Last verified: 14 November 2026. The exam date and timings are ✅ CONFIRMED from the NTA public notice of 3 November 2026, reported by The Times of India and Education Times. The qualifying-marks rule (25% in each section, 40% aggregate) is 🔶 EXPECTED for 2027 — it is the 2026 bulletin rule, and NTA has not published a different rule for 2027. Everything about food, sleep and training below is preparation advice, not an official rule.
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Here is a detail almost nobody is planning for: your child has probably never written a serious exam at 2 in the afternoon.
School exams happen in the morning. Tuition tests happen in the evening. But AISSEE 2027 — on Sunday, 31 January 2027 — starts at 2:00 PM. Class 6 runs till 4:30 PM, Class 9 till 5:00 PM. That means the hardest thinking your child will do all year has to happen in the exact window when a child’s body, after lunch, wants to slow down.
Honestly, most guidebooks overcomplicate this. The fix is not a trick. It is a habit, built over the next 11 weeks: teach the body that 2 PM means focus time.
Think about your child’s normal Sunday. They wake up, study a bit, have lunch around 1, and then — what? Most children drift. A bit of TV, a nap, a slow afternoon. Their brain learns, day after day, that 2 PM is rest time.
On 31 January, that same brain has to do 125 questions in 150 minutes (Class 6) or 150 questions in 180 minutes (Class 9), on an OMR sheet, with no negative marking — so every question deserves an attempt. The Maths section alone is half the Class 6 paper (50 questions, 150 marks). A child who is sharp at 10 AM and foggy at 2 PM will lose marks in the second half of the paper, exactly where the paper is longest.
The good news: a body clock can be retrained. It just takes repetition, and 11 weeks is plenty — if you start now and not in the last week of January.
This is the whole playbook in one line. From this Sunday onwards, every full-length mock test your child writes happens at exactly 2:00 PM, in one sitting, with a timer, on paper, bubbling an OMR sheet.
No “we’ll do it after lunch, around 3”. No splitting the paper across the evening. The point is not just the questions — it is the clock. After four or five Sundays, something quiet happens: the child stops feeling sleepy at 2 PM, because 2 PM has become work time.
Our guide to analysing mocks explains how to turn each Sunday paper into marks — the review matters as much as the paper itself. But the timing rule comes first: a mock written at 10 AM teaches your child how to perform at 10 AM. The exam is at 2 PM.
| Weeks | What changes |
|---|---|
| Weeks 1–2 (now to 29 Nov) | First two Sunday mocks at 2 PM. Expect a slow start — the first one will feel harder than a morning mock. That is the point; note which section dips after 3 PM. |
| Weeks 3–5 (30 Nov–20 Dec) | Move one weekday study block to 1–4 PM as well, so 2 PM focus is not a once-a-week event. Keep the Sunday 2 PM mock. |
| Weeks 6–8 (21 Dec–10 Jan) | Mocks get serious: full paper, OMR bubbling, no breaks, water bottle on the desk. Practise the last-30-minutes push, when fatigue hits hardest. |
| Weeks 9–10 (11–24 Jan) | Two mocks a week at 2 PM if the child can handle it — Sunday plus Wednesday. Fine-tune lunch timing (see below). |
| Week 11 (25–31 Jan) | Last full mock on Sunday 25 January at 2 PM. Then taper: short revision only, no new topics, normal sleep. |
Fit this around the weekly subject plans — our Class 6 GK final-11-weeks plan and Class 9 final-11-weeks plan already run on the same 11-week frame.
A heavy lunch is the most common self-inflicted problem in an afternoon paper. A child who eats a big, oily lunch at 1 PM and sits down at 2 PM will spend the first half-hour fighting their own stomach.
Use the Sunday mocks to find what works. The pattern that suits most children:
And please — test the exam-day lunch on a mock Sunday first. If dal-rice at 12:30 works on a mock, it will work on 31 January. If it doesn’t, you still have weeks to adjust. Discovering on exam day that a food makes your child drowsy is a mistake you cannot undo.
Two sleep rules, and they pull in opposite directions, so get them right:
This is a template, not an official schedule — the reporting time will be printed on the admit card (expected around 25 January), and that is the time that governs. But the shape of the day should be rehearsed at least twice in mocks:
One small story, because it is true every year: a parent once told us their child lost 20 minutes in the middle of the paper simply because nobody had ever made them sit still for two and a half hours in the afternoon. They had studied for months — but only in the morning. Don’t let the clock be the thing your child meets for the first time on exam day.
What time is the AISSEE 2027 exam?
Sunday, 31 January 2027, at 2:00 PM. Class 6 runs from 2:00 to 4:30 PM (150 minutes, 125 questions, 300 marks) and Class 9 from 2:00 to 5:00 PM (180 minutes, 150 questions, 400 marks), in offline pen-and-paper OMR mode with no negative marking.
Why does the 2 PM timing matter for preparation?
Most children do their hardest studying in the morning and feel drowsy after lunch. A 2 PM paper means the hardest thinking has to happen exactly when the body wants to slow down. Training the body clock — by writing mocks at 2 PM — is the fix, and it takes weeks, not days.
What should my child eat on AISSEE exam day?
A normal, familiar lunch finished by about 12:30 PM — rice or roti with dal and vegetables, nothing heavy, fried or new. A heavy lunch is the most common self-inflicted problem in an afternoon paper. Keep breakfast normal too, and carry water.
How many full mocks should my child write at 2 PM before the exam?
At least 8 to 10 full-length papers at exactly 2 PM, one every Sunday from now until the exam. That is enough for the body clock to learn that 2 PM means focus time, and for your child to learn their own energy pattern across the paper.
Should my child sleep in the afternoon during preparation?
A short 20 to 30 minute rest after lunch is fine on ordinary days, but stop the afternoon nap at least two weeks before the exam. On 31 January the child needs to be at peak alertness at 2 PM, not in nap mode.
Is there negative marking in AISSEE 2027?
No. Wrong answers and blank answers both score zero, and nothing is deducted. That means your child should attempt every question in the paper.
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