Deputy Headteacher (DOS) exam: what is tested and how to prepare

Updated 17 September 2026 · 3 min read

This post has a real past paper in this bank, which makes preparation more concrete than for most roles. The paper runs to 50 questions over two and a half hours, carrying 100 marks in total, and it ranges across school leadership, curriculum delivery, assessment, teacher supervision, professional development and education policy. Questions are practical: what a deputy headteacher should do about a struggling teacher, a timetable clash or weak examination results.

How this guide was made

Written for this site with AI assistance, then checked automatically before publishing. The topic table, sample questions, worked examples and study plan are generated from this site’s question bank: each worked example is recalculated by separate code, and each sample answer says where it came from.

The guide deliberately states no salaries, grades, pass marks or exam dates. Those change, and they could not be checked here, so take them from the advert itself.

This site is independent and is not affiliated with MIFOTRA or any employer.

What the questions cover

Curriculum: planning schemes of work, syllabus coverage, and the competence-based approach to teaching and learning.
Assessment: formative and summative assessment, marking standards, analysis of results and reporting to parents.
Supervision: lesson observation, feedback to teachers, checking preparation and monitoring learner work.
Teacher development: identifying needs, organising continuous professional development and mentoring new teachers.
School leadership: planning, delegation, meetings, discipline and working with the headteacher and other deputies.
Records and reporting: attendance, marks, syllabus coverage and reports to the district and to parents.

Where to spend your study time

The suggested emphasis reflects what this position works with day to day. It is a study guide, not a published exam blueprint.

Area	Suggested emphasis	Questions in the bank	Practise
School leadership, curriculum and assessment	100%	50	Deputy Headteacher (DOS)

Questions test judgement, not memory

Most items describe a situation and ask what the deputy should do. A teacher has not submitted schemes of work; a class is behind the syllabus; parents complain about marking. The best answer usually supports the teacher and solves the problem through the school's own structures, before escalating. Answers that punish first, ignore the learner's interest or bypass the headteacher are normally wrong.

Read each option and ask which one improves teaching and learning, and which one merely reacts.

Know the assessment vocabulary precisely

Formative assessment informs teaching while learning is happening; summative assessment judges achievement at the end of a unit or term. Diagnostic assessment finds out what learners already know. Questions often use these words exactly, and choosing the right response depends on knowing which kind of assessment a situation calls for. The same applies to the levels of thinking a question targets, from recall to analysis and evaluation. Expect at least one item that turns on the difference between reliability and validity.

Prepare with the real paper

Sit the Deputy Headteacher in Charge of Studies paper in this bank under the full time limit, then mark it and study every explanation, including for questions you answered correctly. Seven of its questions turn on published policy figures that the source paper did not key; those are shown with the reasoning left open rather than answered by guesswork, so treat them as discussion points rather than as settled answers.

Timetable questions are about fairness as much as logistics

Scenarios about the timetable rarely test arithmetic. They test whether you can balance a teacher's workload against the needs of a class, place practical subjects where they can actually be taught, and handle the colleague who believes their allocation is unfair. The expected answer consults, explains the reasoning, and applies the same rule to everyone rather than settling the loudest complaint.

Read policy with a practical eye

Education policy questions rarely ask you to quote a document. They ask what a school should do in line with national expectations: cover the curriculum, assess fairly, keep learners in school, support teachers and report accurately. Understand the purpose behind the rules and most policy questions become questions of good practice.

Try a few now

Teacher Development and Management (TDM) Policy (2015) is a policy that seeks to professionalize teaching in Rwanda. If you are consulted to suggest some principles to include in the policy, which one would you remove from the following?
1. Teacher development is a career-short term process.
2. Teacher development and management are a shared responsibility among teachers and employers at different levels;
3. Every teacher has diverse professional needs.
4. Teacher development and management draw on all stakeholders' creativity, proactivity, flexibility and resourceful planning.
Show the answer
A. Teacher development is a career-short term process.
Teacher development is understood as career-long and continuous. Describing it as a short-term process contradicts the premise of continuous professional development that the policy rests on.
Real past-paper question; the source had no key, so the answer was reasoned from the question. Open this question
Q41.D. According to you, what was the fundamental reasons of organizing the teacher training on the use of ICT in teaching and learning?
1. To induct new teachers on the effective teaching and learning by means of ICT
2. To remind teachers about the policy of ICT in education implementation
3. To equip teachers with competences in ICT use in their teaching.
4. To ensure effective use of ICT and quality learning.
Show the answer
D. To ensure effective use of ICT and quality learning.
The fundamental reason is the end the training serves - effective ICT use leading to quality learning. A names the immediate output, and B and D describe narrower purposes.
Real past-paper question; the source had no key, so the answer was reasoned from the question. Open this question
One of the key document that a school should have is an SIP. What does this stand for in full?
1. Strategic improvement plan
2. School improvement planning
3. School improvement plan
4. School improvement profile
Show the answer
C. School improvement plan
SIP is the School Improvement Plan - the document itself. 'School improvement planning' names the process that produces it, not the document.
Real past-paper question; the source had no key, so the answer was reasoned from the question. Open this question
In order to become an effective school leader you should have the skills of leading change processes perceived as a difficult task. Choose an option that best explain the reason why it is not easy to lead changes
1. Change is a linear process, people are often involved in the change planning.
2. Change is not a linear process, people are not often involved in the change planning.
3. Change is a linear process although people are not often involved in the change planning
4. Change is not a linear process and people are often involved in the change planning.
Show the answer
B. Change is not a linear process, people are not often involved in the change planning.
Two things make change hard: it does not proceed in a straight line, and the people affected are usually left out of the planning. Only D states both, and B describes involvement, which would make change easier rather than harder.
Real past-paper question; the source had no key, so the answer was reasoned from the question. Open this question

Common questions

Is the paper in this bank the exact test I will sit?

No. It is a real past paper for this post, which makes it the best available guide to the style, level and coverage of questions, but a future test will use different items.

How much of the test is about leadership rather than teaching?

Both feature heavily. The post exists to lead teaching, so questions move between classroom practice, supervision of colleagues and whole-school planning.

Should I revise subject content for my own teaching subject?

Only lightly. The test is about leading teaching and learning across the school, not about your subject specialism.

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Headteacher exam: what is tested and how to prepare