UPSSSC PET 2026 Free Guess Paper

The Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission changed the UPSSSC PET 2026 exam date twice in September 2026. A notice dated 25 September 2026 moved the exam to 25 October, 30 October, and 1 November 2026, replacing the earlier plan of 23, 24, and 25 October. Candidates now have a shorter runway to prepare, and the paper’s negative marking rule punishes a rushed final stretch more than a slow one.

TL;DR

• UPSSSC PET 2026 runs across 61 districts of Uttar Pradesh, with more than 35 lakh candidates expected to appear.
• The paper holds 100 objective questions for 100 marks, with a deduction of one-quarter mark for each wrong answer.
• The syllabus has 15 sections. The last five sections alone carry 50 of the 100 marks.
• Score validity runs for three years, and one paper feeds many later Group B and Group C mains exams.
• Past PET cycles show cutoffs that shift by several marks a year, so a fixed target score is not reliable.
• The application fee is 185 rupees for General and OBC candidates, 95 rupees for SC and ST candidates, and 25 rupees for PwD candidates.

What Changed for PET 2026

UPSSSC released the PET 2026 notification on 1 August 2026 under Advertisement No. 16-Exam/2026. Online registration ran from 3 August to 7 September 2026, after the commission extended the original 1 September deadline.

The exam date then moved twice. UPSSSC first fixed the paper for 23, 24, and 25 October 2026, then revised the schedule to 25 October, 30 October, and 1 November 2026, with two shifts on each date. The commission cited unavoidable reasons for the change and gave no further detail. A shifted date changes nothing about the syllabus. It only changes how many study days a candidate has left.

The Exam Pattern Behind the Score

The exam runs for two hours and asks 100 questions for 100 marks, with a correct answer worth one mark and a wrong answer costing a quarter mark. The paper is offline, filled on an OMR sheet, not typed on a screen. A candidate must also budget time to bubble 100 answers by hand, which cuts into the two-hour window before the first question gets solved.

Any candidate who has passed Class 10 can apply, and the age limit runs from 18 to 40 years as of 1 July 2026, with relaxation for reserved categories. This low bar pulls in a large and varied applicant pool, which is one reason cutoffs move each year.

Where the Marks Actually Sit

The 15 sections do not carry equal weight. Ten sections hold five marks each. Five sections hold ten marks each.

The last five sections together hold 50 marks, exactly half of the paper. A candidate who masters only the first ten static-knowledge sections caps their own score near 50, before a single current-affairs or reasoning question gets answered. The reverse also holds. Weak arithmetic or reasoning drags down a strong history and geography base just as fast.

The Negative Marking Math

A quarter-mark penalty sounds small until it runs across 100 questions. Four wrong guesses erase one full correct answer. On a two-hour paper with no sectional time limit, a candidate who guesses on 20 unfamiliar questions and gets a quarter of them right still loses more marks than they gain.

The safer approach treats a question as attemptable only when at least two of the five options can be ruled out. Each question offers a wide answer-option format, which raises the cost of a blind guess compared to a four-option paper. A study plan built around section weightage should also build in a rule for when to skip a question, not only when to attempt one.

What Past Cutoffs Show

UPSSSC held the PET 2025 exam on 6 and 7 September 2025 and released the scorecard on 9 December 2025, after marking 517 candidates as provisionally allowed and 44 as unfair means cases.

Published estimates of the 2025 category-wise range vary by source, which itself is a signal. One tracker placed General category marks between 60 and 80, OBC between 58 and 74, and ST between 45 and 60. Another placed the General range closer to 72 to 78 and the ST range closer to 55 to 60. The spread between trackers shows that no single number should guide a candidate’s target score. A safer planning method sets a personal target near the upper end of the reported range for one’s own category, then treats every mark above it as a buffer against a harder paper or a bigger applicant pool.

Exam Fees and What a Score Unlocks

The application fee itself stays low: 185 rupees for General, EWS, and OBC candidates, 95 rupees for SC and ST candidates, and 25 rupees for PwD candidates. The larger cost sits in preparation, not registration. Coaching test series for PET commonly run from under 200 rupees for a short printed set to several thousand rupees for a full guided batch with mentorship.

A single PET score feeds applications for posts such as Lekhpal, Junior Assistant, Village Development Officer, and X-Ray Technician, each announced separately by UPSSSC. Pay scales differ sharply by post and department, so a candidate should treat the PET score as a ticket to apply, not as the final outcome. The real return on preparation time shows up only after a candidate compares posts by pay grade and picks which mains exams to target with a qualifying PET score.

A Section-Based Study Plan for the Weeks Left

With the exam now set for 25 October, 30 October, and 1 November 2026, most candidates have under a month before the first shift. Spread that time by section weight, not by personal comfort with a subject.

1. Score a full-length timed paper first, then sort every wrong answer by section.
2. Give the highest study hours to Current Affairs, General Awareness, Passage Analysis, Graph Interpretation, and Table Interpretation, since these five sections hold half the marks.
3. Cap arithmetic and reasoning practice at a fixed daily count, since these sections reward accuracy over raw study hours.
4. Re-test every three to four days, and compare each result to the last one by section, not by total score alone.
5. Set a personal skip rule for guessing, based on the negative marking math above, and rehearse it on every practice paper before exam day.

Common Questions

What is the UPSSSC PET 2026 exam date? The revised schedule sets the exam on 25 October, 30 October, and 1 November 2026, in two shifts each day.

How many questions does the PET 2026 paper have? The paper has 100 objective questions worth 100 marks, to be finished in two hours.

Is there negative marking in PET 2026? Yes. Each wrong answer costs one-quarter mark.

How long does a PET score stay valid? A PET score stays valid for three years from the result date.

What is the PET 2026 application fee? The fee is 185 rupees for General and OBC candidates, 95 rupees for SC and ST candidates, and 25 rupees for PwD candidates.

Closing Analysis

The date change buys candidates a few extra days, not extra marks. The paper’s structure has not moved. Half the score still sits in five sections that reward daily current-affairs reading and steady passage-and-table practice over last-minute static revision. A candidate who studies by section weight, tracks a skip rule against the quarter-mark penalty, and re-tests every few days enters the 25 October shift with a plan instead of a guess.