NORCET GK and Aptitude: 20 Prelims Questions, Topics | NPrep

NORCET Stage I (Prelims) has 20 General Knowledge and Aptitude questions out of 100, according to AIIMS Notice 103/2026. The other 80 are nursing, and Stage II (Mains) has no GK at all. These 20 questions still matter: they help decide who is called to Mains, and Stage I marks are the second tie-breaker for rank.

Updated 2 November 2026. Exam rules are from AIIMS Notice 103/2026 (NORCET 11). NORCET 11 counts are from Result Notification 276/2026. The topic list and study plan are NPrep's recommendations, because AIIMS does not publish a GK syllabus.

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NORCET GK and aptitude at a glance

Item	Rule	Source
GK and aptitude questions	20 of 100 in Stage I	Notice 103/2026
Nursing questions	80 in Stage I; all 160 in Stage II	Notice 103/2026
GK in Stage II	None	Notice 103/2026
Marking	+1 for correct, minus 1/3 for wrong	Notice 103/2026
Stage I format	90 minutes, 5 locked sections of 20 questions, 18 minutes each	Notice 103/2026
Official GK syllabus	None; the notice says only "General Knowledge & Aptitude"	Notice 103/2026

How many GK questions are there in NORCET?

Twenty, all in Stage I. Notice 103/2026 describes the Prelims paper as 100 MCQs: 20 on General Knowledge and Aptitude and 80 on the nursing syllabus taught at the qualifying level. Stage II is 160 nursing MCQs, focused on case scenarios, with no GK or aptitude.

The Prelims paper runs as five sections of 20 questions, 18 minutes each, and a section closes for good when its time ends. That is about 54 seconds a question. The notice does not say where in the paper the GK and aptitude questions sit.

Do GK marks matter if Prelims is only qualifying?

Yes, in two ways.

1. They decide whether you are called to Mains. AIIMS calls only 5 times the seats in each category to Stage II. In NORCET 11, according to Result Notification 276/2026:

Stage I count	NORCET 11
Applied	122,099
Appeared	100,804
Above the minimum qualifying percentile	55,967
Called to Stage II	12,638

By NPrep's count, only 12.5% of those who appeared were called to Mains. A UR candidate needed the 95.16 percentile to be called. At that level, 20 GK and aptitude questions, a fifth of the paper, can be the difference.

2. They can break a tie in your final rank. Rank is decided by Stage II marks, but when marks are equal, Notice 103/2026 uses fewer Stage II wrong answers first, then higher Stage I marks, then fewer Stage I wrong answers. Every GK mark, and every GK guess you avoid getting wrong, counts there. See NORCET result and tie-breaking.

What topics should I study for NORCET GK and aptitude?

AIIMS publishes no GK topic list. NPrep recommends covering these five areas:

Area	What to cover
Health GK	National health programmes and missions, government health schemes, important health days, WHO and other health bodies, recent health news
Current affairs	National and international news from the 6 to 8 months before the exam: schemes, awards, appointments, sports, science and space
Static GK	Constitution and polity basics, Indian history and geography, basic science, books and authors, important firsts
Reasoning	Number and letter series, coding-decoding, analogy, classification, directions, blood relations, simple puzzles
Quantitative aptitude	Percentages, ratio and proportion, averages, profit and loss, simple and compound interest, time and work, speed and distance

Start with health GK. It overlaps with Community Health Nursing, so it is the cheapest part to learn. Our general knowledge for nursing exams guide goes deeper on each area.

How should I attempt GK and aptitude with negative marking?

A wrong answer costs a third of a mark, so guessing needs a rule:

Your situation	Expected marks from guessing
Blind guess between 4 options	0 (break-even)
One option ruled out	+0.11
Two options ruled out	+0.33

So guess only after you can rule out at least one option, and skip a question you cannot touch at all. The full maths is in our NORCET Mains strategy.

Within a section you can move between questions until its time ends. Answer the quick GK questions first, then return to the calculations, and never leave a section with time unused.

How much time should I give GK and aptitude?

About 20 to 30 minutes a day, without cutting into nursing, which carries 80 of the 100 Prelims questions and all of Mains:

1. Daily: 10 minutes of current affairs and health news, and 10 to 15 minutes of reasoning or maths practice.
2. Weekly: one timed set of 20 mixed GK and aptitude questions in 18 minutes, the same time as one exam section.
3. Monthly: revise your current affairs notes, so the last 30 days are revision, not new reading.
4. Last 30 days: keep the daily 20 minutes and take GK inside full Stage I mocks.

Our NORCET 12 study plan fits this into the months before Stage I on 10 April 2027.

FAQs

How many GK questions are in NORCET?

Twenty, in Stage I (Prelims) only. AIIMS Notice 103/2026 says the 100-question Prelims paper has 20 General Knowledge and Aptitude MCQs and 80 nursing MCQs.

Is there GK in NORCET Mains?

No. Stage II has 160 MCQs on the nursing syllabus, focused on case-scenario questions, with no GK or aptitude section.

Is GK counted in the NORCET rank?

Not directly. Rank comes from Stage II marks. But Stage I marks, which include GK, are the second tie-breaker under Notice 103/2026, and Stage I wrong answers are the third.

What is the NORCET GK syllabus?

AIIMS does not publish one; the notice says only "General Knowledge & Aptitude". NPrep recommends health GK, current affairs, static GK, reasoning and basic quantitative aptitude.

Is there negative marking for GK in NORCET?

Yes. Every wrong answer in Stage I, including GK and aptitude, costs one third of a mark, according to Notice 103/2026.

What to read next

• Up: AIIMS NORCET exam guide
• Plan: NORCET 12 study plan
• Targets: NORCET cut-off by category
• Practice: free NORCET mock test