Sikkim TET cheat sheet

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2, object permanence), preoperational (2–7, egocentrism, conservation absent), concrete operational (7–11, conservation, reversibility), formal operational (11+, abstract and hypothetical reasoning).

Vygotsky: Zone of Proximal Development is the gap between independent performance and performance with adult or peer support; scaffolding is temporary, gradually withdrawn support.

Kohlberg's moral levels: preconventional (punishment/obedience, instrumental exchange), conventional (good boy/girl, law and order), postconventional (social contract, universal ethical principles).

Erikson's school-age stage is industry vs inferiority (roughly 6–12); the adolescent stage is identity vs role confusion.

Classical conditioning (Pavlov): neutral stimulus paired with unconditioned stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus; operant conditioning (Skinner) uses reinforcement and punishment to shape behaviour.

Inclusive education principle: children with disabilities learn best in the least restrictive, age-appropriate general classroom with accommodations, not segregation by default.

Assessment terms: formative assessment is ongoing and diagnostic; summative assessment judges achievement at the end of a unit; CCE continuous and comprehensive evaluation covers scholastic and co-scholastic areas.

Learning disability indicators: dyslexia (reading and decoding), dysgraphia (writing), dyscalculia (number operations); a specific learning disability is not the same as intellectual disability.

Motivation: intrinsic motivation arises from interest and competence; extrinsic from rewards or pressure; over-reliance on rewards can reduce intrinsic interest.

Linguistic levels: phoneme (smallest sound unit), morpheme (smallest meaning unit), word, phrase, clause, sentence; syntax governs sentence structure, semantics governs meaning.

Language acquisition vs learning: acquisition is unconscious and naturalistic (Krashen), learning is conscious and rule-based, typically in formal settings.

LSRW order in natural acquisition is listening, speaking, reading, writing; reading and writing are secondary, dependent on oral language.

Skimming gives the gist quickly; scanning locates specific information; intensive reading studies detail; extensive reading builds fluency through volume.

Bottom-up reading decodes letters to words to meaning; top-down reading uses prior knowledge and prediction; interactive models combine both.

Communicative Language Teaching prioritises meaningful interaction and fluency over drilling of isolated grammar; grammar is taught in context.

Phonology basics: a diphthong is a gliding vowel (two vowel targets in one syllable); voiced sounds vibrate the vocal folds, voiceless sounds do not.

Figures of speech: simile uses like/as; metaphor states one thing is another; personification gives human qualities to non-human things; alliteration repeats initial consonants.

Error vs mistake: an error reflects an incomplete rule system and is developmental; a mistake is a performance slip the learner can self-correct.

English tense rule: present perfect (has/have + past participle) links past action to present relevance; simple past marks a finished time with a definite past marker.

Articles: 'a/an' for singular countable indefinite nouns (an before vowel sounds); 'the' for specific or already mentioned nouns; zero article for general plurals and uncountables.

Subject-verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb; with 'either...or' and 'neither...nor' the verb agrees with the nearer subject.

Reported speech: shift tense back one step (present to past), change pronouns to the reporter's perspective, and adjust time and place words (now to then, here to there).

Passive voice: be + past participle; the object of the active sentence becomes the subject; use it when the doer is unknown or unimportant.

Conditionals: first (if + present, will + base) for real future; second (if + past, would + base) for unreal present; third (if + had + participle, would have + participle) for unreal past.

Prepositions of time: in for months, years and long periods; on for days and dates; at for clock times and fixed points.

Vocabulary skills: synonym (same or similar meaning), antonym (opposite), homophone (same sound, different spelling or meaning, e.g., their/there), prefix and suffix change meaning or word class.

Place value: each position is ten times the value of the position to its right; in 4,582 the 5 stands for 500.

Divisibility rules: by 3 if digit sum is divisible by 3; by 9 if digit sum is divisible by 9; by 4 if the last two digits form a multiple of 4; by 5 if it ends in 0 or 5.

Fractions: a/b = c/d only when ad = bc; to add or subtract, use a common denominator; dividing by a fraction equals multiplying by its reciprocal.

Percentage: part = (percent/100) x whole; a 20% increase followed by a 20% decrease does not return to the original value (result is 96%).

LCM and HCF: HCF x LCM = product of the two numbers (for two positive integers); HCF divides both, LCM is divisible by both.

Area and perimeter: rectangle area = l x b, perimeter = 2(l + b); triangle area = 1/2 x base x height; circle area = pi r squared, circumference = 2 pi r.

Average = sum of observations divided by number of observations; if every value increases by k, the average increases by k.

Unitary method: find the value of one unit by division, then multiply by the required number of units; keep units consistent.

Prime numbers up to 30: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29; 1 is neither prime nor composite; 2 is the only even prime.

Food chain direction: producer (green plants) to herbivore to carnivore to decomposer; energy flows one way and decreases at each trophic level (roughly 10% transfer).

Photosynthesis: green plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to make glucose and release oxygen; chlorophyll in chloroplasts captures light.

States of matter: solids have fixed shape and volume; liquids have fixed volume but take container shape; gases fill the container; heating generally expands matter.

Water cycle stages: evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, collection; the Sun is the driving energy source.

Human digestive order: mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine; most nutrient absorption occurs in the small intestine.

Skeletal system facts: an adult has 206 bones; the skull protects the brain, the rib cage protects heart and lungs, the backbone supports the body.

Sikkim context: the state lies in the Eastern Himalaya, shares borders with Nepal, Tibet (China) and Bhutan, and its capital is Gangtok; Kanchenjunga is its highest peak.

Renewable vs non-renewable: solar, wind, hydro and biomass are renewable; coal, petroleum and natural gas are non-renewable fossil fuels.

Safety and health: deficiency diseases include scurvy (vitamin C), rickets (vitamin D), anaemia (iron); communicable diseases spread through air, water, food or vectors such as mosquitoes.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2, object permanence), preoperational (2–7, egocentrism, conservation absent), concrete operational (7–11, conservation, reversibility), formal operational (11+, abstract and hypothetical reasoning).

Vygotsky: Zone of Proximal Development is the gap between independent performance and performance with adult or peer support; scaffolding is temporary, gradually withdrawn support.

Kohlberg's moral levels: preconventional (punishment/obedience, instrumental exchange), conventional (good boy/girl, law and order), postconventional (social contract, universal ethical principles).

Erikson's school-age stage is industry vs inferiority (roughly 6–12); the adolescent stage is identity vs role confusion.

Classical conditioning (Pavlov): neutral stimulus paired with unconditioned stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus; operant conditioning (Skinner) uses reinforcement and punishment to shape behaviour.

Inclusive education principle: children with disabilities learn best in the least restrictive, age-appropriate general classroom with accommodations, not segregation by default.

Assessment terms: formative assessment is ongoing and diagnostic; summative assessment judges achievement at the end of a unit; CCE continuous and comprehensive evaluation covers scholastic and co-scholastic areas.

Learning disability indicators: dyslexia (reading and decoding), dysgraphia (writing), dyscalculia (number operations); a specific learning disability is not the same as intellectual disability.

Motivation: intrinsic motivation arises from interest and competence; extrinsic from rewards or pressure; over-reliance on rewards can reduce intrinsic interest.

Linguistic levels: phoneme (smallest sound unit), morpheme (smallest meaning unit), word, phrase, clause, sentence; syntax governs sentence structure, semantics governs meaning.

Language acquisition vs learning: acquisition is unconscious and naturalistic (Krashen), learning is conscious and rule-based, typically in formal settings.

LSRW order in natural acquisition is listening, speaking, reading, writing; reading and writing are secondary, dependent on oral language.

Skimming gives the gist quickly; scanning locates specific information; intensive reading studies detail; extensive reading builds fluency through volume.

Bottom-up reading decodes letters to words to meaning; top-down reading uses prior knowledge and prediction; interactive models combine both.

Communicative Language Teaching prioritises meaningful interaction and fluency over drilling of isolated grammar; grammar is taught in context.

Phonology basics: a diphthong is a gliding vowel (two vowel targets in one syllable); voiced sounds vibrate the vocal folds, voiceless sounds do not.

Figures of speech: simile uses like/as; metaphor states one thing is another; personification gives human qualities to non-human things; alliteration repeats initial consonants.

Error vs mistake: an error reflects an incomplete rule system and is developmental; a mistake is a performance slip the learner can self-correct.

English tense rule: present perfect (has/have + past participle) links past action to present relevance; simple past marks a finished time with a definite past marker.

Articles: 'a/an' for singular countable indefinite nouns (an before vowel sounds); 'the' for specific or already mentioned nouns; zero article for general plurals and uncountables.

Subject-verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb; with 'either...or' and 'neither...nor' the verb agrees with the nearer subject.

Reported speech: shift tense back one step (present to past), change pronouns to the reporter's perspective, and adjust time and place words (now to then, here to there).

Passive voice: be + past participle; the object of the active sentence becomes the subject; use it when the doer is unknown or unimportant.

Conditionals: first (if + present, will + base) for real future; second (if + past, would + base) for unreal present; third (if + had + participle, would have + participle) for unreal past.

Prepositions of time: in for months, years and long periods; on for days and dates; at for clock times and fixed points.

Vocabulary skills: synonym (same or similar meaning), antonym (opposite), homophone (same sound, different spelling or meaning, e.g., their/there), prefix and suffix change meaning or word class.

Place value: each position is ten times the value of the position to its right; in 4,582 the 5 stands for 500.

Divisibility rules: by 3 if digit sum is divisible by 3; by 9 if digit sum is divisible by 9; by 4 if the last two digits form a multiple of 4; by 5 if it ends in 0 or 5.

Fractions: a/b = c/d only when ad = bc; to add or subtract, use a common denominator; dividing by a fraction equals multiplying by its reciprocal.

Percentage: part = (percent/100) x whole; a 20% increase followed by a 20% decrease does not return to the original value (result is 96%).

LCM and HCF: HCF x LCM = product of the two numbers (for two positive integers); HCF divides both, LCM is divisible by both.

Area and perimeter: rectangle area = l x b, perimeter = 2(l + b); triangle area = 1/2 x base x height; circle area = pi r squared, circumference = 2 pi r.

Average = sum of observations divided by number of observations; if every value increases by k, the average increases by k.

Unitary method: find the value of one unit by division, then multiply by the required number of units; keep units consistent.

Prime numbers up to 30: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29; 1 is neither prime nor composite; 2 is the only even prime.

Food chain direction: producer (green plants) to herbivore to carnivore to decomposer; energy flows one way and decreases at each trophic level (roughly 10% transfer).

Photosynthesis: green plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to make glucose and release oxygen; chlorophyll in chloroplasts captures light.

States of matter: solids have fixed shape and volume; liquids have fixed volume but take container shape; gases fill the container; heating generally expands matter.

Water cycle stages: evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, collection; the Sun is the driving energy source.

Human digestive order: mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine; most nutrient absorption occurs in the small intestine.

Skeletal system facts: an adult has 206 bones; the skull protects the brain, the rib cage protects heart and lungs, the backbone supports the body.

Sikkim context: the state lies in the Eastern Himalaya, shares borders with Nepal, Tibet (China) and Bhutan, and its capital is Gangtok; Kanchenjunga is its highest peak.

Renewable vs non-renewable: solar, wind, hydro and biomass are renewable; coal, petroleum and natural gas are non-renewable fossil fuels.

Safety and health: deficiency diseases include scurvy (vitamin C), rickets (vitamin D), anaemia (iron); communicable diseases spread through air, water, food or vectors such as mosquitoes.