The AISSEE study plan below is the one we hand to parents who walk into our office at Amaravathinagar in July. It assumes the exam is in January 2027 and that your child is starting roughly now.
Six months is a comfortable runway. It stops being comfortable if July and August are spent "revising" material that was never learned properly, so the sequence matters more than the hours.
The order is not negotiable: cover the syllabus → past papers → full mocks → taper. A family that is still learning new chapters in December has already lost the speed battle.
The Daily Timetable
For a child in school, this is the shape of a weekday. Total: about 90 focused minutes, plus reading.
| Slot | Minutes | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| After school, fresh | 20 | Intelligence / reasoning — mixed question set |
| Main slot | 45 | Mathematics — one topic, then a timed set |
| Short slot | 15 | GK or Language — alternate days |
| Before bed | 15 | Reading — English book, newspaper or magazine |
Weekends: one longer session for a full sectional or full paper, plus review.
Why reasoning comes first. It needs a fresh mind and only twenty minutes. Put it after Maths and it gets skipped whenever Maths runs long — which is every day.
Month 1 — July: Diagnose and Build
Goal: find the gaps, fix the foundations, start the speed work.
- Sit one full previous-year paper, untimed, purely to diagnose
- Mark every wrong answer by reason, not just right or wrong
- Begin Vedic Maths — multiplication, squaring, divisibility. Start now; these need months
- Fix the daily slot and protect it. Same time, same place, every day
- Start the 15-minute nightly reading habit
- Book a full paediatric check-up including vision and hearing — see why in our medical test guide
Month 2 — August: Coverage, Half the Syllabus
Goal: 50% of the syllabus properly covered.
- Maths: arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percentages, HCF/LCM — the highest-reliability chapters first
- Reasoning: work through the first six question types
- GK: begin the Class V science textbook, one section a day — the GK preparation guide narrows it to what actually appears
- One timed sectional test each weekend
- Begin the error log and never stop
The Class VI syllabus breakdown shows the priority order chapter by chapter; for Class IX entry use the Class IX guide. Both assume you have read the exam pattern breakdown.
Month 3 — September: Coverage, and the Form
Goal: 85% of the syllabus, and the application documents assembled.
- Maths: unitary method, ratio, profit and loss, measurement, geometry basics
- Reasoning: the remaining question types
- GK: Indian geography, civics, national symbols, defence awareness
- Assemble the document file — the full list is in our document checklist
- Watch aissee.nta.nic.in weekly; the notification is expected this month or next
Month 4 — October: Finish, Then Submit
Goal: 100% syllabus coverage. Application submitted.
- Complete every remaining chapter. After this month, no new topics
- Fill and submit the application form in the first ten days of the window
- Start timed full sections — Maths in 60 minutes, reasoning in 25
- Begin OMR sheet practice. A child who has never bubbled an OMR sheet loses marks to it
Two things must both be true by 31 October: the syllabus is covered, and the form is submitted. Families who let the form eat into November lose their past-paper month.
Month 5 — November: Previous Year Papers
Goal: work through past papers systematically. Nothing new.
- One previous-year paper every two or three days
- Full review after each: every wrong answer into the error log with its reason
- Re-attempt last week's wrong questions before starting new papers
- Use the correction window if the form needs fixing
- Our students work through a 21-year breakdown across 80 focused classes — the method is in how to use past papers
| Week | Papers | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 3 papers | Identify recurring question shapes |
| Week 2 | 3 papers | Timing: finish Maths with 10 minutes spare |
| Week 3 | 3 papers | Weakest section gets double review time |
| Week 4 | 3 papers + full review | Rebuild the error log into a single revision sheet |
Month 6 — December: Mock Tests Under Real Conditions
Goal: exam-condition rehearsal, twice a week minimum.
- A full mock every two to three days — same start time as the real exam
- Real OMR sheets, full duration, no phone in the room
- Spend twice as long reviewing a mock as sitting it
- Track the score trend, not individual scores
- Keep sleep at 8+ hours. Tired children lose more marks than unprepared ones
We run 25 full mock tests through this phase, because the fourth mock teaches more than the first and the fifteenth teaches more than the fourth. Reviewing them properly is where the marks come from.
The Final Fortnight — January: Taper
This is where most home preparation goes wrong. The instinct is to push harder. The right move is to ease off.
- Drop to two mocks a week
- Revise only the error log and formula sheets
- Print the admit card early; check the exam city and route
- Last three days: no new material at all. Light revision, early nights
- The night before: pack the bag, sleep. Nothing else
The exam-hall strategy, drilled from November: first pass for everything answerable in under 45 seconds, second pass for medium questions, third pass for the hard ones, and in the final minute fill every remaining bubble. There is no negative marking, so a blank is a wasted chance.
If You Have Less Than Six Months
Compress, but do not reorder:
| Time available | What changes |
|---|---|
| 4 months | Coverage in 6 weeks; skip low-reliability chapters; papers and mocks unchanged |
| 3 months | Maths and reasoning only for the first month; GK to 15 minutes daily |
| 6 weeks | Past papers and mocks only. Coverage will be incomplete — accept it and maximise speed |
If You Have More Than a Year
Then you are in the best position of all, and the plan is different: a year of foundations first — reading, tables, Vedic Maths, reasoning familiarity — and then this six-month plan in the exam year. That is what our Foundation Path is for.
The single best predictor we see across 3,000+ students is not talent. It is whether the daily slot survived October. Protect the habit and the score follows.
Keep reading
Frequently Asked Questions
How many months are needed to prepare for the AISSEE exam?
Six focused months are enough to cover the syllabus, work through previous papers and complete a mock-test cycle. With less than three months, most children can finish the syllabus but cannot build the speed the paper requires.
How many hours a day should a child study for Sainik School entrance?
About 90 focused minutes on a school day, split into reasoning, Maths and a short GK or language slot, plus 15 minutes of reading. Consistency matters far more than long sessions.
When should mock tests start for AISSEE?
Full-length mock tests should begin about a month before the exam, after previous-year papers have been worked through. Before that, timed sectional tests are more useful.
Should my child study new topics in the last month?
No. The final month is for mock tests, error-log revision and rest. Learning new chapters in the last weeks comes at the cost of the speed practice that actually moves scores.
Is an error log really necessary?
It is the single most useful document in the preparation. Recording why each question was wrong turns practice into diagnosis, and by December it becomes the only revision material needed.
What if we are starting only three months before the exam?
Prioritise Maths and reasoning, cap GK at 15 minutes a day, and move to past papers and mocks as early as possible. Accept incomplete syllabus coverage and maximise speed and accuracy on the reliable chapters.