COMPEX 2026 Syllabus and Exam Pattern Explained for PCM and PCB

COMPEX is the selection exam for the Embassy of India, Kathmandu scholarship that places Nepalese students in undergraduate programmes in India. It is a computer-based test held at designated centres in Kathmandu and run by the Embassy's Education Wing. The course you apply for decides which version of the paper you sit.

Candidates for BE or B.Tech sit the PCM version. Candidates for B. Pharmacy, B.Sc. Agriculture, B.Sc. Food Technology and B.Sc. Nursing sit the PCB version. Because you may apply for up to two courses, check whether your choices fall in the same stream; if one is engineering and the other is a PCB course, you will need to prepare both Mathematics and Biology.

The structure below is the pattern our free practice tests are built on for the current cycle. It is the most useful single fact to plan around, because it tells you exactly how your study hours turn into questions on the day.

• English: 30 questions, common to PCM and PCB
• Physics: 30 questions, common to PCM and PCB
• Chemistry: 30 questions, common to PCM and PCB
• Mathematics: 30 questions, PCM candidates only
• Biology: 30 questions, PCB candidates only
• Total per candidate: 120 multiple-choice questions

Tip: The official schedule is usually arranged as a combined English, Physics and Chemistry paper and a separate Mathematics or Biology paper. Shifts, entry times and paper timings are published each year, so download the schedule as soon as it appears.

Since each subject contributes 30 of the 120 questions, each is worth a quarter of the paper if every question carries equal marks. That simple fact should shape your plan more than anything else. A student who is excellent in Mathematics but weak in English cannot count on one to cover the other, because English alone has as many questions as Mathematics.

Two details are not stated in the information we hold: how many marks each question carries, and whether wrong answers attract negative marking. Both matter. If there is no negative marking, you should answer every question and use elimination to make your best guess. If there is negative marking, blind guessing becomes costly, and you should guess only when you can rule out at least one or two options.

Tip: Read the marking section of the official notice and the instructions on your admit card before your last two weeks of mocks, then practise with the same guessing rule you will use on the day.

The Physics topics named in the syllabus are semiconductors, current electricity, combination of cells, magnetic fields, capacitors and capacitance, wave optics, and the dual nature of light. Four of those seven sit within electricity and magnetism, which makes that block the highest-yield area for both streams.

Behind each name is a full chapter. Current electricity, for example, includes Ohm's law, Kirchhoff's rules, the meter bridge and the potentiometer, all of which appear in our first model set. Semiconductors covers diodes, rectifiers and basic logic gates, and dual nature means the photoelectric effect and de Broglie wavelength. Our sets also include Class 11 mechanics such as free fall, collisions and rolling motion, so keep those fundamentals sharp.

The Chemistry list reads as inorganic and organic chemistry, biomolecules, chemistry in daily life, thermodynamics and atomic structure. The first item on its own covers a large part of the Class 12 course, so do not mistake the short list for a light load.

Areas that tend to pay off are named reactions and functional group conversions in organic chemistry, periodic trends and coordination compounds in inorganic chemistry, and sign conventions and simple calculations in thermodynamics. Biomolecules and chemistry in daily life are largely factual and can be revised efficiently in the final weeks, especially by PCB candidates who meet biomolecules again in Biology.

For PCM candidates, the Mathematics list is dominated by calculus. Derivatives and integration, integration by parts, and differential equations are three of the seven named topics, and a strong command of differentiation underpins all three. The rest, permutation and combination, probability, matrices and determinants, and sequences and series, are formula-driven and reward regular drilling. Our model sets also open with limits and continuity, so cover those as the gateway to calculus.

For PCB candidates, the Biology list names cell structure and function, cell division, biomolecules and biological classification. These are the foundation chapters of the subject, and our model sets extend into plant anatomy, plant physiology, genetics and molecular biology. Stages, diagrams and classification criteria are frequent question material, so revise with labelled sketches and comparison tables rather than long notes.

The English topics in the syllabus are phrases, articles, active and passive voice, tenses, grammatical error questions, subject-verb agreement and analogy. In our model sets, the questions fall into three broad groups, and it helps to prepare each one differently.

Grammar is the quickest to improve, because a limited set of rules covers most questions. Vocabulary improves slowly, which is why it should be part of every study day from the start rather than a last-minute cram.

• Grammar: error spotting, voice and narration changes, articles, prepositions, tenses and agreement.
• Vocabulary: synonyms, antonyms, one-word substitutions, idioms and phrases, spelling and odd-one-out analogies.
• Reading: a short passage followed by questions on meaning, inference, tone and word usage.

A computer-based test feels different from a paper exam in ways that affect your score. You read each question on screen, move between questions with buttons, and cannot write on the question itself. Students who practise only on paper often find their reading slows down and they lose track of skipped questions.

Three habits help. First, practise on a screen regularly so that reading options on a monitor feels normal. Second, learn to use the flag or review feature, so you mark questions to revisit instead of keeping a mental list. Third, keep your rough work neat and numbered, because you need to match calculations to question numbers when you return to flagged items.

Calculators are not allowed, so questions are designed to be solvable by hand and the format rewards clean, fast arithmetic. Our practice tests at /compex-practice use the same one-question-at-a-time screen layout with a question grid, so you can rehearse these habits before the real exam.

Make a table with one row per syllabus topic and three columns: studied, practised and tested in a mock. A topic is finished only when it has a tick in all three columns. This keeps you honest about the gap between reading a chapter and answering timed questions on it.

Finally, treat the official notice as the authority. Syllabus wording can change between years, and the Embassy's documents always take priority over coaching notes, videos or guides like this one.