PHYSICS

General
Units and dimensions, dimensional analysis; least count, significant figures; Methods of
measurement and error analysis for physical quantities pertaining to the following
experiments: Experiments based on using Vernier calipers and screw gauge
(micrometer), Determination of g using simple pendulum, Young’s modulus by Searle’s
method, Specific heat of a liquid using calorimeter, focal length of a concave mirror and
a convex lens using u-v method, Speed of sound using resonance column, Verification of
Ohm’s law using voltmeter and ammeter, and specific resistance of the material of a wire
using meter bridge and post office box.

Mechanics
Kinematics in one and two dimensions (Cartesian coordinates only), projectiles; Uniform
circular motion; Relative velocity.
Newton’s laws of motion; Inertial and uniformly accelerated frames of reference; Static
and dynamic friction; Kinetic and potential energy; Work and power; Conservation of
linear momentum and mechanical energy.
Systems of particles; Centre of mass and its motion; Impulse; Elastic and inelastic
collisions.
Law of gravitation; Gravitational potential and field; Acceleration due to gravity; Motion
of planets and satellites in circular orbits; Escape velocity.
Rigid body, moment of inertia, parallel and perpendicular axes theorems, moment of
inertia of uniform bodies with simple geometrical shapes; Angular momentum; Torque;
Conservation of angular momentum; Dynamics of rigid bodies with fixed axis of rotation;
Rolling without slipping of rings, cylinders and spheres; Equilibrium of rigid bodies;
Collision of point masses with rigid bodies.
Linear and angular simple harmonic motions.
Hooke’s law, Young’s modulus.
Pressure in a fluid; Pascal’s law; Buoyancy; Surface energy and surface tension, capillary
rise; Viscosity (Poiseuille’s equation excluded), Stoke’s law; Terminal velocity,
Streamline flow, equation of continuity, Bernoulli’s theorem and its applications.
Wave motion (plane waves only), longitudinal and transverse waves, superposition of
waves; Progressive and stationary waves; Vibration of strings and air columns;
Resonance; Beats; Speed of sound in gases; Doppler effect (in sound).

Thermal physics
Thermal expansion of solids, liquids and gases; Calorimetry, latent heat; Heat conduction
in one dimension; Elementary concepts of convection and radiation; Newton’s law of
cooling; Ideal gas laws; Specific heats (Cv and Cp for monoatomic and diatomic gases);
Isothermal and adiabatic processes, bulk modulus of gases; Equivalence of heat and
work; First law of thermodynamics and its applications (only for ideal gases); Blackbody
radiation: absorptive and emissive powers; Kirchhoff’s law; Wien’s displacement law,
Stefan’s law.

Electricity and magnetism

Coulomb’s law; Electric field and potential; Electrical potential energy of a system of
point charges and of electrical dipoles in a uniform electrostatic field; Electric field lines;
Flux of electric field; Gauss’s law and its application in simple cases, such as, to find
field due to infinitely long straight wire, uniformly charged infinite plane sheet and
uniformly charged thin spherical shell.
Capacitance; Parallel plate capacitor with and without dielectrics; Capacitors in series
and parallel; Energy stored in a capacitor.
Electric current; Ohm’s law; Series and parallel arrangements of resistances and cells;
Kirchhoff’s laws and simple applications; Heating effect of current.
Biot–Savart’s law and Ampere’s law; Magnetic field near a current-carrying straight
wire, along the axis of a circular coil and inside a long straight solenoid; Force on a
moving charge and on a current-carrying wire in a uniform magnetic field.
Magnetic moment of a current loop; Effect of a uniform magnetic field on a current loop;
Moving coil galvanometer, voltmeter, ammeter and their conversions.
Electromagnetic induction: Faraday’s law, Lenz’s law; Self and mutual inductance; RC,
LR and LC circuits with d.c. and a.c. sources.

Optics
Rectilinear propagation of light; Reflection and refraction at plane and spherical surfaces;
Total internal reflection; Deviation and dispersion of light by a prism; Thin lenses;
Combinations of mirrors and thin lenses; Magnification.
Wave nature of light: Huygen’s principle, interference limited to Young’s double-slit
experiment.

Modern physics
Atomic nucleus; α, β and γ radiations; Law of radioactive decay; Decay constant; Half-
life and mean life; Binding energy and its calculation; Fission and fusion processes;
Energy calculation in these processes.
Photoelectric effect; Bohr’s theory of hydrogen-like atoms; Characteristic and continuous
X-rays, Moseley’s law; de Broglie wavelength of matter waves.
 MATHEMATICS

Algebra
Algebra of complex numbers, addition, multiplication, conjugation, polar representation,
properties of modulus and principal argument, triangle inequality, cube roots of unity,
geometric interpretations.
Quadratic equations with real coefficients, relations between roots and coefficients,
formation of quadratic equations with given roots, symmetric functions of roots.
Arithmetic, geometric and harmonic progressions, arithmetic, geometric and harmonic
means, sums of finite arithmetic and geometric progressions, infinite geometric series,
sums of squares and cubes of the first n natural numbers.
Logarithms and their properties.
Permutations and combinations, binomial theorem for a positive integral index,
properties of binomial coefficients.

Matrices
Matrices as a rectangular array of real numbers, equality of matrices, addition,
multiplication by a scalar and product of matrices, transpose of a matrix, determinant of
a square matrix of order up to three, inverse of a square matrix of order up to three,
properties of these matrix operations, diagonal, symmetric and skew-symmetric matrices
and their properties, solutions of simultaneous linear equations in two or three variables.

Probability
Addition and multiplication rules of probability, conditional probability, Bayes Theorem,
independence of events, computation of probability of events using permutations and
combinations.
Trigonometry
Trigonometric functions, their periodicity and graphs, addition and subtraction formulae,
formulae involving multiple and sub-multiple angles, general solution of trigonometric
equations.
Relations between sides and angles of a triangle, sine rule, cosine rule, half-angle formula
and the area of a triangle, inverse trigonometric functions (principal value only).

Analytical geometry
Two dimensions: Cartesian coordinates, distance between two points, section formulae,
shift of origin.
Equation of a straight line in various forms, angle between two lines, distance of a point
from a line; Lines through the point of intersection of two given lines, equation of the
bisector of the angle between two lines, concurrency of lines; Centroid, orthocentre,
incentre and circumcentre of a triangle.
Equation of a circle in various forms, equations of tangent, normal and chord.
Parametric equations of a circle, intersection of a circle with a straight line or a circle,
equation of a circle through the points of intersection of two circles and those of a circle
and a straight line.
Equations of a parabola, ellipse and hyperbola in standard form, their foci, directrices and
eccentricity, parametric equations, equations of tangent and normal.
Locus problems.
Three dimensions: Direction cosines and direction ratios, equation of a straight line in
space, equation of a plane, distance of a point from a plane.

Differential calculus
Real valued functions of a real variable, into, onto and one-to-one functions, sum,
difference, product and quotient of two functions, composite functions, absolute value,
polynomial, rational, trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic functions.
Limit and continuity of a function, limit and continuity of the sum, difference, product
and quotient of two functions, L’Hospital rule of evaluation of limits of functions.
Even and odd functions, inverse of a function, continuity of composite functions,
intermediate value property of continuous functions.
Derivative of a function, derivative of the sum, difference, product and quotient of two
functions, chain rule, derivatives of polynomial, rational, trigonometric, inverse
trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic functions.
Derivatives of implicit functions, derivatives up to order two, geometrical interpretation
of the derivative, tangents and normals, increasing and decreasing functions, maximum
and minimum values of a function, Rolle’s theorem and Lagrange’s mean value theorem.

Integral calculus
Integration as the inverse process of differentiation, indefinite integrals of standard
functions, definite integrals and their properties, fundamental theorem of integral
calculus.
Integration by parts, integration by the methods of substitution and partial fractions,
application of definite integrals to the determination of areas involving simple curves.
Formation of ordinary differential equations, solution of homogeneous differential
equations, separation of variables method, linear first order differential equations.

Vectors
Addition of vectors, scalar multiplication, dot and cross products, scalar triple products
and their geometrical interpretations.
 CHEMISTRY

Physical chemistry

General topics
Concept of atoms and molecules; Dalton’s atomic theory; Mole concept; Chemical
formulae; Balanced chemical equations; Calculations (based on mole concept) involving
common oxidation-reduction, neutralisation, and displacement reactions; Concentration
in terms of mole fraction, molarity, molality and normality.

Gaseous and liquid states

Absolute scale of temperature, ideal gas equation; Deviation from ideality, van der Waals
equation; Kinetic theory of gases, average, root mean square and most probable velocities
and their relation with temperature; Law of partial pressures; Vapour pressure; Diffusion
of gases.

Atomic structure and chemical bonding

Bohr model, spectrum of hydrogen atom, quantum numbers; Wave-particle duality, de
Broglie hypothesis; Uncertainty principle; Qualitative quantum mechanical picture of
hydrogen atom, shapes of s, p and d orbitals; Electronic configurations of elements (up
to atomic number 36); Aufbau principle; Pauli’s exclusion principle and Hund’s rule;
Orbital overlap and covalent bond; Hybridisation involving s, p and d orbitals only;
Orbital energy diagrams for homonuclear diatomic species; Hydrogen bond; Polarity in
molecules, dipole moment (qualitative aspects only); VSEPR model and shapes of
molecules (linear, angular, triangular, square planar, pyramidal, square pyramidal,
trigonal bipyramidal, tetrahedral and octahedral).

Energetics
First law of thermodynamics; Internal energy, work and heat, pressure-volume work;
Enthalpy, Hess’s law; Heat of reaction, fusion and vapourization; Second law of
thermodynamics; Entropy; Free energy; Criterion of spontaneity.
Chemical equilibrium
Law of mass action; Equilibrium constant, Le Chatelier’s principle (effect of
concentration, temperature and pressure); Significance of ΔG and ΔG 0 in chemical
equilibrium; Solubility product, common ion effect, pH and buffer solutions; Acids and
bases (Bronsted and Lewis concepts); Hydrolysis of salts.

Electrochemistry
Electrochemical cells and cell reactions; Standard electrode potentials; Nernst equation
and its relation to ΔG; Electrochemical series, emf of galvanic cells; Faraday’s laws of
electrolysis; Electrolytic conductance, specific, equivalent and molar conductivity,
Kohlrausch’s law; Concentration cells.

Chemical kinetics
Rates of chemical reactions; Order of reactions; Rate constant; First order reactions;
Temperature dependence of rate constant (Arrhenius equation).

Solid state
Classification of solids, crystalline state, seven crystal systems (cell parameters a, b, c, α,
β, γ), close packed structure of solids (cubic), packing in fcc, bcc and hcp lattices; Nearest
neighbours, ionic radii, simple ionic compounds, point defects.

Solutions
Raoult’s law; Molecular weight determination from lowering of vapour pressure,
elevation of boiling point and depression of freezing point.

Surface chemistry
Elementary concepts of adsorption (excluding adsorption isotherms); Colloids: types,
methods of preparation and general properties; Elementary ideas of emulsions,
surfactants and micelles (only definitions and examples).
Nuclear chemistry
Radioactivity: isotopes and isobars; Properties of α, β and γ rays; Kinetics of radioactive
decay (decay series excluded), carbon dating; Stability of nuclei with respect to proton-
neutron ratio; Brief discussion on fission and fusion reactions.

Inorganic chemistry

Isolation/preparation and properties of the following non-metals

Boron, silicon, nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, sulphur and halogens; Properties of
allotropes of carbon (only diamond and graphite), phosphorus and sulphur.

Preparation and properties of the following compounds

Oxides, peroxides, hydroxides, carbonates, bicarbonates, chlorides and sulphates of
sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium; Boron: diborane, boric acid and borax;
Aluminium: alumina, aluminium chloride and alums; Carbon: oxides and oxyacid
(carbonic acid); Silicon: silicones, silicates and silicon carbide; Nitrogen: oxides,
oxyacids and ammonia; Phosphorus: oxides, oxyacids (phosphorus acid, phosphoric
acid) and phosphine; Oxygen: ozone and hydrogen peroxide; Sulphur: hydrogen
sulphide, oxides, sulphurous acid, sulphuric acid and sodium thiosulphate; Halogens:
hydrohalic acids, oxides and oxyacids of chlorine, bleaching powder; Xenon fluorides.

Transition elements (3d series)

Definition, general characteristics, oxidation states and their stabilities, colour (excluding
the details of electronic transitions) and calculation of spin-only magnetic moment;
Coordination compounds: nomenclature of mononuclear coordination compounds, cis-
trans and ionisation isomerisms, hybridization and geometries of mononuclear
coordination compounds (linear, tetrahedral, square planar and octahedral).
Preparation and properties of the following compounds
Oxides and chlorides of tin and lead; Oxides, chlorides and sulphates of Fe 2+, Cu2+ and
Zn2+; Potassium permanganate, potassium dichromate, silver oxide, silver nitrate, silver
thiosulphate.

Ores and minerals

Commonly occurring ores and minerals of iron, copper, tin, lead, magnesium, aluminium,
zinc and silver.

Extractive metallurgy
Chemical principles and reactions only (industrial details excluded); Carbon reduction
method (iron and tin); Self reduction method (copper and lead); Electrolytic reduction
method (magnesium and aluminium); Cyanide process (silver and gold).

Principles of qualitative analysis

Groups I to V (only Ag+, Hg2+, Cu2+, Pb2+, Bi3+, Fe3+, Cr3+, Al3+, Ca2+, Ba2+, Zn2+, Mn2+
and Mg2+); Nitrate, halides (excluding fluoride), sulphate and sulphide.

Organic chemistry

Concepts
Hybridisation of carbon; σ and π-bonds; Shapes of simple organic molecules; Structural
and geometrical isomerism; Optical isomerism of compounds containing up to two
asymmetric centres, (R,S and E,Z nomenclature excluded); IUPAC nomenclature of
simple organic compounds (only hydrocarbons, mono-functional and bi-functional
compounds); Conformations of ethane and butane (Newman projections); Resonance and
hyperconjugation; Keto-enoltautomerism; Determination of empirical and molecular
formulae of simple compounds (only combustion method); Hydrogen bonds: definition
and their effects on physical properties of alcohols and carboxylic acids; Inductive and
resonance effects on acidity and basicity of organic acids and bases; Polarity and
inductive effects in alkyl halides; Reactive intermediates produced during homolytic and
heterolytic bond cleavage; Formation, structure and stability of carbocations, carbanions
and free radicals.

Preparation, properties and reactions of alkanes

Homologous series, physical properties of alkanes (melting points, boiling points and
density); Combustion and halogenation of alkanes; Preparation of alkanes by Wurtz
reaction and decarboxylation reactions.

Preparation, properties and reactions of alkenes and alkynes

Physical properties of alkenes and alkynes (boiling points, density and dipole moments);
Acidity of alkynes; Acid catalysed hydration of alkenes and alkynes (excluding the
stereochemistry of addition and elimination); Reactions of alkenes with KMnO 4 and
ozone; Reduction of alkenes and alkynes; Preparation of alkenes and alkynes by
elimination reactions; Electrophilic addition reactions of alkenes with X2, HX, HOX and
H2O (X=halogen); Addition reactions of alkynes; Metal acetylides.

Reactions of benzene
Structure and aromaticity; Electrophilic substitution reactions: halogenation, nitration,
sulphonation, Friedel-Crafts alkylation and acylation; Effect of o-, m- and p-directing
groups in monosubstituted benzenes.

Phenols
Acidity, electrophilic substitution reactions (halogenation, nitration and sulphonation);
Reimer-Tieman reaction, Kolbe reaction.

Characteristic reactions of the following (including those mentioned above)

Alkyl halides: rearrangement reactions of alkyl carbocation, Grignard reactions,
nucleophilic substitution reactions; Alcohols: esterification, dehydration and oxidation,
reaction with sodium, phosphorus halides, ZnCl2/concentrated HCl, conversion of
alcohols into aldehydes and ketones; Ethers: Preparation by Williamson’s Synthesis;
Aldehydes and Ketones: oxidation, reduction, oxime and hydrazone formation; aldol
condensation, Perkin reaction; Cannizzaro reaction; haloform reaction and nucleophilic
addition reactions (Grignard addition); Carboxylic acids: formation of esters, acid
chlorides and amides, ester hydrolysis; Amines: basicity of substituted anilines and
aliphatic amines, preparation from nitro compounds, reaction with nitrous acid, azo
coupling reaction of diazonium salts of aromatic amines, Sandmeyer and related reactions
of diazonium salts; carbylamine reaction; Haloarenes: nucleophilic aromatic substitution
in haloarenes and substituted haloarenes (excluding Benzyne mechanism and Cine
substitution).

Carbohydrates
Classification; mono- and di-saccharides (glucose and sucrose); Oxidation, reduction,
glycoside formation and hydrolysis of sucrose.

Amino acids and peptides

General structure (only primary structure for peptides) and physical properties.

Properties and uses of some important polymers

Natural rubber, cellulose, nylon, teflon and PVC.

Practical organic chemistry

Detection of elements (N, S, halogens); Detection and identification of the following
functional groups: hydroxyl (alcoholic and phenolic), carbonyl (aldehyde and ketone),
carboxyl, amino and nitro; Chemical methods of separation of mono-functional organic
compounds from binary mixtures.