Everything on this page comes from the documents of the last full recruitment, Mega DSC 2025: the two notifications and two information bulletins of 20 April 2025, the official FAQ and the department's press notes of August 2025, all hosted on the AP TET and DSC portal (the MEGA DSC-2025 link on cse.ap.gov.in goes there). As on 10 October 2026 the 2026 DSC notification is not out, so this is the last official pattern, and the 2026 bulletin governs once it is published.
Where things stand on 10 October 2026
| Item | Position |
|---|---|
| DSC 2026 notification | Not on the official portals |
| Expected date | Press reports on the 2026 job calendar say around 15 October 2026; not official |
| Last official recruitment | Mega DSC 2025, Notifications 01 and 02 of 20-04-2025, 16,347 posts |
| Latest TET | APTET June 2026 (notified 05-06-2026; CBT 5 to 21 August 2026); certificate valid for life |
| Official sites | cse.ap.gov.in and the AP TET and DSC portal (tet2dsc.apcfss.in; apdsc.apcfss.in redirects there) |
The 2025 cycle: dates of the last recruitment
| Event | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Notifications 01 and 02 | 20-04-2025 | Notifications |
| Applications and fee | 20-04-2025 to 15-05-2025 | Notification, FAQ |
| Computer-based test (many sessions) | 06-06-2025 to 06-07-2025 | Information bulletin, press notes |
| Initial key and objections | After the test, within the stated window | Bulletin |
| Merit lists for all subjects on the portal | From 22-08-2025 | Press note |
| Certificate verification | From 28-08-2025 | Press note |
The shape to note: a short application window, a month-long CBT window with normalisation, and merit lists within about seven weeks of the last session.
Mode and stages
The selection is a computer-based test of multiple-choice questions, followed by merit-cum-roster selection, certificate verification and allotment. There is no interview for the teacher posts. Two features set DSC apart from most recruitments: the unit of selection is the district (or zone for the residential societies) and the post, and the 2025 bulletin said the number selected would not exceed the notified vacancies, with no waiting list and unfilled posts carried forward.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Online application | On the portal named in the notification, with post preferences and certificates |
| CBT | One paper per post; non-language TGT, PGT and Principal posts sit a qualifying English test first |
| Initial key, objections, final key | Objections within the stated period |
| Merit list | Written marks (80) plus TET weightage (20) where it applies, by district and post, with roster |
| Certificate verification and allotment | Candidates called by merit |
Papers at a glance
| Post (2025 pattern) | Questions | Marks | Duration | TET weightage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SGT | 160 | 80 | 2 hours 30 minutes | 20 marks |
| School Assistant (languages and non-languages) | 160 | 80 | 2 hours 30 minutes | 20 marks |
| School Assistant (Physical Education) | 200 | 100 | 3 hours | None |
| PET | 200 | 100 | 3 hours | None |
| TGT (residential and Model Schools) | 160 | 80 | 2 hours 30 minutes | 20 marks |
| PGT | 200 | 100 | 3 hours | None |
| Principal (Paper II) | 200 | 100 | 3 hours | None |
| SGT and TGT (Special Education) | 160 | 80 | 2 hours 30 minutes | 20 marks |
Every question is worth half a mark. The time per question is about 56 seconds in a 160-question paper and 54 seconds in a 200-question paper (arithmetic).
SGT: 160 questions, 80 marks
| Part | Subject | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | General Knowledge and Current Affairs | 16 | 8 |
| II | Perspectives in Education | 8 | 4 |
| III | Classroom implications of Educational Psychology | 16 | 8 |
| IV | Language I (Telugu, Urdu, Hindi, Tamil, Oriya, Kannada or Sanskrit): content + methodology | 16 + 8 | 8 + 4 |
| V | Language II (English): content + methodology | 16 + 8 | 8 + 4 |
| VI | Mathematics: content + methodology | 16 + 8 | 8 + 4 |
| VII | Science: content + methodology | 16 + 8 | 8 + 4 |
| VIII | Social Studies: content + methodology | 16 + 8 | 8 + 4 |
| Total | 160 | 80 |
Content and methodology across the five subjects make up 60 of the 80 marks; methodology alone is 20. Language I is chosen in the application.
School Assistant and TGT: 160 questions, 80 marks
The 2025 split was the same for language and non-language School Assistant subjects and for TGT Paper II.
| Part | Component | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | General Knowledge and Current Affairs | 20 | 10 |
| II | Perspectives in Education | 10 | 5 |
| III | Classroom implications of Educational Psychology | 10 | 5 |
| IV | Content of the concerned subject | 80 | 40 |
| V | Methodology of the concerned subject | 40 | 20 |
| Total | 160 | 80 |
Three quarters of the marks come from your own subject. The 2025 subjects were Telugu, Urdu, Tamil, Kannada, Oriya, Hindi, Sanskrit, English, Mathematics, Physical Science, Biological Science and Social Studies.
PET and School Assistant (Physical Education): 200 questions, 100 marks
| Part | Component | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | General Knowledge and Current Affairs | 10 | 5 |
| II | Perspectives in Education | 10 | 5 |
| III | Physical education pedagogy, methods and educational technology | 40 | 20 |
| IV | Physical education content (anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, health education, sports training, yoga, officiating, management) | 140 | 70 |
| Total | 200 | 100 |
The 2025 bulletin states that selection for these posts is on the written test marks. Some summaries describe a separate physical efficiency test with marks; we did not find one in the 2025 documents, so treat that as unverified and read the 2026 notification.
PGT and Principal: 200 questions, 100 marks
| Part | PGT Paper II (questions / marks) | Principal Paper II (questions / marks) |
|---|---|---|
| General Knowledge and Current Affairs | 20 / 10 | 30 / 15 |
| Perspectives in Education | 20 / 10 | 30 / 15 |
| Educational Psychology | 20 / 10 | 40 / 20 |
| Content of the subject | 100 / 50 | Contemporary issues, school programmes, financial management, administration, monitoring, leadership: 70 / 35 |
| Methodology | 40 / 20 | Understanding of teaching methodology: 30 / 15 |
| Total | 200 / 100 | 200 / 100 |
The qualifying English test for non-language posts
For Principals, non-language PGTs and non-language TGTs, Paper I was an English language proficiency test of 100 questions for 100 marks in 1 hour 30 minutes at Intermediate standard. It is compulsory and qualifying: its marks are not counted, but a candidate below the minimum had Paper II left unevaluated. Minimum marks: 60 for OC, BC and EWS; 50 for SC, ST, PH and ex-servicemen. Language posts had no English test.
The 80:20 weightage
For School Assistant, SGT, TGT and the special education posts, the 2025 bulletin fixed the total at 100 marks: 80 for the written test and 20 for the APTET or CTET score. The APTET June 2026 notification repeats that 20 per cent weightage goes to the TET score and 80 per cent to the written test in the next recruitment. PET, SA (Physical Education), PGT and Principal posts have no TET component, so their 100-mark paper is the whole score.
The bulletin states the 20 marks but, in the sections we checked, does not print the conversion. The natural reading is proportional scaling of the TET score out of 150 to a score out of 20. Confirm it in the 2026 bulletin.
Worked arithmetic (ours, not cut-offs):
| Written (of 80) | TET (of 150) | TET scaled (TET ÷ 150 × 20) | Total (of 100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 56 | 105 | 14 | 70 |
| 52 | 90 | 12 | 64 |
| 54 | 120 | 16 | 70 |
| 54 | 90 | 12 | 66 |
Three things follow from the arithmetic. Every 7.5 TET marks equal one DSC mark, so a TET gap of 30 marks is a 4-mark gap in the merit list before anyone writes the TRT. A 10-mark gain in the written test adds 10 to the total; a 15-mark gain in the TET adds 2, so the written test is the larger lever. And the written paper is already out of 80, so no percentage conversion is needed for it.
For the weightage to count, the TET score must be at or above the qualifying marks: 90 of 150 for OC and EWS, 75 for BC, 60 for SC, ST, persons with benchmark disabilities and ex-servicemen, for APTET and CTET alike. Our APTET guide has the TET side.
Negative marking: not verified
The 2025 notification, both information bulletins and the FAQ do not mention negative marking. That is not the same as a statement that there is none. The 2026 bulletin is the document that settles it; until you have read it, practise as if a wrong answer might cost you, and read the first page of the bulletin for this line before anything else.
Normalisation
Because the CBT runs in many sessions, the 2025 bulletin applied a normalisation formula using the average marks of the top 0.1 per cent of candidates across all shifts, the sum of the mean and standard deviation across all shifts, the same two quantities within the candidate's shift, and the candidate's raw marks, carried to five decimal places. The consequence for you: a raw score is not a rank, and comparing raw marks with a friend in another shift tells you little.
Tie-breaking
For equal marks, the 2025 bulletin used this order: the older candidate first; then, if the dates of birth are the same, a female candidate over a male; then the community order ST, SC (Groups I to III), BC (A to E), OC; then the date of passing the professional qualification (B.Ed, D.Ed or equivalent); then the date of passing Intermediate (SGT and PET) or graduation (School Assistants). The first tie-breaker is age, so marks are the only lever you control.
Eligibility points from the 2025 bulletin
These are the 2025 conditions, shown so you know what to check in the 2026 notification; they are not the 2026 conditions.
- Age: 18 to 44 as on 01-07-2024; up to 49 for SC, ST, BC and EWS; up to 54 for persons with benchmark disabilities; ex-servicemen deduct length of service plus three years.
- Fee: Rs 750 per post, paid separately for each post applied for.
- TET: mandatory for School Assistants (except Physical Education), SGTs, TGTs and the special education posts; not required for Principals, PGTs, SA (Physical Education), PDs and PETs. The APTET certificate is valid for life under the June 2026 notification.
- Qualifications: SGT needs Intermediate with 50 per cent (45 for SC, ST, BC and PwBD) plus a two-year D.Ed or D.El.Ed, an RCI-recognised special education equivalent or a four-year B.El.Ed; School Assistant needs a degree with the relevant subject combination at 50 per cent (45 for the reserved groups) plus a B.Ed in the matching methodology. All certificates must be held on the last date for applications.
- Post preferences: the portal shows the posts you are eligible for; you rank them, and the order cannot be changed later. A candidate selected for a higher preference is removed from the other lists.
- Local candidate rule: the 2025 bulletin applied the AP Public Employment (Organisation of Local Cadres and Regulation of Direct Recruitment) Order, 1975. How the 2026 notification handles local cadres is for that document to say.
What the 2026 notification will fix
Read these lines first when the notification and bulletin appear:
- The list of posts and the district-wise, subject-wise and category-wise vacancy tables.
- The scheme of examination for each post: questions, marks, duration, parts, and whether there is negative marking.
- The TET weightage and, we hope, the conversion formula.
- The age limit and its reference date, the fee, and the application window.
- The CBT window, and whether normalisation applies.
- The syllabus year (the 2025 document used 2023-24 textbooks) and any change from the 2025 syllabus.
- The local-cadre rule and the certificates it asks for.
Until then the 2025 pattern is the best guide, and the risk of preparing on it is small: the parts, the subjects and the 80:20 rule have been stable, and the 2026 special education note on the portal uses the same 160-question, 80-mark frame.
What this means for your attempt strategy
Our arithmetic from the scheme, not the department's advice:
- Time: about 56 seconds a question in a 160-question paper. Bank time on the common parts (General Knowledge, Perspectives, Psychology, 40 questions for SA) so content and methodology get more than their share.
- Guessing: depends on negative marking, which is not verified. Decide after reading the 2026 bulletin; in mocks, record your guess accuracy so you know what blind guessing would cost under a penalty.
- Where the marks are: for SA, 120 of 160 questions are your subject; for SGT, 120 of 160 are the five subject areas; for PET, 140 of 200 are physical education content.
- TET already in hand: if you have a TET score, your 20-mark component is fixed; everything else is the written paper. If you can still improve the TET under a future notification, every 7.5 TET marks is one DSC mark.
Plan around these numbers in our preparation strategy. Full topic lists are on the syllabus page, selection rules on the cut-off page, and the status of the notification in the exam guide and our notification tracker.
Related: Syllabus · Cut-off · Preparation strategy · తెలుగులో