How to Prepare for the Early Grades Teacher License Test: An 8-Week Plan by Weight

Last verified: 31 October 2026. The weights come from ETEC's candidate guide for early grades teachers (pp. 6–7), and the standards from the standards document for early grades teachers. This guide is independent: it is not affiliated with ETEC, Qiyas (the National Center for Assessment), the Ministry of Education or any government body.

In short: an eight-week plan for the Early Grades test, one paper with six subjects (88 questions in 120 minutes) that measures your own level in each subject, not first-grade textbook level. Start with the free questions to find your weakest subject, then split your time by weight: two weeks for Arabic (25%), two for science (20%), one for mathematics (16%), one for Islamic studies (16%) together with the first full mock exam, a first week for growth characteristics (12%) and classroom environment and teaching methods (11%), and a last week for review. The next sitting is expected in late January 2027, so adjust the plan to finish before your date (dates).

How we split the time

The two biggest subjects, Arabic and science, make up 45% of the paper. Do not wait until week two to see where you stand in them: the free questions on day one give you a score for each subject, and then you decide whether to keep the schedule or change it (see the last section).

Rules for every week

• This is a subject test, not a school test: the questions measure your own knowledge of the subject, so the maths and science are at specialist level, not first-grade textbook level. Reviewing the primary curriculum alone is not enough.
• Read the standard, then practise: each standard has indicators in what the test covers, and each question measures one indicator. Start every topic with its indicators, then work its questions in practice mode.
• The official guide's questions: it has 10 worked examples and 25 practice questions (pp. 8–27). Solve them yourself in the week for their domain and check your answer against the key.
• Read the explanation of every option: a wrong option shows you the common misconception, so write down what you got wrong.
• Review your mistakes: every Sunday, redo last week's questions that you missed.
• No calculator: the test bans it, so work maths problems in your head and on paper from week one.
• End of every week: practise that week's units, then from week 7 take a full timed mock exam.

Week 1: diagnostic, growth characteristics, and classroom environment and teaching methods

• Day one: the free questions (10 of them) to see your score in every subject and the weakest of the six.
• 6.28.1: growth from before birth to middle childhood (8 indicators): cognitive, motor, social and language development, and development theories. One of the guide's examples is the start of Piaget's concrete operational stage.
• 6.28.2 and 6.28.3: promoting the areas of growth in early-grade students, and individual differences, including typical versus atypical development.
• 6.28.25: teaching methods and learning experiences: writing varied objectives, educational games that fit a student's development, and strategies such as induction, simulation, inquiry, discovery learning and differentiated instruction.
• 6.28.26: students' safety and health: psychological and physical safety, age-appropriate use of tools, signs of abuse and neglect, and healthy eating.
• End of week: practise both domains (23% together) and note your three weakest standards from the diagnostic. Their questions ask what a teacher does in a situation, so tie each fact to a situation in your class.

Week 2: Arabic (1): parts of speech and case endings

• 6.28.8: parts of speech, declinable and indeclinable words, definite and indefinite, and primary and substitute case markers (5 indicators).
• 6.28.9: nominative nouns: the doer and the substitute doer, what is nominative by dependency, and nouns that take a substitute marker such as the five nouns.
• 6.28.10: accusative nouns: the object, the excepted noun, the circumstantial adverb and the specifier, and what takes a substitute marker. It has the most indicators of the grammar standards (7).
• 6.28.11 and 6.28.12: genitive nouns and the construct phrase with what drops in it (such as the dual's nun), then the present-tense verb and its nominative, accusative and jussive forms.
• End of week: practise these standards. Most of their questions give a sentence and ask for a word's parsing or case marker, so write the case marker next to every example you solve.

Week 3: Arabic (2): styles, spelling and reading

• 6.28.13: exclamation, comparative, numbers (gender, specifier, how to read them) and the vocative, praise and blame. One of the guide's examples is reading a number written in digits.
• 6.28.14: spelling and punctuation (8 indicators): the hamza, sun and moon letters with "al", the open and closed ta, the final alif (ا or ى), and joining and separating words. It is the largest standard in the domain (about 5% of the test), so give it half the week.
• 6.28.15: types of reading, analysing an opinion, and telling the general idea from the partial one.
• End of week: practise the whole domain, since it is the largest in the test (25%).

Week 4: Science (1): biology, ecology and earth

• 6.28.20: characteristics and structure of living things: the cell, tissues, cell theory and levels of organisation. It is the largest science standard (5 indicators).
• 6.28.21: ecology: ecosystems, relationships between organisms, natural cycles, and pollution and its treatment.
• 6.28.22: Earth's structure: earthquakes, volcanoes and plate boundaries, weathering, erosion and deposition, and minerals.
• End of week: practise these standards. Write each term's definition in one sentence in your own words, and link causes to effects (for example plate movement and earthquakes).

Week 5: Science (2): matter and physics

• 6.28.23: matter, solutions, acids and bases: states of matter and their changes, atomic structure, solutions and colloids, and litmus paper. The guide has questions on these.
• 6.28.24: physics concepts: the electric force between charges, the electric field, magnetism and current, heat and temperature, and light and its speed.
• End of week: practise the whole domain (20%) and redo week four's mistakes.

Week 6: Mathematics

• 6.28.16: numbers and operations: fractions, ratio and proportion (including inverse proportion), patterns and word problems. No calculator.
• 6.28.17: geometry: types of angles and triangles, properties of quadrilaterals, perimeter and area.
• 6.28.18: measurement: units and converting between them, map scale and measurement problems.
• 6.28.19: statistics and probability: the mean and measures of spread, reading data displays, and expected value in simple cases.
• End of week: practise the whole domain (16%), and solve the official guide's maths problems on paper and against the clock.

Week 7: Islamic studies, and the first full mock exam

• 6.28.4: the Quran and tajweed (8 indicators): rules of the silent nun, tanween and silent meem, the lengthening rules, and the isti'adha and basmala. The guide has a question on the natural lengthening.
• 6.28.5: creed according to Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah: the articles of faith with their evidence, and the types of tawhid.
• 6.28.6: rulings of worship (10 indicators): impurity, purification, wudu and what breaks it, tayammum and wiping over socks, impurities, the conditions, pillars, obligations, sunnahs and invalidators of prayer, and Jumu'ah and the two Eids.
• 6.28.7: rulings on food and clothing: lawful and forbidden, the awrah, the hijab and imitation.
• End of week: practise the domain (16%), then take the first full timed mock exam in two hours with no phone and no calculator. Compare its result with the week-one diagnostic subject by subject.

Week 8: review

• Review the first full mock's mistakes and go back to its two weakest subjects. If Arabic or science is one of them, start there, since they are 45% of the questions.
• A second full mock exam midweek, then review its mistakes.
• Two days before the test: a third full mock exam, then a light review. Do not start a new topic on the last day.
• On test day: check the ID you need and what is allowed, sleep early and arrive early.

If you are weak in science and grammar

This is common among early grades teachers: a class teacher teaches every subject and knows some better than others. If the diagnostic shows science and Arabic grammar are your weakest, change the schedule like this:

• Shorten what you are strong in: growth characteristics and classroom environment and teaching methods (week one) are solved by understanding and by tying each fact to a classroom situation, so make them half a week and give the other half to grammar. That gives you about an extra week for science.
• Put science and Arabic ahead of the rest: move weeks 4 and 5 (science) to right after week one, then Arabic, so you reach the first full mock having gone through your weakest areas twice.
• Thirty minutes of grammar every day across the plan: one standard a day, without waiting for its week. Grammar sticks through short repetition, not a long sitting, and with spelling and reading it is over a quarter of the questions.
• In grammar, start with the substitute case markers: the five nouns, the dual and the sound masculine plural (nominative, accusative, genitive, and dropping the nun in a construct phrase). The official guide has questions on them. Then spelling (the hamza, the final alif, the closed ta), because it is the largest standard in the domain.
• In science, start with what the guide has questions on: cell and tissue structure, states of matter, solutions, acids and bases, and heat and electricity. Then ecology and Earth's structure.
• Count your time by questions: science is 18 questions and Arabic 22, and every extra question you get right there counts the same as one in any other subject, but there are more of them to win.
• Re-run the diagnostic after two weeks: practise science and Arabic only. If their scores rose, go back to the original schedule; if not, add a third session a week for each.

If you have less time

If fewer than eight weeks remain, start with the diagnostic and then compress the plan in this order: Arabic first, then science, then mathematics and Islamic studies, then growth characteristics and classroom environment. Keep the last three days for two full mock exams and a review of their mistakes. Remember that the license also needs the General Educational Test, and its level is set by the lower of the two scores.

This plan is our suggestion for organising your time and does not guarantee any score, and a mock exam result is an estimate of your readiness, not an official result. Start from unit practice with your weakest subject, and leave the full mock exam for the end of the plan.