Science 1 Teacher License Test Content: 7 Domains, 26 Standards and Weights

Last verified: 31 October 2026. Our sources are the candidate guide for the Teachers' Professional License test in Science 1 and the Science 1 teacher standards, both published by the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) (1441 AH / 2020 edition; the guide is a trial 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 Science 1 test covers 26 standards in seven domains. Chemistry and physics together are only 38.5% of the questions. Biology is 20%, earth science and astronomy 14%, science teaching 12%, history and nature of science 10.5%, and experimentation 5%. So the test is lighter on chemistry and physics and heavier on earth and space science and teaching than Science 2.

Science 1 and Science 2: which one is yours?

The two tests are separate, each with its own guide, standards and weights. According to the Ministry of Education's guide to educational jobs and their specialisations (2025), a primary-school science teacher needs "the professional license in Science (1)" and an intermediate-school teacher needs "Science (2)". This guide covers Science 1 only; Science 2 has its own page, Teacher License – Science 2.

The differences in content:

• Lighter chemistry and physics: Science 1 has no mole calculations and no redox. Its chemistry focuses on the nature of matter, the periodic table, solutions, and acids and bases.
• New topics: simple machines and levers, fluids (adhesion, cohesion, buoyancy), magnetism and electromagnets, and renewable vs non-renewable resources.
• Heavier on teaching: students' misconceptions and how to diagnose and treat them, types of thinking (scientific, creative, critical), and the TIMSS and PISA tests.

Test format

ETEC does not publish a separate question count or duration for Science 1, so our mock exams use 88 questions in 120 minutes, as in Science 2. On 88 questions, a score of 50 means about 44 correct answers, 70 about 62, and 80 about 71. Your license level is set by the lower of your subject-test and General Educational Test scores, together with your qualification and years of experience. The registration steps are in the registration guide.

The seven domains and their weights

These weights come from the figure and the table on pages 6 and 7 of the candidate guide. The questions column is each domain's share of 88 questions by the largest-remainder method, the split our mock exams use.

The guide does not publish a weight for each standard within a domain, so do not assume the standards weigh the same. Each question measures one indicator, and the test does not have to cover every indicator.

What each domain tests

• History, Nature and Integration of Science (10.5%): what a fact, law and theory are, the scientific method and research ethics, scientists' contributions, and how the sciences connect to each other and to life.
• Experimentation and Mathematical Skills (5%): lab safety, measurement and units, and reading tables and graphs.
• Biology (20%): the cell, organ systems and life processes, classification, ecology and food chains, and genetics, cell division and life cycles.
• Earth Science and Astronomy (14%): the solar system, seasons, eclipses and tides, Earth's interior, earthquakes, volcanoes, rocks and fossils, and weather, climate and resources.
• Chemistry (19.5%): matter and its changes, the periodic table, bonds and balancing equations, solutions, reaction rate and heat, acids and bases, and organic chemistry and petroleum.
• Physics (19%): forces, motion and simple machines, fluids, electricity and magnetism, heat, light, and waves and sound.
• Science Teaching (12%): trends in science education, misconceptions, types of thinking, and teaching strategies, classroom management and assessment.

The 26 standards one by one

Standard names are as in the standards document, and the "What it measures" column is our summary of their indicators (110 in total).

History, Nature and Integration of Science (10.5%)

Experimentation, Mathematical Skills and Data Representation (5%)

Biology (20%)

Earth Science and Astronomy (14%)

Chemistry (19.5%)

Physics (19%)

Science Teaching (12%)

The question style in ETEC's guide

The guide shows ten sample questions with the reasoning behind each answer, then twenty-five practice questions with an answer key that links each question to its standard and indicator. They show the pattern of the test:

• Direct concepts: which organelle is found in plant cells but not animal cells? The answer is the chloroplast. In history and nature of science: describing a phenomenon without explaining it is a law.
• Safe lab behaviour: a question on spilled liquid nitrogen and the lack of oxygen in the air.
• Short calculations: the work done lifting a 20 N box 1.5 m is 30 J, balancing a seesaw by moments, and a mass percentage, all without a calculator.
• Reading tables and figures: two distance-time tables that give the same straight line, and the path of light rays through a convex lens.
• Teaching questions: recognising creative thinking (coming up with a new way to tackle desertification) and recognising a project as a series of performance tasks completed by a group of students.

ETEC itself notes that the guide's examples do not cover every aspect of the test and do not reflect how easy or hard the real questions are.

Biology, chemistry and physics each have their own subject test that goes much further than their share here: the Biology test, the Chemistry test and the Physics test. Choose the test that matches the subject of the job you are applying for.

How to use this table when you study

1. Start with the free questions (10 questions) to see which domains are weakest for you.
2. Order your time by weight: biology, chemistry and physics first (about 58.5% together), then earth science and astronomy and science teaching (26%). The study plan is built on these weights.
3. Do not neglect the small domains. History of science, experimentation and science teaching together are 27.5% of the questions (roughly 24), and many of them are direct questions you win with understanding, not calculation.
4. Practise short calculations without a calculator, especially in physics and solutions.

Your score on our questions is an estimate of readiness, not an official result. Each unit in unit practice is one of these seven domains, so if the free questions show a weakness in earth and space science or physics, say, you can practise that domain on its own.