The National Testing Service conducts screening tests for a wide range of public sector jobs, admissions and departmental recruitment. If you have come to an NTS test straight from preparing for a commission paper, the first thing to know is that it is a different kind of test, and preparing for it the same way wastes time.
What makes it different
A commission one-paper test is mostly a knowledge test. An NTS test usually divides into something closer to:
- Verbal reasoning — vocabulary, analogies, sentence completion, grammar, reading comprehension
- Quantitative reasoning — arithmetic, percentages, ratios, fractions, averages, simple algebra, basic geometry, data interpretation
- Analytical reasoning — number and letter series, logical puzzles, coding and decoding, odd one out, seating and ordering problems
- General Knowledge, Pakistan Studies and Islamiyat, and sometimes computer or everyday science
- Subject or professional knowledge, where the post calls for it
The exact composition depends on the test you are sitting, and the announcement for your test is the authority. The official source is nts.org.pk.
The important part is the proportion: a large share of an NTS paper tests technique rather than recall. Analytical and quantitative questions cannot be memorised. They can only be practised.
Analytical reasoning is the highest-return section
Most candidates neglect analytical reasoning because it feels unfamiliar. That is exactly why it is worth your time.
Unlike General Knowledge, it is finite. There are perhaps a dozen recurring question types, and once you have worked through each a few times you will recognise them on sight. Someone who has practised fifty puzzles is not slightly better than someone who has practised none; they are in a different band entirely.
Learn to recognise the types:
- Number and letter series — find the step, then find the exception
- Coding and decoding — map letters to positions and look for a shift
- Seating, ordering and ranking — draw it; never hold it in your head
- Blood relations — draw it as a tree
- Syllogisms and logical deduction — test the statement, not your intuition
Draw everything. Candidates lose these questions by trying to solve them mentally under time pressure, not by failing to understand them.
Quantitative reasoning: speed over depth
The mathematics in an NTS test is not difficult. It is school arithmetic. The difficulty is entirely in the clock.
Get fast at:
- Percentages, and converting between percentages, fractions and decimals
- Ratio and proportion
- Averages
- Simple interest, profit and loss
- Time, speed and distance
- Reading a table or chart and answering a question about it
Learn the common fraction equivalents by heart — a half, a quarter, a fifth, an eighth, a tenth, as percentages. That one habit removes several seconds from a large number of questions.
Verbal reasoning: vocabulary is the bottleneck
Grammar rules are finite and quick to revise. Vocabulary is where the marks actually move.
Build it through synonyms and antonyms in pairs rather than word lists in isolation, and revise in short, frequent sessions rather than long ones. Twenty words a day, revised, beats two hundred words read once.
A four-week shape
- Week 1: Analytical reasoning, every type, slowly and on paper.
- Week 2: Quantitative reasoning, the list above, with a timer.
- Week 3: Verbal — grammar rules first, then daily vocabulary. Begin the General Knowledge, Pakistan Studies and Islamiyat portion alongside.
- Week 4: Full practice sets under time, then only your wrong answers.
Practise here
Work through the knowledge sections on this site in quiz mode, timed. Start at the subject index or search for a topic.
For the reasoning sections, practice on paper is what counts — but the habit of attempting under a clock is the same habit, and it is the one worth building first.
Also worth reading
- Basic Maths for MCQ Tests: The Only Topics That Matter
- English Grammar and Vocabulary for Competitive Exams
- How to Use Past Papers Properly
Practise NTS MCQs
Reading about the paper only goes so far. The NTS preparation guide lists the subjects this test draws on, each with its own set of questions and answers to work through.