |
| General Knowledge and Aptitude | 20 |
| Total | 100 |
Foundation of Nursing and Medical-Surgical Nursing together account for close to half the nursing section, which matches what most coaching analysts describe as the two anchor subjects of the paper. OBG sits comfortably as the third-highest subject, and Psychiatric Nursing has earned a steady place in the top half of the table rather than the marginal position it held a few cycles ago.
How These Numbers Were Worked Out
Rather than picking one exam and treating it as the template, or averaging six cycles and leaving you with odd decimal values like 22.67 or 6.83, each subject’s raw average was rounded to a whole number and then checked against the fixed constraint that nursing subjects must total 80. Pharmacology is a good example of why this approach helps. Across six cycles it has shown 6, 6, 6, 4, 5, and 5 questions. Rather than fixating on any single year, treating 5 as the expected figure reflects where the subject has actually settled over time.
Nursing Research and Administration is the one subject to flag separately. It only appears as a distinct category in the most recent cycle, so its expected value of 2 is a lighter estimate than the others and worth treating with a bit more caution.
A Shift Worth Watching in the Latest Cycle
The averaged table above smooths out year-to-year noise, but it is worth knowing that the most recent cycle moved in a specific direction. Foundation of Nursing and Medical-Surgical Nursing, which used to combine for well over half the nursing section in earlier cycles, pulled back noticeably in the latest exam. At the same time, OBG and Psychiatric Nursing both climbed higher than their historical average.
This does not mean you should abandon Foundation of Nursing or Medical-Surgical Nursing. They remain the two largest subjects by a clear margin even after the pullback. But it is a signal that OBG and Psychiatric Nursing deserve more attention than their older reputation as “smaller” subjects might suggest.
How to Use This Weightage in Your Study Plan
- Anchor your revision around Foundation of Nursing and Medical-Surgical Nursing. Together they still represent over half the nursing section on average.
- Give OBG and Psychiatric Nursing real weight, not an afterthought. Both have been trending upward and now sit well within the top half of the subject list.
- Treat General Knowledge and Aptitude as a fixed, reliable 20 marks. This section has not shifted across any recent cycle, making daily current affairs revision one of the most predictable ways to secure marks.
- Do not skip Nutrition or Nursing Research entirely. They carry only 2 questions each on average, but candidates who ignore them completely lose easy, low-effort marks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these subject-wise numbers official AIIMS figures?
No. AIIMS has not released an official subject-wise breakdown for NORCET Prelims. These figures are averaged from memory-based coaching analysis across six recent cycles and rounded to fit the confirmed 80:20 nursing-to-GK split.
Which subject should I expect the most questions from?
Foundation of Nursing and Medical-Surgical Nursing have consistently been the two largest subjects, together making up roughly half the nursing section.
How many questions come from General Knowledge and Aptitude?
Twenty questions, and this figure has held steady across every recent cycle, making it the most dependable number in the entire paper.
Should I ignore older previous year papers since the pattern has shifted?
No. Use older papers to build subject fundamentals, but weight your final revision toward OBG and Psychiatric Nursing a bit more than older papers alone would suggest.
Use this weightage table as a planning guide, not a scoring guarantee. The safest strategy is still to build strong fundamentals across every subject and treat the higher-weightage subjects as priority areas rather than the only areas.
