RRB Paramedical Staff Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

One Computer Based Test

That's the heaviest professional weighting of any RRB paper. The Isolated Categories notice gives Professional Ability 50 of 100, and the Non-Technical papers have none.

The paper is set in English, Hindi and 13 regional languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. You pick the medium when applying, and questions show in that language and in English side by side.

Minimum qualifying marks

Ex-servicemen go by their own community. If there aren't enough PwBD candidates, the minimum drops by 2 marks for them. There is no interview and no skill test, though the RRB can hold additional CBTs if it needs to.

Professional ability (70 marks): one list per post

From Annexure-C of the CEN. No per-topic question counts are published.

The 30 general marks, the same for every post

Qualification, by post

Certificates must be at least one year and full time. Open and Distance Learning degrees from universities set up by an Act of Parliament or State Legislature, deemed universities under section 3 of the UGC Act 1956, and institutions of national importance are recognised if UGC-approved.

You must hold the qualification by the closing date, 18 September 2025 as revised. If you're waiting for a result, you can't apply.

Age, as on 1 January 2026

Age relaxation

If you qualify on more than one ground you get the largest single relaxation, not the sum. SC, ST and OBC-NCL candidates applying against UR vacancies get none, and a PwBD candidate on a UR vacancy gets only the PwBD (UR) relaxation. Your date of birth must match your Matriculation or SSLC certificate exactly; any difference disqualifies you.

Medical standard

If you're found unfit for the post you opted for, you get no alternative appointment.

PwBD suitability (Annexure-A)

• Health and Malaria Inspector Grade II: low vision, hearing impairment (D, HH), a wide locomotor list, and multiple disabilities.
• Pharmacist: the widest locomotor list, plus hearing impairment and multiple disabilities; not visual impairment.
• Dialysis Technician, Radiographer, Laboratory Assistant Grade II: hearing impairment, a narrower locomotor list, multiple disabilities.
• Nursing Superintendent: a short locomotor list only, not multiple disabilities.
• ECG Technician: locomotor AAV only.

The RRB doesn't check eligibility when you apply. Everything is provisional until Document Verification, and a claim you can't back up there, or false information found at any stage, ends your candidature. Category claims (SC, ST, OBC, EWS, EBC, fee concession, age relaxation) are judged as on the closing date.

1. Computer Based Test, 100 questions in 90 minutes.
2. Document Verification, for candidates equal to the number of vacancies.
3. Medical examination at a nominated Railway Hospital, at the post's standard (C1, C2 or B1).
4. Empanelment and zone allotment.

Merit is the CBT score alone, subject to the qualifying marks. On equal marks, the older candidate ranks higher.

DV at 1:1, no standby list

The CEN says it outright: candidates equal to the vacancies are called, 1:1, no standby list. Most recruitments call two or three times the vacancies. Here, when people are rejected, the Board issues a further notice calling more candidates down the merit list. At RRB Chennai the panel notice of 6 August 2026 did exactly that for Nursing Superintendent and Pharmacist, with extra DV on 21 August 2026.

Bring all original certificates to DV. No extra time is given, and if you can't produce them on the day your candidature can be forfeited. Rejections in this cycle were for absence at DV, absence at the medical, being medically unfit for the preferred post, and not producing documents backing what was declared in the application.

The medical

• It's at a nominated Railway Hospital or Health Unit, the day after DV, often in another city.
• Plan for more than three to four days for DV and medical together.
• Bring six passport size colour photographs.
• The medical fee is ₹24, nothing else to the hospital. If a CT scan, ultrasound or a test to rule out refractive eye surgery is needed and the hospital can't do it, you pay the outside lab yourself.

Zone allotment

Zones are allotted by your options, subject to merit, medical standard and vacancies. Once you're empanelled for one preference you lose the next. The Boards can also allot a zone you didn't opt for, in the administrative interest. The RRB only recommends names; the offer of appointment comes from the Railway Administration.

These are starting basic pay, not take-home. On top come Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance by city class, Transport Allowance and the allowances for railway health staff. National Pension System contributions and health scheme subscriptions are deducted.

You'd work in the Railway hospitals and health units of the Zonal Railways and Production Units. The Board-wise and zone-wise vacancy split is in Annexure-B of the CEN No. 03/2025.

Apply online at rrbapply.gov.in. Applications for the 2025 cycle ran from 9 August to 18 September 2025 (see Important Dates).

One RRB, final preferences

• Pick one RRB. Within it, rank Railway Zones and the posts you're eligible for.
• A post you don't rank is treated as unwillingness.
• Options are final. The chosen RRB and the Create an Account details can't be changed even in the modification window.
• Applying more than once, to the same RRB or another, gets every application rejected and can mean debarment.

Your mobile number and email can't be changed once the account exists. If you made an account for an earlier RRB CEN, use the same one. Authenticate with DigiLocker or Aadhaar when you create it; those using other photo IDs face much stricter scrutiny at every stage.

Fee

Pay online only. No fee, no application.

• Minorities: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Zoroastrians (Parsis). Bring an affidavit on non-judicial stamp paper naming the community to DV, or you're rejected.
• Economically Backward Class: family income below ₹50,000 a year, shown by an EBC certificate, BPL card, Izzat MST or a Central Government poverty programme certificate dated on or before the closing date. EBC is not OBC or EWS.

Scribe

PwBD candidates eligible for a scribe get 120 minutes and had a separate window, 1 to 5 October 2025, to enter scribe details. The forms are at Annexures V(D) to V(G), including one for a person with less than 40 per cent disability who has difficulty writing.

The employer is Indian Railways, through its hospitals and health units across the Zonal Railways and Production Units. The recruiter is the Railway Recruitment Boards under the Ministry of Railways. Each Board recommends its empanelled candidates to the Railway Administration, which issues the appointment.

At RRB Chennai the first panel, recommended to the Principal Chief Personnel Officer, Southern Railway, Chennai, on 6 August 2026:

Board-wise vacancies are provisional and can go up or down. Use only the official RRB websites; selection is on CBT merit alone, and anyone promising a job for money is a tout.

The CBT ran on 11, 12 and 13 March 2026, moved by the notice of 25 February 2026 from the 10 to 12 March given on 7 January 2026. The city and date link goes up 10 days before your exam, with travel authority for SC and ST candidates. Postponement or change of centre isn't allowed.

• Bring two original ID documents, one the same photo ID named in your application, or you won't be let in.
• Bring your original Aadhaar card and make sure Aadhaar is unlocked in UIDAI. Biometric checks happen before entry.
• No calculators or electronic gadgets. A phone, Bluetooth or any wireless device, even switched off, means cancellation, debarment from RRB exams and possible legal action.

At RRB Chennai, DV was at the Board's office in Egmore, Chennai, on 22 and 23 June 2026 (block date 8 July 2026). Candidates were told by email and SMS to download their e-call letters.

Corrigendum-1 moved the closing date but not the age date. Age stayed reckoned on 1 January 2026; the date for qualifications and certificates moved to 18 September 2025. Notice to first panel took twelve months, seven of them between the closing date and the CBT.

The city and date intimation, with SC and ST travel authority, comes 10 days before your exam. The e-call letter can be downloaded about 4 days before, from the RRB websites. Follow its instructions exactly; not doing so can cancel your candidature. For what to bring on the day, see the exam centre section.

Results come as a cut-off sheet and DV shortlist on each Board's own website, then a panel notice after DV and the medical. In the 2025 cycle the shortlist came on 30 May 2026, about eleven weeks after the CBT, and RRB Chennai's first panel on 6 August 2026. Find them on the RRB websites under Exam Results and Selection List. Being empanelled isn't appointment; the Railway Administration issues the offer.

Each Board publishes its own cut-offs, out of 100. These are RRB Chennai's for Southern Railway: the cut-off sheet of 30 May 2026 for DV, and the cut-off of candidates actually empanelled from the panel notice of 6 August 2026. A blank means no figure was published.

The DV sheet also gives 52.02 for regular locomotor disability (Nursing Superintendent) and 58.11 for regular visual impairment (Pharmacist); the empanelment table gives 59.00 against LD for Nursing Superintendent.

The sheet prints figures to five decimals, such as 79.69456 and 80.35087, because marks are normalised across the three days of the CBT. The two tables differ where extra candidates were called: Nursing Superintendent UR fell from 79.69 to 79.39, and Pharmacist SC rose from 73.56 to 78.95.

Rounded, every UR cut-off sat between 67 and 80 (none under 66), against a 40 per cent floor. Other Boards and other cycles will differ.

• Put most of your time into your post's Annexure-C list. It's 70 of the 100 marks. Health and Malaria Inspector has only four headings, so expect depth. Pharmacist covers the whole B.Pharm curriculum, so a D.Pharm holder will meet new material.
• Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology open most of the lists and are reliably examined.
• Aim for the seventies or eighties, not the qualifying mark.
• Don't guess blind. Three wrong answers cancel one right one.
• Practise full papers at 54 seconds a question with the penalty applied. The RRBs put up a mock test on the real interface shortly before the exam.
• Check practice material against this CEN. If it shows 50 professional marks, it's for Isolated Categories. If the penalty is 0.25, it's wrong. Your professional section should match your post, not a generic paramedical mix.
• Pick the language you think in. English shows alongside it, which helps with clinical terms.
• Look at vacancies before ranking posts. Three posts had four vacancies nationally, so most Boards had one or none.
• Check the medical standard for your post before applying.

The RRBs don't publish past papers, answer keys or sample papers for this recruitment.

A mock test on the real CBT interface goes up on the RRB websites about a week before the exam; in the 2025 cycle it was 2 March 2026. The cut-off sheet of 30 May 2026 shows what score actually reached DV for each post.

• Railway Recruitment Boards: links to all the Board websites, with Notification, Exam Schedule, E-Call Letters, Mock Test Link, Exam Results and Selection List
• Detailed CEN No. 03/2025 (PDF), 8 August 2025: Para 13.0 for the recruitment process, Para 14.0 for applying, Annexure-A for qualifications, Annexure-B for Board and zone vacancies, Annexure-C for syllabuses
• Corrigendum-1 (PDF), revised dates
• RRB Chennai cut-off marks and DV shortlist (PDF), 30 May 2026
• RRB Chennai panel notice (PDF), 6 August 2026
• rrbapply.gov.in, the common application portal

Which posts does RRB Paramedical cover?

Nursing Superintendent (272), Pharmacist (105), Health and Malaria Inspector Grade II (33), Laboratory Assistant Grade II (12), and Dialysis Technician, Radiographer and ECG Technician with four each: 434 in CEN 03/2025.

What's the exam?

One CBT, 100 questions in 90 minutes: 70 professional ability and 10 each of General Awareness, Arithmetic with Reasoning, and General Science.

Is there negative marking?

Yes, one third of a mark per wrong answer.

What were the cut-offs?

At RRB Chennai the UR cut-off for DV ran from 66.67 (Radiographer) to 80.35 (Pharmacist). Other Boards differ.

Is there an interview?

No. CBT, Document Verification and medical only.

Can I apply while waiting for my result?

No.

Can I apply to more than one RRB?

No. One RRB, one application. More than one gets them all rejected.

What's the fee?

₹500, with ₹400 back if you sit the CBT. ₹250 for SC, ST, ex-servicemen, PwBD, women, transgender, Minority and EBC candidates, all refunded if you sit.

How long do DV and the medical take?

Plan for more than three to four days. Bring six photographs and ₹24 for the medical fee.