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IMD Scientific Assistant Physics Syllabus 2026: Complete Part-F Syllabus
The IMD Scientific Assistant 2026 Physics syllabus is extensive and clearly set at approximately Graduation Level. Candidates opting for Part-F Physics in the SSC Junior Engineer Examination 2026 must prepare not only basic Class 11–12 Physics but also several higher-level topics from undergraduate Physics.
For students preparing with Career Wave, Satyendra Sir recommends following the official syllabus line by line. Random preparation or studying only familiar chapters can leave major gaps, especially because the same technical subject is relevant in both Paper 1 and Paper 2.
According to the official notification, the Part-F Physics syllabus includes the following major units: Mathematical Methods, Mechanics, General Properties of Matter, Oscillations, Waves, Optics, Electricity, Magnetism, Kinetic Theory, Thermodynamics, Modern Physics, Solid State Physics, Semiconductor Devices, and Analog & Digital Electronics.
IMD Scientific Assistant Physics Syllabus 2026: Quick Overview
Part-F Physics Major Units
1. Mathematical Methods
2. Mechanics
3. General Properties of Matter
4. Oscillations
5. Waves
6. Optics
7. Electricity
8. Magnetism
9. Kinetic Theory
10. Thermodynamics
11. Modern Physics
12. Solid State Physics
13. Semiconductor Devices
14. Analog and Digital Electronics
The official notification states that the standard of Physics questions will be approximately equivalent to the Graduation Level.
1. Mathematical Methods
The Mathematical Methods section includes:
• Calculus
• Integral Calculus
• Differential Equations
• Fourier Series
• Taylor Expansion
• Vector Algebra
• Vector Calculus
• Integral Theorems
• Linear Algebra
• Complex Numbers
• Statistics
• Error Analysis
This section is important because mathematical tools are used throughout Mechanics, Electricity, Magnetism, Waves and Modern Physics.
Career Wave Preparation Focus
Students should be comfortable with:
• differentiation
• integration
• basic differential equations
• vectors
• matrices
• complex-number applications
• approximation methods
• errors and uncertainty
2. Mechanics
The official syllabus includes:
• Newton’s Laws of Motion and applications
• Coordinate systems and kinematics
• Inertial and non-inertial frames
• Centrifugal force
• Coriolis force
• Motion under a central force
• Kepler’s Laws
• Gravitational Law
• Conservative and non-conservative forces
• System of particles
• Conservation laws
• Elastic and inelastic collisions
• Moment of inertia
• Rigid body dynamics
Important Preparation Areas
Students should focus on:
• force and motion
• rotational dynamics
• center of mass
• momentum conservation
• energy conservation
• angular momentum
• planetary motion
• collisions
• non-inertial frames
According to Satyendra Sir, Mechanics should be prepared conceptually because many questions can combine formulas with physical interpretation.
3. General Properties of Matter
This unit includes:
• Elasticity
• Surface tension
• Viscosity
• Fluid dynamics
• Kinematics of moving fluids
• Equation of continuity
• Euler’s equation
• Bernoulli’s theorem
Important Concepts
• Stress and strain
• Elastic constants
• Surface energy
• Capillarity
• Viscous force
• Stokes’ law
• Streamline flow
• Continuity equation
• Bernoulli applications
This is generally a formula-driven area, but conceptual understanding is still necessary.
4. Oscillations
The Oscillations syllabus contains:
• Simple Harmonic Oscillator
• Superposition of two or more SHMs
• Lissajous figures
• Damped oscillations
• Forced oscillations
• Resonance
• Quality factor
• Bandwidth
Key Focus
Students should understand:
• SHM equations
• energy in SHM
• phase difference
• resonance conditions
• damping
• forced motion
• Q-factor and bandwidth
5. Waves
The official syllabus includes:
• Wave equation
• Travelling waves
• Standing waves in one dimension
• Energy density
• Energy transmission of waves
• Group velocity
• Phase velocity
• Sound waves
• Doppler effect
High-Value Areas
• progressive wave equation
• stationary waves
• nodes and antinodes
• phase velocity vs group velocity
• sound propagation
• Doppler effect numericals
6. Optics
The Optics section is broad and includes:
Geometrical Optics
• Fermat’s Principle
• Reflection
• Refraction
• Mirrors
• Lenses
• Image formation
Wave Optics
• Interference
• Diffraction
• Rayleigh Criterion
• Resolving Power
• Diffraction Gratings
Polarization
• Linear polarization
• Circular polarization
• Elliptic polarization
• Double refraction
• Optical rotation
Career Wave Focus
Students should prepare both theory and numericals from:
• lenses and mirrors
• interference
• diffraction
• resolving power
• polarization
7. Electricity
The Electricity section includes:
• Coulomb’s Law
• Electric field
• Electric potential
• Gauss’s Law
• Conductors and dielectrics
• Polarization and bound charges
• Capacitors and capacitance
• Electrostatic energy
• Boundary conditions
• Laplace equation
• Boundary value problems
• Electric current
• Current density
• Ohm’s Law
• DC circuits
• AC circuits
• RC, LC and LCR circuits
• Resonance in AC circuits
Most Important Areas
• electrostatics
• Gauss law
• capacitance
• dielectric behavior
• current electricity
• network concepts
• AC circuits
• resonance
This is one of the most important units for Part-F Physics.
8. Magnetism
The official syllabus includes:
• Magnetic field
• Biot-Savart Law
• Ampere’s Circuital Law
• Magnetic vector potential
• Lorentz force
• Motion of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields
• Electromagnetic induction
• Faraday’s Law
• Self induction
• Mutual induction
• Maxwell’s equations
• Displacement current
• Electromagnetic waves
• Poynting vector
• Energy flow
• Reflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves
Preparation Focus
Pay special attention to:
• magnetic force
• charged-particle motion
• induction
• inductance
• Maxwell equations
• EM waves
• Poynting vector
9. Kinetic Theory
The Kinetic Theory section includes:
• Kinetic theory postulates
• Ideal gas equation
• Pressure and temperature
• Degree of freedom
• Equipartition theorem
• Specific heat of monoatomic, diatomic and triatomic gases
• Maxwell’s velocity distribution
• Most probable velocity
• Mean velocity
• RMS velocity
• Mean free path
• Van der Waals gas
• Equation of state
Important Areas
• equipartition theorem
• degrees of freedom
• specific heat
• RMS speed
• Maxwell distribution
• mean free path
• real gas equation
10. Thermodynamics
The official syllabus includes:
• Laws of Thermodynamics
• Isothermal process
• Adiabatic process
• Isobaric process
• Isochoric process
• Entropy
• Reversible processes
• Irreversible processes
• Quasi-static processes
• Carnot cycle
• Heat engines
• Efficiency
• Maxwell thermodynamic relations
• Thermodynamic potentials
• Phase transitions
• Clausius-Clapeyron equation
• Microstate and macrostate concepts
• Ensembles
• Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
• Fermi-Dirac distribution
• Bose-Einstein distribution
This is a large unit and should not be limited only to basic thermodynamic laws.
Career Wave Advice
Students should cover:
• first and second law
• entropy
• thermodynamic processes
• Carnot engine
• thermodynamic potentials
• statistical distributions
11. Modern Physics
Modern Physics is another major area.
The syllabus includes:
• Inertial frames
• Galilean invariance
• Special theory of relativity
• Black body radiation
• Photoelectric effect
• Compton effect
• De Broglie waves
• Uncertainty principle
• X-rays
• Schrödinger equation
• Particle in one, two and three dimensional boxes
• Harmonic oscillator
• Potential step
• Potential barrier
• Tunneling
• Bohr atom
• Atomic spectra
• Pauli exclusion principle
• Structure of atomic nucleus
• Mass and binding energy
• Radioactivity
• Applications of radioactivity
• Laws of radioactive decay
High-Priority Topics
• photoelectric effect
• Compton effect
• de Broglie wavelength
• uncertainty principle
• Bohr model
• Schrödinger equation
• nuclear binding energy
• radioactivity
• relativity basics
12. Solid State Physics
The official syllabus includes:
• Crystal structure
• Unit cell
• Lattice parameters
• Bravais lattices
• Basis
• Crystal systems
• Miller indices
• Crystal planes
• Crystal directions
• X-ray diffraction
• Bragg’s Law
• Band theory of solids
• Conductors
• Semiconductors
• Insulators
• Energy bands
• Fermi energy
• Fermi level
• Intrinsic semiconductors
• Extrinsic semiconductors
• Carrier concentration
• Conductivity
• Variation of resistivity with temperature
Important Areas
• crystal lattices
• Miller indices
• Bragg law
• energy-band theory
• Fermi level
• semiconductor conductivity
13. Semiconductor Devices
This unit contains:
• PN junction diode
• Diode characteristics
• Zener diode
• Zener diode applications
• Rectifiers
• Bipolar Junction Transistor
• Common Base configuration
• Common Emitter configuration
• Common Collector configuration
• Transistor characteristics
Preparation Focus
Students should be comfortable with:
• diode characteristics
• breakdown
• rectification
• BJT working
• transistor configurations
• current gain relations
14. Analog and Digital Electronics
The official syllabus includes:
Analog Electronics
• Single-stage amplifiers
• Two-stage RC-coupled amplifiers
• Simple oscillators
• Sinusoidal oscillators
• Barkhausen condition
• Operational amplifiers
• OPAMP applications
• Inverting amplifier
• Non-inverting amplifier
• Integrator
• Differentiator
Digital Electronics
• Boolean algebra
• Binary number system
• Number-system conversion
• Binary addition
• Binary subtraction
• AND gate
• OR gate
• NOT gate
• NAND gate
• NOR gate
• XOR gate
• Combination of gates
• Truth tables
• De Morgan’s theorem
Career Wave Focus
This unit can be highly scoring if prepared properly because many questions are direct and rule-based.
IMD Scientific Assistant Physics Syllabus: Preparation Priority
A practical priority order can be:
Priority 1
• Electricity
• Magnetism
• Modern Physics
• Thermodynamics
• Mechanics
Priority 2
• Optics
• Oscillations
• Waves
• Solid State Physics
• Semiconductor Devices
Priority 3
• Mathematical Methods
• General Properties of Matter
• Kinetic Theory
• Analog & Digital Electronics
This order is a preparation strategy from Career Wave, not an official SSC weightage list.
Paper 1 and Paper 2: Same Physics Base
Candidates should remember that Part-F Physics is relevant in both stages.
Paper 1
Technical subject forms part of the 200-mark paper.
Paper 2
The technical subject is the core of the 300-mark paper.
Therefore, Satyendra Sir recommends preparing Physics at full depth from the beginning rather than preparing only enough for Paper 1.
How to Prepare Part-F Physics with Career Wave
A practical approach is:
Step 1: Complete the Official Syllabus
Do not leave any unit completely untouched.
Step 2: Build Formula Sheets
Maintain chapter-wise formulas for quick revision.
Step 3: Solve PYQs
PYQs help identify the actual style of numerical and conceptual questions.
Step 4: Topic Tests
After every unit, attempt chapter-wise tests.
Step 5: Mixed Revision
Combine related topics such as:
• Electricity + Magnetism
• SHM + Waves
• Modern Physics + Semiconductor
• Thermodynamics + Kinetic Theory
Step 6: Full-Length Tests
Move to complete technical mocks once the syllabus is largely covered.
Final Summary
The IMD Scientific Assistant Part-F Physics Syllabus 2026 is a full graduation-level Physics syllabus covering mathematical methods, classical mechanics, matter properties, oscillations, waves, optics, electricity, magnetism, kinetic theory, thermodynamics, modern physics, solid state, semiconductors, and electronics.
Students preparing with Career Wave and Satyendra Sir should follow the official syllabus systematically and avoid selective preparation.
The correct approach is:
Concepts → Formula Revision → PYQs → Topic Tests → Mixed Practice → Full Mocks
FAQs –
1. What is Part-F in IMD Scientific Assistant 2026?
Part-F is the Physics technical subject for eligible candidates applying for Scientific Assistant in IMD.
2. What is the level of Physics in IMD Scientific Assistant?
The official notification states that Physics questions will be approximately at the Graduation Level.
3. Is Class 11 and 12 Physics enough?
No. The syllabus includes several graduation-level areas such as Maxwell equations, thermodynamic potentials, statistical distributions, Schrödinger equation, crystal structure and advanced electronics topics.
4. How many major units are there in Part-F Physics?
The syllabus can be broadly divided into 14 major units.
5. Is Mathematical Methods included?
Yes. Calculus, differential equations, Fourier series, vectors, linear algebra, complex numbers, statistics and error analysis are included.
6. Is Modern Physics included?
Yes. Modern Physics is a major part of the syllabus and includes relativity, quantum concepts, atomic physics and nuclear physics.
7. Is Electronics included in the Physics syllabus?
Yes. Semiconductor Devices and Analog & Digital Electronics are explicitly included.
8. Is Thermodynamics included?
Yes. Thermodynamics includes both classical thermodynamics and topics such as thermodynamic potentials and statistical distributions.
9. Is Solid State Physics included?
Yes. Crystal structures, Bravais lattices, Miller indices, diffraction, band theory and semiconductor concepts are included.
10. Does the syllabus include Maxwell’s equations?
Yes. Maxwell’s equations, displacement current, EM waves and Poynting vector are included under Magnetism.
11. Is Optics part of the syllabus?
Yes. Both geometrical optics and wave optics are included.
12. Is Mathematical Physics important?
Yes. Mathematical Methods support several other units and should not be ignored.
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