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Study guides → Strength of Materials and Structures N5
Strength of Materials and Structures N5: where the marks actually are
How materials and structures respond to load — stress and strain, bending, torsion, buckling and framework analysis.
N5 is being phased out. DHET is closing the NATED Report 191 programmes and replacing them with occupational qualifications. Its teach-out schedule (DHET TVET Circular TC 0134, 24 July 2025) gives the last national N5 examination for Engineering Studies as Trimester 1 2027. The last cohort gets a first sitting in Trimester 3 2026 and one repeat trimester — two chances, not the usual open-ended ones.
This is not a reason to stop. The National N Diploma can still be awarded up to 30 June 2029. Complete before 30 June 2026 and you receive the certificate exactly as now; after it, a DHET Statement of Results, which still counts toward the diploma. The Minister confirmed in June 2026 that qualifications already achieved stay valid and enrolled students should carry on.
Check your own dates with your college. The Department has since issued a revised circular, TC 0134(b), which it has not published, and further extensions were gazetted in June 2026 — so the date above is what DHET last put in writing publicly, not a promise about your intake.
What the exam is worth, module by module
These are DHET's own weight values. The syllabus states that a module's weight value gives the time to be spent teaching it and its share of the marks in the final exam — so this table is, in effect, the mark allocation of your paper. It totals 100.
| Module | Weight | |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature-induced stresses | 14 | |
| Thin cylinders and Mohr's circle | 14 | |
| Simple bending of beams | 14 | |
| Columns and struts | 14 | |
| Twisting of circular shafts | 14 | |
| Structural frameworks | 14 | |
| Stress, strain and tensile testing of materials | 8 | |
| Strain energy | 8 |
How to spend your time
- Six of the eight modules are worth exactly 14 marks. There is no shortcut and no dominant topic — this paper is won by covering all six properly.
- Stress and strain and Strain energy are only 8 each, but they are the foundation the other six are built on. Treat them as prerequisites rather than as topics to score on.
- Bending, torsion and buckling (beams, shafts, columns) are 42 marks between them and share a common approach: find the internal action, then apply the section property.
The paper is 100 marks in 3 hours — about 1.8 minutes a mark. If a question is worth 10 marks and you are 25 minutes in, you are losing marks elsewhere by staying on it.
Getting in
You must have passed Passed N4 Engineering Science.
One trimester, full time, part time or distance learning.
How you are assessed
Two things have to go right, and students lose the year on the first one more often than the second.
1. Your college (ICASS) mark
You need at least 40% to qualify to write the final exam at all.
2. The final examination
3 hours, closed book, out of 100 marks. You pass at 40%.
- The ICASS trimester mark comes from two formal class tests (or two assignments for distance learners), covering 30% and 70% of the syllabus respectively. Marks stay valid for one year.
- The exam covers 100% of the syllabus.
Also doing N5 this trimester?
These are the other N5 subjects we have syllabus breakdowns for.
- Mathematics N5Integration techniques carries the most marks (24 of 100)
- Industrial Electronics N5Alternating Current Theory carries the most marks (15 of 100)
- Electrotechnics N5DC machines carries the most marks (20 of 100)
- Mechanotechnics N5Conveyor belts and belt drive calculations carries the most marks (20 of 100)
- Power Machines N5Thermodynamics carries the most marks (20 of 100)
- Fluid Mechanics N5Simple hydraulic systems carries the most marks (12 of 100)
- Entrepreneurship and Business Management N5Specific management: Control carries the most marks (18 of 100)
- Computerised Financial Systems N5Financial reports (report writer) on an accounting package carries the most marks (20 of 100)
Source: DHET — Strength of Materials and Structures N5 Syllabus (Report 191, 2025–2026). Module names, weight values, admission requirements and assessment rules on this page are transcribed from that document. The study advice is ours.