Railway Recruitment Board — Non-Technical Popular Categories, CBT 1. Conducted by Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB), Indian Railways. Nisha knows this paper from the site's own pattern pages — and reads your scores, your mocks and what you haven't touched before saying a word.
Notified periodically by RRB for specific NTPC posts; conducted across multiple shifts/days. Computer-based, MCQ only — 4 options per question, no typed/TITA questions.
90 minutes, 100 questions, no sectional time lock. +1 for a correct answer, −1/3 for a wrong one, 0 for unattempted. Multi-shift scores are normalized to a percentile before shortlisting; CBT 1 marks do not carry into final merit.
120 marks, same 90-minute format and marking scheme, but post-specific question depth. For Junior/Senior Clerk cum Typist posts, a Typing Skill Test follows; for Station Master, a Computer-Based Aptitude Test (CBAT) contributes 30% of the final merit alongside CBT 2's 70%.
Shortlisted candidates undergo document verification and a medical fitness examination before final appointment to their allotted post.
Qualifying/screening only — does not count toward final merit
Marking: −1/3 (−0.333) per wrong answer; 0 for unattempted
Category-wise qualifying percentage: UR/EWS 40%, OBC/SC 30%, ST 25%. This is an OVERALL cutoff on total CBT 1 score, not a per-section cutoff.
CBT 1 is a common, qualifying screening stage every NTPC applicant sits, regardless of the specific post — its marks do NOT count toward final merit, they only determine who is shortlisted (at roughly 20x the vacancies) for the tougher CBT 2.
40 questions — the single heaviest section, and the fastest to attempt (pure recall, no calculation). General Science alone is roughly a quarter of this section's weight.
30 questions across 13 chapters, from Number System through Elementary Statistics — Percentage and Profit & Loss are the two heaviest individual topics.
30 questions across 12 chapters — Analogies and Alphabetical & Number Series are the two heaviest individual topics, together over a fifth of this section.
The highest-weight chapters in each subject, linked to their notes. Weights are estimates from previous papers where the conducting body publishes none. Your guide weighs these against your own scores.
Sectional cut-offs, speed, and the mock-analysis habit that decides bank and SSC results. Pick one to start, or just talk — Nisha has read your profile either way.
Every fact on this page comes from the exam's blueprint on this site. How the guide uses it: how Guidance works.
Nisha has the pattern and will read your work. Talk it through, and leave with a plan you tick off.
