CTET mathematics: syllabus, weightage and a six-week plan

Many candidates with a science or commerce degree assume CTET maths will be the easy section. The content usually is. What catches them is the other half: questions about why a child wrote 3005 for three hundred and five, which activity best teaches place value, or what a particular test item actually assesses. Those need a different kind of preparation, and they carry as many marks as the arithmetic in Paper I.

This guide sets out what each paper covers, how to study, and a six-week plan you can adapt.

How maths appears in each paper

Paper II maths is only for candidates who choose the Mathematics and Science option. Every question carries one mark and there is no negative marking.

Paper I content

• Geometry: shapes and spatial understanding; solids around us (cube, cuboid, cylinder, cone, sphere; faces, edges, corners).
• Numbers: counting, place value, number names, comparison, even and odd.
• Operations: addition and subtraction with and without regrouping; multiplication; division.
• Measurement: length, weight, volume (capacity), time, money.
• Data handling: tally marks, pictographs, simple bar graphs.
• Patterns: in shapes, numbers and tables.
• Fractions are not named separately in the Paper I list, but halves, quarters and parts of a whole are in the NCERT Class 4 and 5 books the content is based on, so expect them.

Paper II content

• Number system: knowing our numbers, playing with numbers (factors, multiples, divisibility, HCF and LCM), whole numbers, integers, fractions and decimals.
• Algebra: introduction to algebra, simple equations, ratio and proportion.
• Geometry: basic ideas in 2-D, elementary shapes in 2-D and 3-D, symmetry and reflection, constructions with ruler, protractor and compasses.
• Mensuration: perimeter and area of plane figures; surface area and volume of cubes and cuboids at this level.
• Data handling: collecting and organising data, mean, median and mode of ungrouped data, bar graphs.

The pedagogy half (both papers)

The pedagogical issues listed in the syllabus are essentially the same for both papers:

• Nature of mathematics and logical thinking; understanding children's thinking and reasoning patterns.
• Place of mathematics in the curriculum.
• Language of mathematics.
• Community mathematics.
• Evaluation through formal and informal methods.
• Problems of teaching.
• Error analysis and related aspects of learning and teaching.
• Diagnostic and remedial teaching.

These map onto the separate guides on the nature of mathematics and errors and remedial teaching.

Study content as a teacher

For every content topic, answer four questions in your notes:

1. What is the idea? Not just the procedure: why does borrowing work, why do we find a common denominator?
2. What errors do children make? For example, 0.25 > 0.3 because "25 is bigger than 3".
3. What concrete material or model helps? Bundles of sticks, fraction strips, geoboards, number lines.
4. Where does it appear in daily life? Shopping, cooking, sport, the calendar.

That habit turns every content topic into pedagogy practice too.

Sample questions of each type

Content (Paper I level)

What is the sum of the place values of 5 in 5,257?

5 in the thousands place is worth 5,000; 5 in the tens place is worth 50. Sum = 5,000 + 50 = 5,050.

Content (Paper II level)

The HCF of two numbers is 6 and their LCM is 72. One number is 18. What is the other?

HCF × LCM = product of the numbers, so 6 × 72 = 432, and 432 ÷ 18 = 24. Check: HCF(18, 24) = 6 and LCM(18, 24) = 72.

Pedagogy: error analysis

A child writes 45 + 38 = 713. The child most likely:

(a) does not know addition facts
(b) adds each column correctly but writes 13 without regrouping the ten
(c) is careless
(d) has dyscalculia

Answer: (b). 5 + 8 = 13 and 4 + 3 = 7 are both correct; the child writes the 13 in full instead of carrying 1 ten. The remedy is regrouping with bundles of ten sticks on a place-value mat.

Pedagogy: teaching approach

The most appropriate way to introduce the concept of area in Class 4 is to:

(a) give the formula length × breadth
(b) let children cover shapes with square tiles and count them
(c) ask children to memorise the definition
(d) show a video

Answer: (b). Counting unit squares builds the idea that area is the number of squares that cover a surface. The formula comes later as a shortcut for rectangles.

Common mistakes in preparation

• Revising only content because it feels productive, and leaving pedagogy to the last week.
• Skipping Paper I-level topics in Paper II preparation, even though the maths pedagogy questions often use primary examples.
• Learning pedagogy terms without examples. You need to recognise "community mathematics" or "diagnostic test" inside a scenario.
• Ignoring NCERT textbooks. The primary books (Math-Magic and the newer NCF-based books) show the approach CTET expects: stories, games, patterns and questions to children.

A six-week plan

Timing: a 30-question maths section should take around 25–30 minutes, leaving time for the other sections.

What to do next

• Download the latest Information Bulletin and highlight the maths syllabus for your paper.
• Set up an error log: question, your answer, correct answer, the idea behind it.
• Start Week 1 with the number system guide.
• Each Sunday, do one timed previous-paper maths section and log every error.