HPPSC Physiotherapist Syllabus and SAT Exam Pattern

Compiled from the official syllabus · check it against the official link

One objective paper, two hours, one hundred marks ↑

The Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission has published the syllabus for the Subject Aptitude Test for its Physiotherapist post in the Department of Health & Family Welfare, under notification No. 3-68/2023-PSC(R-I) dated 21.07.2026. Everything on this page comes from that document and nothing else.

The document states three things about the paper itself and then spends the rest of its length on topics. The paper is objective type. Its duration is 2 Hours. Its maximum marks are 100. It does not state a question count, and it does not mention negative marking either way - that silence is reported here as silence, not filled in with a guess.

The topic list that follows is reproduced in full below, subject by subject, with the official wording kept exactly as printed and a plain-language explanation added beside each entry.

Where this paper sits in the Commission's two-tier scheme ↑

The Commission publishes this syllabus inside the set of syllabi it files under Two Tier (Screening Test) on its own website. That tells you the recruitment is a two-stage one: a screening test, and then the Subject Aptitude Test whose syllabus this is.

But that placement comes from where the Commission files the document, not from the document's own text. The PDF itself describes one paper only - the SAT. It says nothing about the screening test's pattern, its syllabus, or how its marks are used. Anything you read elsewhere claiming a screening-test breakdown for this post did not get it from this file.

The honest reading is therefore narrow and useful: this page tells you exactly what the Commission has said about the subject paper, and names the gaps rather than papering over them.

The sixteen subject blocks, and how to read the tables below ↑

The syllabus names sixteen subject blocks. Six of them are basic sciences, two are the therapy foundations, one is ethics, and the remaining seven are clinical. There is no weighting attached to any of them, so the index below is a map of scope, not of marks.

Every topic entry printed in the document is carried into the tables that follow. The left column repeats the Commission's own wording exactly - including its capitalisation, its ampersands, its bracketed instructions such as in brief, and two evident printing slips that have been left uncorrected on purpose. The right column is ours: a plain-language line explaining what the entry actually covers.

The counts in the middle column below are our own count of the printed entries. The Commission prints no such figures, so they are marked DERIVED and should be treated as a reading aid, never as an official number.

At a glance

Human Anatomy: the body systems you must be able to name ↑

Anatomy is the first block the syllabus lists, and it is listed system by system rather than region by region. Every major system of the body appears, which means no system can be treated as optional reading.

Two entries are worth noticing because they are easy to skip. Sensory system is named separately from Nervous system, and Lymphatic system is named separately from Cardiovascular system - both are on the list in their own right.

Human Physiology: how each of those systems actually works ↑

Physiology repeats the anatomy list, but asks a different question of it: not what a structure is, but what it does. Nerve Muscle Physiology sits here as its own entry, and for a physiotherapist it is the entry that everything in Electro Therapy later rests on.

One entry in this block is printed as a group rather than as separate names - Nervous, Digestive & Renal System. It is reproduced below exactly as the document prints it.

Pathology: what goes wrong, system by system ↑

Pathology is organised the same way - general processes first, then the systems. The general processes at the top of the list are the ones that come back in every clinical block later, so they are worth more time than their position suggests.

The last entry pairs two conditions that are not usually paired: Congenital Myopathy and myasthenia gravis. Both produce weakness, and both are printed here as one entry.

Pharmacology: the drug groups, several of them marked in brief ↑

This is the one block where the syllabus itself tells you how deep to go. Five of its nine entries carry the words in brief in the document, and those words are the Commission's, not ours - they are reproduced in the table below exactly where they appear.

The four entries without that qualifier are General Pharmacology, Autonomic Nervous system, Inflammatory/Immune Diseases and Geriatrics.

General Psychology: the mind topics, and why they are on a physiotherapy paper ↑

Psychology looks like an outsider on a clinical paper until you notice which entries were chosen. Learning, Motivation and Attitudes are exactly the topics that decide whether a patient does the home programme, and Fields of application of Psychology names rehabilitation among its own settings.

The entries are general-psychology entries, not clinical-psychology ones. Nothing in this block asks for psychiatric diagnosis.

Clinical Biochemistry: nutrition, molecules and metabolism ↑

The block runs from nutrition through the four classes of biological molecule to two clinically pointed entries: Biochemistry of connective tissue and Diabetes mellitus. Both of those are chosen for a physiotherapist - one explains tissue healing, the other explains the neuropathy and the delayed healing you will meet in the ward.

Biomechanics and Kinesiology: the physics of posture, muscle and gait ↑

This is the largest of the basic-science blocks, and it is really two lists joined together. The first half is straight mechanics - force, friction, gravity, levers, pulleys, elasticity, springs. The second half hangs off the heading Muscular system and names its own sub-entries, right down to direction of pull and angle of pull.

Posture, Gait and Bio-Physics close the block. Gait in particular is the entry that connects this block to every clinical block later on the paper.

Medical Microbiology: organisms, infection control, and imaging ↑

Most of this block is what its title promises. The part candidates miss is at the end: Diagnostic Imaging for Physiotherapist and Clinical Education are printed inside the microbiology paragraph, not as blocks of their own. They are on the syllabus, and they are easy to lose because of where they sit.

Sterilization & disinfection and Handling of infected material are the two entries that are actually daily practice in a department, not theory.

Exercise Therapy: the hands-on core of the paper ↑

Exercise Therapy and Electro Therapy are the two blocks that describe what the job is. This one runs from principle to practice: mechanical principles, then movement and starting positions, then the three measurement entries - joint range, limb length and girth, and manual muscle testing.

It ends where a working department ends: mobility aids, and soft tissue manipulation, which the document itself glosses as massage.

Electro Therapy: current, radiation, safety and electro-diagnosis ↑

Half of this block is physics before it is therapy - current, magnetism, induction, radiation and the laws that govern it. The therapy entries come after, and only two named modalities appear: low frequency currents and interferential therapy.

Two entries deserve separate revision because they are the ones a viva or a practical would go to first: Safety issues while using electrical equipments, and Electro diagnostic test.

Ethics in Physiotherapy: consent, conduct, confidentiality and law ↑

A government post carries duties that are written down, and this block is where the paper tests them. It moves from the four classical principles of health-care ethics to the practical end - informed consent, confidentiality, malpractice and negligence, the limits on advertising, and the legal aspects of practice.

One entry here is printed with a stray comma in the original: Provision of services and, advertising. It is reproduced below exactly as printed.

Orthopaedics: bone and joint disease, in full ↑

This is the medical half of the orthopaedic pair. It lists the conditions themselves - injury, infection, deformity, tumour, metabolic disease - and then the interventions: operations, splints and appliances, traction, amputation and rehabilitation.

Two entries carry their own depth instruction inside the brackets. Inflammation of bones & joints is to be studied with its clinical features, evaluation and both conservative and surgical management; Congenital malformations is limited to a brief description with an outline of treatment. Both bracketed notes are the Commission's own words.

Physiotherapy in Orthopaedic: fracture by fracture ↑

This block is the therapy half, and it is the most specific block on the whole paper. It does not say fractures of the upper limb - it names the clavicle, the humerus, the ulna, the radius and crush injuries of the hand, and then names each lower-limb and spinal fracture in turn.

That specificity is the reason it is printed here in full rather than summarised. Under Traumatology the syllabus also names four manual-therapy approaches by their authors - Kaltenbom, Maitland, Mulligan and Mckenzie - and says the means and technique of physiotherapy should be taught including them.

Wounds, Burns and Plastic Surgery: three named conditions ↑

The shortest block on the paper, and the one with the clearest instruction attached. For all three conditions the syllabus asks for the same two things: a review of the pathological changes, and the principle of pre-operative and post-operative management by physiotherapy.

So the depth here is not the condition list - it is knowing what physiotherapy does on either side of the operation.

Physiotherapy in General Medical and Surgical Conditions ↑

The document gives this block a sub-title of its own - General, Gynecology and Obstetrics and ENT - and then repeats the same instruction as the burns block: review the pathological changes, and the principle of pre-operative and post-operative physiotherapy management.

The four numbered conditions run from routine abdominal surgery to organ transplant. Ante-natal and post-natal physiotherapy is named inside the second one, not given a heading of its own.

Physiotherapy in Neurological Conditions: the longest block on the paper ↑

This block carries more named entries than any other, and it is built in three parts: a review of clinical neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, then principles of assessment and treatment, then peripheral nerve lesions.

The treatment part is where the detail is. It names the facilitation and inhibition techniques one by one - stretch, light joint compression, controlled sensory stimulation, PNF patterns, the use of equilibrium and labyrinthine systems - and then the functional end: gait training, activities of daily living, mat exercise, and exercise for recreation.

One line in this part is printed as use of rifle, activity to improve motor function. It is reproduced below exactly as the official PDF has it. Nothing has been corrected or guessed at, because the syllabus is the Commission's document and not ours.

What this syllabus does not state — and where to find it ↑

A syllabus defines scope. It does not answer every question a candidate has, and the honest thing is to name the gaps rather than fill them with a confident guess.

For each of the following, the Commission's own website and the advertisement for this post are the only sources worth trusting.

• The number of questions. Only the duration of 2 Hours and Max. Marks 100 are given. Any question count you see quoted for this paper did not come from this document.
• Negative marking. The document does not mention it in either direction. Treat it as unknown until the advertisement or the admit card says otherwise.
• The screening test. This syllabus is filed by the Commission under Two Tier (Screening Test), but it describes only the Subject Aptitude Test. The screening test's own pattern and syllabus are not here.
• Subject-wise or topic-wise marks. No weighting is printed for any of the sixteen blocks, so no table anywhere can honestly tell you how many marks Human Anatomy carries.
• The exam date, the vacancy count, eligibility, age limits and fees. None of these are in a syllabus document; they belong to the advertisement for the post.
• Cut-off marks. These depend on vacancies and on how candidates perform, and are published only after the examination.
• The medium of the paper and any book list. The document states neither. A Commission prescribes a syllabus, not textbooks — a topic list is not a reading list.
• One practical note about the link. The Commission serves its files through generated tokens rather than fixed filenames, so a saved or shared file link can stop working. If the download link on this page returns an error, open hppsc.hp.gov.in and reach the file through Syllabi & Previous Year Question Papers, then Syllabi, then Two Tier (Screening Test); the entry is titled as the syllabus for the objective type Subject Aptitude Test for the post of Physiotherapist in the Department of Health & Family Welfare, H.P.

Important Links

FAQ — Your Questions, Answered