How to Prepare for the General Educational Test: A Plan by Days Remaining and Standard Weights

Last verified: 20 October 2026. Our source is the Professional License Test for Educational Professions page on the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) website; dates can change, so check it before you act. 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: the General Educational Test is 88 questions in two hours, on paper and without a calculator, and four standards alone (language and quantitative skills, learners, planning and delivery, and assessment) account for about 60% of the questions. Start with them, and measure yourself with a full timed mock exam at least a week before your test (6–7 November 2026).

Know what you are facing

• Time: 120 minutes for 88 questions, about 80 seconds per question. Do not spend more than two minutes on any one question.
• No penalty for wrong answers: score = correct answers ÷ 88 × 100, so never leave a question blank.
• Your target in numbers: 44 correct answers for a score of 50, 62 for 70 and 71 for 80. The level you need depends on your qualification, experience and subject-test score, so read how the level is worked out before you set your target.
• No calculator: ETEC bans it in the test, and the quantitative questions in Standard 4 are solved by mental and written arithmetic, so practise them that way from day one.
• Paper-based and in Arabic: you will shade your answers on an answer sheet, so get used to settling on an answer and moving on.

Where the questions go

These are the weights of the nine standards as given in the candidate guide for the General Educational Test (p. 7). The questions column is each standard's share of the 88 questions, and it is the same split our timed mock exams use. Standard 6 (subject knowledge) is assessed by the subject-specific test, not the General Educational Test.

The plan by days remaining

More than 4 weeks left

1. Start with the free practice test: 10 free questions covering the main standards, with every answer explained, to see which standards are weakest for you.
2. Sign in to the practice area; 10 questions and the first standard's study notes are free, while the full question bank, study notes, flashcards and timed mock exams come with 7-day or lifetime full access (prices).
3. Study one standard every two days in the order of the table above: read the standard's summary, then answer its questions in study mode until you understand why each answer is right, not until you memorise it.
4. Redo every question you got wrong from your wrong-answers list two or three days later.

Two to three weeks left (where you are if you register for the November 2026 round now)

1. Day 1: a full mock exam of 88 questions in two hours, with no phone and no calculator. That is your baseline.
2. Days 2 to 10: focus on Standards 4, 5, 8 and 10 (53 of the 88 questions), one standard every two days, with 30 to 40 questions a day and wrong answers reviewed the same day.
3. Days 11 to 14: Standards 9, 1, 3, 7 and 2 at a faster pace, then a second full mock exam. Compare its score with the first, standard by standard.

The last week

• Two full timed mock exams, with a day between them spent only on wrong answers and weak points.
• Do not start new topics. Review the Standard 4 flashcards (spelling, grammar, percentages and arithmetic) every day, as it is the heaviest standard.
• Confirm your date and centre in your profile and that your ID is valid, and read what to bring on test day.

The day before

Light review of no more than an hour, and enough sleep. According to ETEC's instructions for paper test centres, you receive a text message with your seat number the day before the test.

Common traps in the questions

• Hamzat al-wasl and al-qat' (Standard 4): the hamza in ابن، اسم، انتفع، استخراج is wasl, while the hamza of a three-letter past verb and its verbal noun and of a four-letter verb and its verbal noun (أخذ، أكرم، إكرام) is qat'; decide by the type of word, not by how it looks.
• Numbers and the counted noun (Standard 4): numbers 3 to 10 take the opposite gender to the singular of the counted noun: ثلاثة كتب and ثلاث قصص, and the correct form is خمس عشرة قصة, not خمسة عشر قصة.
• Reversing a percentage (Standard 4): if a price is SAR 75 after a 25% discount, the original is 75 ÷ 0.75 = 100, not 75 + 25% of 75.
• Main-idea questions: the wrong options are usually a detail, an idea broader than the text, or one the text never states; the right one could serve as a title for the whole text.

This plan is our suggestion for organising your time and does not guarantee any score; your result in the mock exams is only an estimate of readiness, not an official result.