Kindergarten Teacher License Test Content: 8 Domains, 20 Standards and Weights
Content of the Kindergarten teacher license test: the eight domains and weights (development and learning 26%), all 20 standards and ETEC's question style.
- Questions and time
- 88 questions · 120 minutes
- Pass mark
- 50%
- Exam fee
- SAR 100 for the subject test
Start with 10 free questions to find what needs more work. No sign-up, with answer explanations.
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Teacher License – Kindergarten
Start with 10 free questions to find what needs more work. No sign-up, with answer explanations.
Try 10 free questions and see your levelLast verified: 31 October 2026. Our sources are the candidate guide to the Professional License test for kindergarten teachers and the standards for kindergarten teachers, both issued by the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) (the 1441 AH / 2020 edition). 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 Kindergarten test measures 20 standards in eight domains. The largest is development and learning at 26%, then interaction and guidance at 14%, then teaching and learning and the learning environment at 13% each. Those four make up 66% of the questions. Assessment, family and community partnership, and professional development are 8% each.
A test for the kindergarten stage
This is the Professional License test for teachers at the kindergarten stage (رياض الأطفال), and ETEC publishes a separate guide and standards for it. It is not the Early Grades (الصفوف الأولية) test, which is taken by teachers of grades one to three, so pick the test for your own field on the e-services portal. Its questions are about your work with a child before school: how children grow, how you plan experiences and set up the room, how you handle behaviour and families, and how you keep children healthy and safe.
The license needs two tests: this subject test and the General Educational Test. Your level uses the lower of the two scores.
Test format
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Questions | 88 questions |
| Question type | Multiple choice with four options; each question measures one indicator of one standard |
| Time | 120 minutes (two hours) |
| Delivery | Paper or computer depending on the subject, shown in your profile |
| Language | Arabic |
| Calculator | Not allowed |
| Scoring | Criterion-referenced; wrong answers carry no penalty |
| Level scores | 50 for Practitioner Teacher, 70 for Advanced Teacher, 80 and above for Expert Teacher (Professional License Regulations, Article 4) |
The eight domains and their weights
These weights come from the table on page 7 of the candidate guide, and they are the ones used here.
| Domain | Official weight | Standards | Questions out of 88 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domains of Development and Learning | 26% | 6 | 23 |
| Teaching and Learning | 13% | 2 | 12 |
| Learning Environment | 13% | 2 | 11 |
| Interaction and Guidance | 14% | 2 | 12 |
| Assessment | 8% | 2 | 7 |
| Family and Community Partnership | 8% | 2 | 7 |
| Child Health and Safety | 10% | 2 | 9 |
| Professional Development | 8% | 2 | 7 |
| Total | 100% | 20 | 88 |
Each question measures one indicator, and the test does not have to cover every indicator.
The 20 standards, one by one
Standard names follow the standards document (numbered 6.22.1 to 6.22.20). The "What it measures" column is our summary of their indicators, and the weight beside each standard is its weight in the test. The standards carry about 270 indicators, most of them in language (22), planning (21) and cognition (20).
Domains of Development and Learning (26%)
| Standard | Name | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.22.1 | Child development characteristics and needs | 3% | the areas of child development and how they integrate, individual differences, factors that affect development, signs of delay, applying development and learning theories, and the belief that every child can learn |
| 6.22.2 | Emotional and social development | 4% | emotional and social development, the child's need for independence, achievement and a sense of self, building confidence, relationships with peers and adults, expressing feelings without hurting others, self-control and social skills |
| 6.22.3 | Psychomotor development | 4% | psychomotor development, designing experiences for sensorimotor coordination and visual and auditory perception, supporting large and small muscles, linking motor development to the other domains, and using art to build fine-muscle control |
| 6.22.4 | Language development | 6% | language development, building vocabulary, the four language skills, emergent reading and writing, daily read-aloud, modelling standard Arabic, spotting language delay and supporting children with language difficulties (22 indicators) |
| 6.22.5 | Cognitive development | 6% | cognitive development, science and maths concepts, basic and higher-order thinking (observing, classifying, predicting, analysing), problem solving, scientific inquiry, open-ended questions and free exploration (20 indicators) |
| 6.22.6 | Early detection of developmental delay | 3% | signs of disability and developmental delay (autism spectrum and Down syndrome, for example), adapting the environment and assessment for children with special needs, early intervention and working with the special-education teacher |
Teaching and Learning (13%)
| Standard | Name | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.22.7 | Planning for teaching and learning | 6% | designing experiences on principles suited to the stage, writing objectives, building on the child's experience and interests, integration with the unit theme, play in learning, a flexible daily schedule and planning from assessment results (21 indicators) |
| 6.22.8 | Implementing learning experiences | 7% | running guided activities in an order tied to the unit theme, varying learning methods, letting children choose, continuous assessment, questions that provoke thinking, small and large groups and materials from the environment (17 indicators) |
Learning Environment (13%)
| Standard | Name | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.22.9 | Designing the learning environment | 6% | designing the environment on educational principles, self-directed learning, avoiding sensory distraction, smooth movement between corners, saving resources, and natural and artificial light and ventilation |
| 6.22.10 | Equipping the learning environment | 7% | dividing the room into clear corners and work areas, being able to see and hear every child, a place to display children's work, a calm corner, challenging tools and materials, technology, refreshing corners and enriching the outdoor area (16 indicators) |
Interaction and Guidance (14%)
| Standard | Name | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.22.11 | Classroom management and positive interaction | 7% | fair treatment and respect for every child and for diversity, being a source of security, being firm and gentle, involving children in making rules, applying them consistently, modelling, staying calm in difficult moments and teaching negotiation and conflict resolution |
| 6.22.12 | Guiding and managing behaviour | 7% | patience with children's behaviour, preventive and positive approaches, moral reinforcement, analysing why a behaviour happens, no physical or psychological punishment, involving the child and family, and telling a behaviour problem from a behaviour disorder (16 indicators) |
Assessment (8%)
| Standard | Name | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.22.13 | Assessing child development and learning | 4% | choosing assessment tools in real situations, formal and informal assessment, systematic observation, portfolios, technology, daily reflection, child self-assessment, individual plans, informing families and keeping results confidential (15 indicators) |
| 6.22.14 | Evaluating the learning environment | 4% | evaluating your own practice through self-assessment and colleagues' views, evaluating the tools and media you use, adjusting experiences from results, using a learning-environment rating scale and comparing equipment with technical specifications |
Family and Community Partnership (8%)
| Standard | Name | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.22.15 | Partnership with families | 4% | collecting information about families while respecting privacy and confidentiality, respecting their values and diversity, a professional relationship, involving them in planning, delivery and assessment, varied communication channels, regular meetings and parenting guidance (16 indicators) |
| 6.22.16 | Partnership with the community | 4% | learning about supportive community services and bodies, introducing them to families, using cultural resources and specialists' expertise, field visits and having community bodies take part in activities |
Child Health and Safety (10%)
| Standard | Name | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.22.17 | Child security and safety | 6% | safety rules with children, evacuation plans and drills, first aid and a valid certificate, maintaining and checking equipment and the outdoor area, recognising child abuse, reporting it and supporting the child (17 indicators) |
| 6.22.18 | Child health and nutrition standards | 4% | following children's health files, hand washing and sanitising, personal hygiene habits, a policy for food brought from home, modelling and teaching healthy eating, table manners and a clean eating area (13 indicators) |
Professional Development (8%)
| Standard | Name | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.22.19 | Continuous learning and keeping up with the field | 4% | children's rights in childhood and education, linking theory to children's behaviour in professional language, training and keeping up with developments, meeting colleagues, following research and accepting feedback from the head and supervisor |
| 6.22.20 | Professional ethics and conduct | 4% | keeping to national and international conventions on children, helping spread awareness of children's rights, the professional ethics charter, the institution's rules and policies and following set procedures at work |
The question style in ETEC's guide
The guide shows ten sample questions with the reasoning for the answer, then 25 practice questions with an answer key. From them you can see the style of the test:
- Situations inside the kindergarten: children chatter and drift off during circle time, so what is the best response? The teacher pauses and scans the children with her eyes until they settle. Likewise a child behind on fine motor tasks such as drawing and cutting should be referred to an occupational therapist.
- Development concepts: large-muscle development outpaces fine-muscle development (growth runs from whole to part), parallel play between two-to-three-year-olds, and which activity Piaget saw as contributing most to development (cooperative group play).
- Planning and objectives: which wording does not make a measurable learning objective? "Practise holding the pencil" is an example of wrong wording.
- Language and thinking: what best encourages children to use standard Arabic (the teacher speaking it herself as a model), and an open question that provokes thinking in a ball-dropping experiment.
- Behaviour, families and safety: the conditions for children's rules (stated positively, few in number and flexible), the best sign that you understand the importance of the family (a real partnership that grows over time), and teaching children how to prevent colds in winter.
The questions test applying knowledge in a kindergarten situation, so memorising definitions is not enough. ETEC itself notes that the guide's examples do not cover every aspect of the test and do not show the difficulty of the real questions.
How to use this table when you study
- Start with the free questions (10 of them) to see which domains are weakest for you.
- Order your time by weight: development and learning first (26%), then interaction and guidance (14%), then teaching and learning and the learning environment (13% each). The eight-week plan is built on these weights.
- Do not neglect the small domains. Assessment, family and community partnership, and professional development together make up 24% of the questions.
- The heaviest single standards are four at 7%: implementing learning experiences (6.22.8), equipping the environment (6.22.10), classroom management (6.22.11) and guiding behaviour (6.22.12). Five more carry 6%: language (6.22.4), cognition (6.22.5), planning (6.22.7), designing the environment (6.22.9) and child safety (6.22.17). They deserve more time than the standards worth 3% or 4%.
Your score on our questions is an estimate of your readiness and not an official result. Each unit in unit practice is one of these eight domains, so if the free questions show weakness in assessment or the learning environment, say, practise that domain on its own.
Finished reading? Try a set of questions
Start with 10 free questions to find your weakest units. Keep practising with the full question bank and mock exams from SAR 26.
Sources and references
- ETEC – Professional License Test for Educational Professions (dates, scoring, FAQ and e-services) etec.gov.sa
- ETEC – Candidate guide for Kindergarten teachers (domains, weights and sample questions) media.etec.gov.sa
- ETEC – Subject standards for Kindergarten teachers (1441 AH / 2020) media.etec.gov.sa
- ETEC – Professional License Regulations for Educational Jobs (1445 AH revision) media.etec.gov.sa