A preparation plan should follow the exam as the Railway Recruitment Boards have actually defined it. This page works from the official scheme and ends in a routine you can run every week. The rule behind every suggestion is in the marks, the clock and the physical standards. Anything that is our advice, and not from the notices, is labelled so.
1. Know where the marks are
The CBT is a single 100-mark paper (1 mark each, 1/3 negative), and it decides shortlisting for PET. The split below is the notice's indicative one:
| Subject | Questions | Share of the 100 |
|---|---|---|
| General Intelligence and Reasoning | 30 | 30% |
| General Science | 25 | 25% |
| Mathematics | 25 | 25% |
| General Awareness and Current Affairs | 20 | 20% |
Reasoning is the biggest block, and General Science is the only subject with a plainly defined syllabus (Physics, Chemistry and Life Sciences of 10th standard level, CBSE). Together Reasoning and Science are 55 marks. Our reading: Reasoning and Science are the subjects where steady daily work turns into marks most reliably, while Mathematics needs practice for speed.
2. Know your time per question
The notices give one 90-minute duration for 100 questions and do not mention sectional timers. On an even spread that is 54 seconds a question. A sensible plan is to treat it as a budget, not a rule:
| Subject | Questions | Even-spread time |
|---|---|---|
| Reasoning | 30 | about 27 minutes |
| Science | 25 | about 22.5 minutes |
| Mathematics | 25 | about 22.5 minutes |
| General Awareness | 20 | about 18 minutes |
This is our arithmetic, not an RRB timing. The practical use: Science and Awareness answers are mostly recall, so you can finish them faster and bank the time for Mathematics. Keep a few minutes at the end for a second pass on marked questions.
3. Decide when to guess
With +1 for right and -1/3 for wrong, the break-even chance of being right is 25%:
- Blind guess among four options: expected value is zero.
- One option eliminated (one in three): expected value is about +0.11 per question.
- Two options eliminated (one in two): about +0.33 per question.
This is arithmetic from the marking scheme, not RRB advice. It means a pure guess is neutral, and a guess after elimination is a good bet. Track your own guess accuracy in your mock log. If your guesses are right less than a quarter of the time, stop guessing.
4. A four-phase plan
Move between phases on mock results, not dates.
Phase 1: Foundation. Go through the syllabus subject by subject. For Mathematics, start with number work, percentages, ratio, time and work, and profit and loss, because they are the base for everything else on the list. For Science, read the Class 9 and Class 10 textbooks once, for concepts. For Awareness, start a daily current-affairs habit now.
Phase 2: Topic practice. Do untimed sets by topic, then lightly timed ones. Accuracy comes first. Pareeksha's topic-wise practice is organised by topic (Pro), so you can see which topic leaks marks.
Phase 3: Full-paper timing. Move to the real 90-minute clock. Practise finishing a full paper with a second pass. This is the phase most plans skip.
Phase 4: Mocks and analysis. Sit full papers in the real format, and spend as long analysing each as you spent taking it. Sit them in the same slot of the day as the exam, since RRB runs shifts through the day.
5. Subject tactics from the syllabus
- Mathematics: the notice names number system, BODMAS, decimals, fractions, LCM and HCF, ratio, percentages, mensuration, time and work, time and distance, interest, profit and loss, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, elementary statistics, square root, ages, calendar and clock, and pipes and cistern. Keep a one-page formula sheet. Calendar, clock and pipes-and-cistern questions are short and formula-driven, so they are worth finishing early in your preparation.
- Reasoning: the list is wide, but most of it is pattern recognition. Practise series, coding, analogies, classification and directions in volume; practise syllogism and statement-assumption questions for accuracy.
- General Science: read for concepts and then answer questions. The notice says only "10th standard level", so questions should be answerable from a school course. We suggest the Class 9 and 10 textbooks as the base.
- General Awareness: the notice names Science and Technology, Sports, Culture, Personalities, Economics and Politics. Read daily news in short sessions and revise weekly. The free Daily Dangal quiz fits this habit.
- Language: the paper is available in English, Hindi and 13 regional languages. If you choose a regional language you still see English beside it, and the English version prevails if the two differ. Hindi-medium candidates may find our Hindi syllabus and PET guide useful.
6. PET: a separate plan
PET is mandatory and qualifying. The standards:
| Male | Female | |
|---|---|---|
| Carry | 35 kg, 100 metres, 2 minutes, no putting down | 20 kg, 100 metres, 2 minutes, no putting down |
| Run | 1,000 metres in 4 min 15 sec | 1,000 metres in 5 min 40 sec |
The notices say candidates are called for PET in a number equal to three times the vacancy, based on CBT merit, and that dates arrive later through the RRC websites. Our advice, since the notices say nothing on training:
- Practise the carry and the run as two separate drills, because they are tested in order and failing the carry ends your attempt.
- Time your run on a measured 1,000 metres. A 4:15 pace is about 4 minutes 15 seconds per kilometre, so every lap of a 400-metre track needs to average about 1 minute 42 seconds. This is arithmetic, not an RRB number. For the female standard, 5:40 is about 2 minutes 16 seconds per 400 metres.
- Carry a sand bag or similar weight without a handle and do not put it down; the notice describes a handle-less sand bag lifted from waist height.
- Do not train through pain. The notice states it is each candidate's responsibility to be medically fit for PET.
- Exempt categories (PwBD, ex-servicemen, CCAA) should read their notice paragraph.
7. A weekly mock-analysis routine
After each mock, write every wrong or skipped question in a log with one tag:
- Concept gap: I did not know the idea. Fix: study it, then do 10 questions.
- Formula or fact slip: I knew it but misremembered. Fix: put it on the revision sheet.
- Time: I ran out of time. Fix: practise full-paper timing.
- Careless: misread. Fix: slow the first read.
- Bad guess: guessed and lost marks. Fix: guess only after eliminating an option.
Count the tags weekly; the largest is next week's work. Compare your percentile, not just your marks. On Pareeksha, everyone in a cohort sits the same fixed paper, so your percentile shows where you stand on identical questions. See how it works. RRBs normalise shifts and rank on normalised scores, so a raw mock score is not directly comparable with a published cut-off. See cut-offs.
8. Free and paid practice on Pareeksha
- Free: a 10-question mini-mock to try the format, and the Daily Dangal quiz.
- Pro: full CBT-pattern mocks, previous-year papers and topic-wise practice.
For arithmetic practice, see our posts on percentage tricks and maths chapter weightage.
What this page does not have
- No chapter-wise weightage, because the notices do not publish one.
- No fixed timetable or number of months. It depends on you.
- No claim about which RRB is easier. The cut-offs differ by board; see the cut-off page.
Related: Syllabus · Exam pattern · Cut-offs