The Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC) opened the UPSSSC PET Online Form 2026 on 3 August 2026 under Advertisement No. 16-परीक्षा/2026. If you’re planning to apply for any UP Group C government post this year- Lekhpal, Junior Assistant, Village Development Officer, or dozens of others- this Preliminary Eligibility Test is the exam you clear first. Here’s everything you need for the UPSSSC PET Application Form 2026: dates, fees, eligibility, exam pattern, and a step-by-step application process, along with the syllabus breakdown most notification summaries skip.
UPSSSC PET 2026: Important Dates
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Notification released | 1 August 2026 |
| UPSSSC PET Online Form 2026 start date | 3 August 2026 |
| Last date to apply online | 1 September 2026 |
| Last date to pay application fee | 1 September 2026 |
| Application correction window | 10 August 2026 – 8 September 2026 |
| Admit card | To be released before the exam |
| Exam date | Yet to be announced |
Useful Links
| Apply Online | Click Here |
| Official Notification | Click Here |
| FreeExamPreparation Website | Click Here |
Application Fee
| Category | Fee |
|---|---|
| General / OBC / EWS | ₹185 |
| SC / ST | ₹95 |
| PwD (Divyang) | ₹25 |
Payment can be made online via debit card, credit card, net banking, UPI, or SBI e-Challan.
Eligibility Criteria
- Education: Passed Class 10 (High School) from a recognised board, or hold any higher qualification. There’s no upper educational cap; graduates and postgraduates can apply too.
- Age: Minimum 18 years, maximum 40 years as of 1 July 2026, with standard age relaxation for reserved categories as per UPSSSC rules.
- Nationality: Indian citizen. Note that PET itself is open to candidates from anywhere in India, though many of the individual recruitment posts it feeds into require UP domicile; check each post’s specific notification separately.
How to Fill the UPSSSC PET Online Form 2026 — Step by Step
Most guides skip the registration step that actually trips candidates up, so here’s the full sequence:
- Complete One Time Registration (OTR) first. This is mandatory and separate from the PET form itself. Visit the official UPSSSC website and complete OTR if you haven’t already. Your name, date of birth, and mobile number entered here become permanent and cannot be edited later, so double-check them before submitting.
- Log in using your OTR number and registered mobile number on the UPSSSC portal.
- Fill in the PET-specific application details — educational qualification, category, and other personal information not already captured in OTR.
- Upload the required documents (photograph, signature, and certificates as specified in the notification).
- Pay the application fee online using any of the accepted payment modes.
- Download and print the submitted form for your own records.
- Use the correction window (10 August – 8 September 2026) if you need to fix details like email, intermediate qualification, category status, or disability certification. Name, date of birth, and mobile number from OTR cannot be changed even during this window.
Read the official notification PDF carefully before you begin — age limit, qualification proof (only your High School certificate DOB is accepted, no other document), and category-specific requirements are all spelled out there.
UPSSSC PET 2026 Exam Pattern
This is where most “notification summary” articles stop short but the pattern is what actually determines how you prepare:
- Total questions: 100 objective-type MCQs
- Total marks: 100
- Duration: 2 hours
- Negative marking: ¼ mark (0.25) deducted per wrong answer
- Mode: Offline, pen-and-paper
UPSSSC PET Syllabus 2026 — Subject-wise Breakdown
The exam draws from 15 subjects, most set at a Class 10–12 (NCERT) difficulty level:
| Subject | Approx. Questions/Marks |
|---|---|
| Indian History | 5 |
| Indian National Movement | 5 |
| Geography (India & World) | 5 |
| Indian Economy | 5 |
| Indian Constitution & Public Administration | 5 |
| General Science | 5 |
| Elementary Arithmetic | 5 |
| General Hindi | 5 |
| General English | 5 |
| General Awareness | 10 |
| Current Affairs | 10 |
| Reasoning | 5 |
| Graph & Table Interpretation | 10 |
| Analysis of Unnamed/Unseen Hindi Passages (2 passages) | 10 |
| General Knowledge (India & UP-specific) | remaining marks |
Current Affairs and General Awareness together carry the heaviest weightage, and graph/table interpretation shows up more than most candidates expect for what looks like a GK-heavy paper; both are worth prioritising early rather than leaving for the last week.
What the PET Score Actually Gets You
PET is not a recruitment exam on its own; it’s a qualifying score. Once you clear it, that score stays valid for 3 years and becomes your entry ticket to apply for the Mains exam of individual UPSSSC posts advertised during that window, including:
- Lekhpal (Revenue Lekhpal)
- Junior Assistant
- Village Development Officer (VDO)
- Forest Guard
- Stenographer
- X-Ray Technician
- Assistant Accountant
- Panchayat Sahayak, and several other Group C posts
This is why clearing PET well matters even before you know exactly which post you’ll target, a strong score keeps more doors open for three years.
Previous Years’ Cutoff Trends
UPSSSC does not publish a single fixed minimum qualifying mark for PET itself. However, based on past cycles, category-wise cutoffs used by individual recruitments to shortlist candidates for Mains have typically ranged from 60 to 80 out of 100. Treat this as a rough benchmark for how competitive an “average” post-PET shortlist tends to be, not a guaranteed cutoff for 2026, actual figures depend on the specific post, vacancy count, and applicant pool each year.
Preparation Tips
- Don’t skip sections assuming they’re minor — Current Affairs, General Awareness, and Graph/Table Interpretation together account for nearly a third of the paper.
- Practice previous year UPSSSC PET papers to get a feel for phrasing and difficulty, not just topic coverage.
- Because of the 0.25 negative marking, guessing blindly on questions you’re unsure about can cost you more than skipping them — attempt only what you can eliminate down to 1-2 options confidently.
- Revise UP-specific static GK separately — several recruitments that PET feeds into weight state-specific knowledge more heavily at the Mains stage, so building that base now saves you work later.
FAQs
Is UPSSSC PET 2026 a recruitment exam by itself?
No. It’s a qualifying eligibility test. Clearing it lets you apply for the Mains exam of specific UPSSSC Group C posts advertised during your score’s 3-year validity.
Can graduates apply for UPSSSC PET even though the minimum qualification is Class 10?
Yes. There’s no upper educational limit — the Class 10 pass requirement is the floor, not the ceiling.
What happens if I make an error in my OTR details after generating my PET registration number?
Name, date of birth, and mobile number from OTR are locked once your PET registration number is generated; the correction window (10 August–8 September 2026) only covers other fields like email, category status, and qualification updates.
Is there negative marking in UPSSSC PET 2026?
Yes, 0.25 marks are deducted for every wrong answer, so accuracy matters as much as coverage.
How long is a UPSSSC PET score valid?
Three years from the date the result is declared or uploaded on the official UPSSSC website.
Always cross-check dates, fees, and eligibility against the official notification at upsssc.gov.in before applying — details here are current as of publication but subject to official updates.