RRB ASM Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility, Important Dates

Both CBTs: one mark per question, one third off per wrong answer, 120 minutes for scribe-eligible candidates. The section split is indicative. Marks from multiple sessions are normalised, and every shortlist uses normalised marks.

15 times the community-wise vacancies of your RRB go from the first CBT to the second (the Railways can change that). 8 times the Station Master and Traffic Assistant vacancies per community go to the CBAT. Candidates shortlisted for the 2nd Stage under a reserved category stay in that category for all later stages.

CBAT

• Minimum T-Score of 42 in each battery, for every category, with no relaxation.
• No negative marking. English and Hindi only.
• Bring the vision certificate (Annexure VII) in original, or you can't sit it.
• Question patterns: RDSO, under Directorates, Psycho Technical Directorate, Guidelines for Aptitude Test.

Minimum qualifying marks in the CBTs

Ex-servicemen follow their own community. PwBD candidates may get 2 marks' relaxation if reserved seats would go unfilled.

The same syllabus for both CBTs:

General Awareness is the biggest section in both papers: 40 per cent of the first and 42 per cent of the second.

The CBAT has no published syllabus. It's a psychometric test, not a knowledge paper.

Qualification

A degree from a recognised university or equivalent, held by the revised closing date, 27 November 2025. Candidates awaiting results can't apply. If your certificate is dated later, bring marksheets or a university letter at DV showing the result date.

Age on 1 January 2026

18 to 33 years, for every post in the notice.

You get the largest relaxation, not the sum. SC, ST and OBC candidates applying for UR vacancies get none; PwBD on UR vacancies get the PwBD (UR) relaxation only. Your date of birth must match your 10th certificate exactly.

Vision and medical

• Lasik or any refractive surgery bars you from A-2 and A-3 posts. You can still take B-2 and C-2 posts (Railway Board letter of 25 August 2022).
• Fail the medical and there's no alternative post. You get one paid medical appeal, and its result is final.
• PwBD and ex-servicemen standards are at Paras 511(7) and 534 of the Indian Railway Medical Manual, Volume I (Chapter 5).

Disability

Station Master isn't open to any benchmark disability, nor are Goods Train Manager and Traffic Assistant. Chief Commercial cum Ticket Supervisor and the two typist posts are open to several categories.

Provisional until DV

RRBs don't check eligibility at application. Everything is checked at DV, and false information found at any stage, even later, means rejection. The revised closing date is the crucial date for every category claim and the PwBD certificate. A changed name needs a Gazette notification or legal document.

1. 1st Stage CBT: screening; 15 times the community-wise vacancies go through.
2. 2nd Stage CBT: 70 per cent of merit; 8 times the vacancies per community go to the CBAT.
3. CBAT: pass every battery at T-Score 42; 30 per cent of merit.
4. Document Verification at 1:1, then the A-2 medical.

The merit list is drawn only from those who pass the CBAT. Fail one battery and a high CBT score doesn't help.

Document verification

• Ties go to the older candidate, then alphabetical order of name.
• Bring all originals; there's no extra time, and missing ones can forfeit your candidature.
• Government, Railway or PSU staff need an employer NOC on the day.

Allotment and posting

Zones are allotted by option, merit, medical standard and vacancy; once empanelled you lose your claim to lower preferences, and the Board can allot a zone you didn't pick. No transfer request to another Railway is registered until you've served at least 5 to 10 years, so choose your RRB carefully.

Appointees are liable for service in the Railway Engineers' Unit of the Territorial Army and may sign a security bond. RRBs only recommend; the Railway administration issues the offer. Boards can correct results at any stage, even after appointment.

The RRBs have no agents or coaching partners. Use only official RRB websites (listed at Para 16.0 of the CEN); helpline rrb.help@csc.gov.in, working days 10:00 to 17:00.

Level-6 of the 7th CPC matrix, initial pay ₹35,400. That's the first cell, not take-home. Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance by city class, Transport Allowance and post-specific allowances are added; NPS and health scheme contributions are deducted.

Station Master shares Level-6 with Chief Commercial cum Ticket Supervisor. Goods Train Manager, at Level-5, has 3,416 of the 5,810 vacancies, so you're weighing a higher grade against a much bigger chance. The full table of the six posts is under Participating Institutes.

Apply online to one RRB only, through any official RRB website or rrbapply.gov.in. Rank zones, units and posts within it. Posts you don't opt for count as unwillingness, and options are final. Applying more than once, to one RRB or several, gets every application rejected and can bar you from future RRB and RRC exams.

If you created an account for any RRB notice in 2024 or 2025, use it. The Create an Account details (name, parents' names, date of birth, gender, nationality, matriculation details, email, mobile, Aadhaar e-KYC and the chosen RRB) can never be changed. Use a desktop; the form doesn't work well on mobile.

Verify with DigiLocker or Aadhaar. Using another photo ID brings "significantly stricter and more detailed scrutiny at every stage".

Fee

• Pay online only. No fee, no application.
• Minorities are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Zoroastrians (Parsis); bring an affidavit on non-judicial stamp paper to DV.
• EBC means family income below ₹50,000, shown by an income certificate, BPL card, Railway Izzat MST or central poverty programme certificate dated before the closing date. It isn't OBC or EWS.

Scribes

Scribe-eligible candidates get 120 minutes instead of 90 (20 minutes per hour), with or without a scribe. The scribe registers once on rrbapply.gov.in, must be one step below your qualification, can't help anyone else or be a candidate in this CEN. A scribe found answering independently ends your candidature.

The employer is Indian Railways, across its zones and production units. The Railway Recruitment Boards under the Ministry of Railways recruit through CEN 06/2025. All six graduate posts share the two CBTs; the skill test is what your preferences commit you to.

For the typist posts, the typing test is qualifying only: 30 words per minute in English or 25 in Hindi on a PC, with no editing tools or spell check (Kruti Dev and Mangal fonts for Hindi).

The CBAT follows guidelines from the Research Designs and Standards Organisation's Psycho Technical Directorate (RDSO).

RRBs fix the date, time and venue of every stage. City and centre are allotted on logistics, you may have to travel to another city or state, and no change of date, centre or shift is allowed.

Download the city intimation, e-call letter and any travel authority from your RRB's website. Mock tests go up there before each stage. SC and ST candidates can get a free Sleeper Class pass with the e-call letter for every stage; carry the original caste certificate when travelling.

Only the e-call letter is allowed inside; a pen is provided. Phones, watches, earphones, Bluetooth devices, health bands, calculators, books, paper, bags, belts, caps, wallets, cameras, water bottles and food are banned. A phone or Bluetooth device, even switched off, means cancellation, debarment and possible legal action. There may be no cloakroom. Don't apply henna; it blocks biometric capture.

Corrigendum-1 (19 November 2025) moved every deadline by a week. CBT, CBAT, DV and medical dates are announced on the RRB websites as each stage approaches.

The parallel undergraduate notice, CEN 07/2025, came out on 28 October 2025 and closed on 4 December 2025 after its own corrigendum. Together the two notices carry 8,868 vacancies.

The city and date intimation, e-call letter and travel authority are downloaded from your RRB's website; nothing is posted. Alerts go by SMS and email to the details you registered, which can't be changed.

For the CBAT, carry the original vision certificate (Annexure VII) from an eye specialist, or you won't be allowed in. The Lasik self-declaration (Annexure VII-A) goes in at DV.

At DV bring all originals: degree (with result-date proof if needed), 10th certificate, community and EWS or EBC certificates, minority affidavit, employer NOC, Annexure VII-A, and any name-change Gazette notification.

Results of the CBTs, CBAT and empanelment go up on each RRB's website, with SMS and email alerts. Find your Board through the RRB portal.

Station Master merit is 70 per cent 2nd Stage CBT plus 30 per cent CBAT, from CBAT qualifiers only, then DV at 1:1 and the medical. Empanelment isn't appointment: the Railway administration issues the offer, and a candidate may be delisted or removed if a result is later corrected.

Cut-offs for CEN 06/2025 haven't been published yet. Each RRB publishes its own, by post and category, after each stage on its website, reachable from the RRB portal. They're normalised scores, which is why they run to decimals.

What's fixed in advance: the 40/30/25 per cent qualifying marks, the 15-times and 8-times shortlists, and the CBAT T-Score of 42 in every battery with no relaxation. Against 615 posts, the CBAT shortlist is on the order of 5,000 candidates across twenty-one Boards.

Get your eyes tested first

A-2 needs 6/9 in each eye without glasses and passes in colour, binocular, night and myopic vision, and Lasik rules you out. See an eye specialist before you spend a year preparing.

Clear the 1st Stage, peak for the 2nd

The first paper only screens, but at 15 times the vacancies it's a real filter. The second paper is 70 per cent of your merit and faster: 45 seconds a question against 54 in the first. Practise at that pace with the one-third penalty applied; three wrong answers cancel a right one.

Don't skimp on General Awareness

It's 40 then 50 marks, and includes topics general studies material often skips: Indian literature, monuments, transport systems in India, computer basics, abbreviations, flagship schemes and public sector organisations. Maths and reasoning stop at school level and are the most reliable marks: 60 in the first paper, 70 in the second.

Prepare for the CBAT separately

It's a psychometric test with a hard floor in every battery and no negative marking, so attempt everything. Start from the RDSO aptitude test guidelines and the mock tests on the RRB websites.

Know what your preferences commit you to

Station Master and Traffic Assistant mean the CBAT and A-2. Goods Train Manager means A-2 but no skill test. Chief Commercial cum Ticket Supervisor is B-2, which allows glasses and Lasik. The typist posts need the typing test.

No previous year papers are available for this exam as of now. The RRBs don't publish them for this CEN.

The Boards post mock tests on the actual CBT interface on each RRB website before every stage, reachable from the RRB portal. For the aptitude test, the CEN points to RDSO's Psycho Technical Directorate guidelines.

• RRB portal: links to the twenty-one RRB websites, each with notices, city intimation, e-call letters, mock tests, results, DV and selection lists
• CEN No. 06/2025 (Graduate), 59 pages. Paras 1.0 general and posting rules, 3.0 medical, 5.0 to 5.3 age, 6.0 qualification, 7.0 to 7.4 fee, 8.0 to 11.0 reservation and PwBD, 12.0 NOC, 13.0 selection, 14.0 how to apply; Annexures A (posts), B (vacancies), VII and VII-A (vision)
• Corrigendum-1 to CEN 06/2025, 19 November 2025
• FAQs on CEN 06/2025
• CEN 07/2025 (Under Graduate), 3,058 vacancies, same syllabus
• rrbapply.gov.in: application portal and scribe registration
• RDSO: Psycho Technical Directorate, Guidelines for Aptitude Test

What is RRB ASM?

The Station Master post, recruited through CEN 06/2025: Level-6, ₹35,400, 615 vacancies.

Does the 1st Stage CBT count towards my rank?

No. It only shortlists for the 2nd Stage.

How is the merit list made?

70 per cent 2nd Stage CBT, 30 per cent CBAT, from CBAT qualifiers only.

Is there a relaxed CBAT cut-off for reserved categories?

No. T-Score 42 in every battery for everyone.

I've had Lasik. Can I apply for Station Master?

No. You can apply for the B-2 and C-2 posts in the same notice.

When do I need the vision certificate?

In original, at the CBAT.

Can persons with disabilities apply for Station Master?

No. The post isn't identified for any benchmark disability.

Can I change my RRB later?

No, not even in the modification window.

Will I be posted near home?

Not necessarily, and you can't ask for a transfer to another Railway for 5 to 10 years.