RRB Staff Nurse Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

A single computer based test, then document verification and a medical. The Boards can add a second CBT if they think it necessary, but none is planned.

Minimum qualifying marks

Ex-servicemen follow their own community's bar. PwBD candidates get a 2 mark relaxation if there aren't enough of them.

Your score is right answers minus a third of wrong ones. All 100 attempted with 55 right gives 55 − 15 = 40; 48 right gives 48 − 17.33 = 30.67; 44 right gives 44 − 18.67 = 25.33. Attempt 80 with 55 right and you get 55 − 8.33 = 46.67; with 50 right, 50 − 10 = 40. Marks from multiple shifts are normalised.

Ties go to the older candidate; that's the only tie-break.

From Annexure C of CEN 03/2025.

Professional ability, 70 marks

Eighteen subjects, with no weighting:

That's roughly four questions per subject. Medical-surgical is paper I only, and genetics appears in its own right.

General Awareness, 10 marks

Current affairs; Indian geography; culture and history of India including the freedom struggle; polity and constitution; the economy; environmental issues; sports; scientific and technological developments.

General Arithmetic, General Intelligence and Reasoning, 10 marks

Arithmetic: number systems, BODMAS, decimals, fractions, LCM and HCF, ratio and proportion, percentages, mensuration, time and work, time and distance, simple and compound interest, profit and loss, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, elementary statistics, square root, age calculations, calendar and clock, pipes and cisterns.

Reasoning: analogies, alphabetical and number series, coding and decoding, mathematical operations, relationships, syllogism, jumbling, Venn diagrams, data interpretation and sufficiency, conclusions and decision making, similarities and differences, analytical reasoning, classification, directions, statements with arguments and assumptions.

General Science, 10 marks

Physics, Chemistry and Life Sciences up to 10th standard CBSE.

Qualification

1. A Registered Nurse and Midwife certificate after the three-year General Nursing and Midwifery course from an institution recognised by the Indian Nursing Council; or
2. B.Sc. Nursing.

Qualifications gained under INC concessions for Auxiliary Nurse Midwives, Midwives and B grade Nurses also count. You must hold it by the closing date; don't apply if you're awaiting a result. A certificate issued later is accepted only with marksheets or a university letter showing the result date was before the closing date.

Age

You get the largest single relaxation, not the sum. SC, ST and OBC candidates applying against unreserved vacancies get none. A PwBD candidate on an unreserved vacancy gets only the unreserved PwBD relaxation.

Disability and medical

The post is open only to locomotor disability: OL (one leg), AAV (acid attack victims), and SD or SI without neurological or limb dysfunction. Not to visual, hearing, other or multiple disability. Medical standard is C1; if you're found unfit, there's no alternative appointment.

Other conditions

• Your date of birth must match your matriculation or SSLC certificate exactly. Any difference disqualifies.
• EBC, EWS and OBC are different things. Economically Backward Class (family income below Rs 50,000) gets a fee concession only. Prove it with an income certificate from a DM or revenue officer up to Tahsildar (or an MP for their constituency, or a Union Minister), a BPL card, or a Railway Izzat MST, dated on or before the closing date.
• Minorities for the fee concession are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Zoroastrians (Parsis), with an affidavit on non-judicial stamp paper at verification.
• Government and PSU employees, including probationers, must inform their employer and bring an NOC to document verification.
• The closing date is the crucial date for every category, fee, reservation and age claim.

1. One online application, to one Board, ranking zones and posts within it.
2. Computer based test, normalised across shifts.
3. Document verification at 1:1 of the vacancies, on CBT merit: "1:1 = No Standby list".
4. Medical examination to standard C1.
5. Empanelment, then appointment by the Principal Chief Personnel Officer of the zone.

• Applying to more than one Board, or twice to one, gets all applications rejected and can lead to debarment.
• The chosen Board can't be changed, even for a fee. Posts you don't opt for count as unwillingness. Options are final.
• The Boards don't check eligibility at application. Everything is checked at document verification, and false information found at any stage, even later, cancels the candidature.

With no standby list, absences hurt. In RRB Secunderabad's Part-1 result for CEN 04/2024, 19 of the candidates called were rejected for missing document verification on both the scheduled and block dates, and three more for eligibility discrepancies: 22 rejections against 44 selections. That's why results came in Part-II, Part-III with a corrigendum, Part-IV and Additional List-4 over the following months.

Results are provisional. The Board can correct errors and cancel an empanelment, even after appointment. Unfair means lead to cancellation, debarment from all Railway jobs and prosecution. A scribe-eligible candidate gets 120 minutes, with or without a scribe; if the scribe answers on their own, the candidature is cancelled.

The Boards give only the level and starting pay; allowances follow central government rules for the posting. It's the highest paramedical level in CEN 03/2025, and one of only two Level 7 posts (with Dietician) among the twenty in CEN 04/2024.

Fee

Enter your bank name, account holder, account number and IFSC for the refund. Pay online only. No fee means summary rejection.

How to apply

1. Create an Account through any official Board website (reuse an earlier account if you have one).
2. Verify your identity with DigiLocker or Aadhaar. Using another photo ID brings "significantly stricter and more detailed scrutiny at every stage".
3. Choose one Board and rank zones and posts.
4. Take the live photo, upload documents and pay.

Nothing in the Create an Account form can ever be changed, including mobile and email, and all communication goes there. Nor can the Board. Everything else can be changed only in the paid modification window.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT's Common Services Centres (more than 1.5 lakh, at village panchayat level) can help with applying and paying.

There are twenty-one Railway Recruitment Boards, each with its own website, recruiting jointly under one CEN. You pick one Board and compete for its zones' vacancies. The Board runs the test, verification and empanelment; the zone's Principal Chief Personnel Officer appoints.

CEN 03/2025 categories

CEN 04/2024 also had Dietician (Level 7, 5 posts), Audiologist and Speech Therapist (4), Clinical Psychologist (7), Dental Hygienist (3), Laboratory Superintendent (27), Perfusionist (2), Physiotherapist Grade II (20), Occupational Therapist (2), Cath Laboratory Technician (2), Speech Therapist (1), Cardiac Technician (4), Optometrist (4) and Field Worker (19).

Annexure B splits vacancies by Board and zone, and the numbers are small: in CEN 03/2025 the Ahmedabad Board has 4 Nursing Superintendent posts for Western Railway and Ajmer has 1 for North Western Railway. They're provisional and may change.

The Boards are moving to a new unified website (RRB Secunderabad gave notice of its migration on 18 August 2026), so follow links from the Boards rather than old bookmarks.

No list of exam cities is published. City, centre and date are allotted on logistics, you may have to travel to another city or state, and no request to change the date, centre or shift is allowed.

You get a city intimation first, then the e-call letter, by SMS and email to the details you registered.

Banned in the hall: phones, Bluetooth devices, pen drives, laptops, calculators, smart watches, bangles, chains, bracelets, hearing aids, wallets, purses, belts, shoes, metallic wear and any stationery, including a pen. Breaking this means disqualification and debarment. There may be no cloakroom, so leave things at home.

A scribe must be registered with the Boards; changing scribe at the venue is generally not allowed.

CEN 03/2025

CEN 04/2024, for the pace of a cycle

So a cycle runs about two years. The 2019 cycle's final cut-offs only came out on 30 December 2024.

The Boards call it an e-call letter. It follows the application status list, the tentative CBT schedule and the city intimation, all on your Board's website, with SMS and email alerts.

An e-call letter doesn't mean your candidature is accepted. Eligibility is checked only at document verification. Bring the e-call letter and your ID, and nothing else.

Results come as roll-number lists from each Board for its zones, in ascending order, not merit order, and in several parts. RRB Secunderabad's Part-1 result for CEN 04/2024 selected 44 candidates, including 4 Nursing Superintendents for East Coast Railway and 24 for South Central Railway.

A result gives no right to appointment. The zone's Principal Chief Personnel Officer verifies certificates, date of birth, community and antecedents and appoints. Medically unfit candidates get no alternative post, though the Boards publish a medical appeal notice (Secunderabad's for CEN 04/2024 came in March 2026).

Check your own Board's site, which carries city intimation, e-call letters, the objection tracker, results, verification and selection lists for each notice.

The only published cut-off for this post is RRB Secunderabad's final cut-off order of 30 December 2024 for CEN 02/2019, when it was still called Staff Nurse (Category No. 2). It covers East Coast and South Central Railway.

These are normalised scores. Each is the last candidate taken in a cell of one or two posts, which is why SC and OBC sit above UR. The table runs from 29.53 to 64.21; the UR line near 58 is far above the 40 per cent bar. No cut-offs have been published for CEN 04/2024 or 03/2025; future ones will appear on the Boards' sites after the final panels.

Cover all eighteen nursing subjects

Professional ability is 70 marks spread across eighteen subjects at about four questions each. Breadth beats depth: work through the list as a checklist, genetics included.

Bank General Science

It's class 10 CBSE level and a nursing graduate has covered it. Arithmetic and reasoning are two full syllabi for ten marks, so practise the common question types rather than trying to cover everything.

Don't guess blind

With four options and a one-third penalty, a random guess averages 1(0.25) − (1/3)(0.75) = exactly zero. Rule out one option and it's worth answering. At 90 minutes for 100 questions you have 54 seconds each, so mark practice papers with the penalty.

Choose your Board from Annexure B

Read the vacancies for your community before choosing. You can't change it later, and the numbers per Board are small.

Turn up to document verification

With 1:1 and no standby, being called is close to being selected. Missing both dates throws it away.

No previous year papers are available for this exam as of now. The Railway Recruitment Boards don't publish them.

After each CBT, your Board publishes an objection tracker where you can see your own paper and responses and challenge the key. RRB Secunderabad opened it in May 2025 for CEN 04/2024 and in March 2026 for CEN 03/2025, a few weeks after the test.

• Railway Recruitment Board, Secunderabad
• Railway Recruitment Board, Chennai
• CEN 03/2025, Paramedical Categories
• CEN 04/2024, Paramedical Categories
• FAQs on CEN 03/2025
• Corrigendum 1 to CEN 03/2025
• Application status notice, CEN 03/2025
• Final cut-off marks, CEN 02/2019 (Staff Nurse)
• Results Part-1 and Part-III, CEN 04/2024
• Document verification notice and medical appeal notice, CEN 04/2024
• Indian Railways

Is RRB Staff Nurse the same as RRB Nursing Superintendent?

Yes. It was Staff Nurse in CEN 02/2019 and is Nursing Superintendent from CEN 04/2024.

How many posts are there?

272 in CEN 03/2025; 713 in CEN 04/2024.

What is the pay?

Level 7, starting at Rs 44,900.

What is the exam?

One CBT: 100 questions in 90 minutes, one-third negative marking, 70 marks on nursing.

What is the age limit?

20 to 40 on 1 January 2026, with category relaxations.

Can I apply to more than one Board?

No. All your applications would be rejected.

Do I get my fee back?

Rs 400 of Rs 500, or all of Rs 250, if you sit the CBT.

Why is the SC cut-off higher than the UR one?

Each cell holds one or two posts, so the figure is just the last candidate taken in that cell.

How long does a cycle take?

About two years from notice to final lists.