CRPF tradesman syllabus: the CBT, trade test and physical tests

The order of stages in the latest drive

In the most recent advertisement the physical stages come first. Only candidates who pass them are called for the written test.

1. PET: a timed race, with the distance set by trade group and gender.
2. PST: height for all, chest for men, and weight in proportion.
3. CBT: the 100 question objective paper described below. Its marks build the merit list.
4. Trade test: a hands on round where examiners watch you work in your chosen trade. You either pass or fail.
5. Document verification and medical examination: a detailed medical and, if you are declared unfit, a review medical.

CRPF tradesman exam pattern for the CBT

• Correct choices are worth a mark each, and 0.25 goes off for an incorrect choice. Questions you leave untouched neither add nor subtract.
• The paper comes in Hindi and English only. In Part D you answer the language section in the one you are more at ease with.
• There is no provision to recheck or re-evaluate CBT marks once results are out.

Two hours for 100 short questions is generous by the standards of most recruitment exams. Use the spare time to reread the maths answers, which is where most avoidable errors happen.

What each part of the CRPF tradesman syllabus asks

Part A: general intelligence and reasoning

• Similarities and differences between words, numbers and figures
• Series completion, odd one out, analogies
• Coding, blood relations, direction tests, ranking order
• Spatial items: cubes and dice, mirror images, figures hidden inside other figures

Part B: general knowledge and awareness

• Major happenings in India and abroad over recent months, sports, honours
• India's history and culture, freedom movement
• States and union territories, rivers, crops and important days
• Constitution basics and government schemes
• Science in daily life, famous inventions, books and their authors

Part C: elementary mathematics

• Numbers, simplifying expressions, LCM and HCF
• Percentages, ratio, averages, ages, mixtures
• Profit and loss sums with discount, plus both types of interest
• Work and pipe problems, speed and distance, mensuration of rectangles, circles and cylinders, small tables and charts

Part D: English or Hindi

• English: articles, tenses, prepositions, synonyms and antonyms, idioms, spotting errors, an unseen passage
• Hindi: sandhi and samas, ling and vachan, paryayvachi and vilom shabd, muhavare, vakya shuddhi, apathit gadyansh

The trade test: your skill is checked, not ranked

After the CBT, examiners watch you perform the everyday tasks of the post. A cook prepares food, a tailor stitches, a barber cuts hair, a driver drives a heavy vehicle on a set route, and so on. News reports on the latest brochure give the pass mark as 20 out of 50.

Its marks never enter the merit list, yet a fail sends you home however well you did in the CBT. If you have been away from your trade for some time, practise the basic tasks again in the weeks before the test, and carry any tools the call letter permits.

Physical efficiency and standard tests

The race differs by trade group. In the latest brochure, technical trades such as driver, motor mechanic, carpenter, painter, tailor, cobbler, gardener and bandsman ran 5 km in 24 minutes for men and 1.6 km in 8 minutes 30 seconds for women. Kitchen and service posts (cook, water carrier, barber, washerman and safai karmachari) ran 1.6 km in 10 minutes for men and 12 minutes for women. Pioneer wing posts (mason, plumber, electrician) have their own standard; read it in the brochure.

Height and chest limits, with relaxations for hill people, Scheduled Tribes and candidates from the north east and some other regions, are tabled on our main CRPF syllabus guide.

Age and qualification at a glance

• Most trades: matriculation or its equivalent, and an age of 18 to 23.
• Driver: class 10 plus a valid heavy vehicle driving licence, aged 21 to 27.
• Motor mechanic and some technical trades: class 10 with the trade qualification or experience the notice demands, such as an ITI certificate.
• Relaxation: upper age is raised for SC, ST, OBC and ex servicemen as per central government orders.
• Pay: pay matrix level 3 (Rs 21,700 to Rs 69,100) with central allowances on top.

Age is reckoned on the date fixed in each advertisement, so work out your eligibility from the dates of birth given there.

Preparing alongside a full day of work

Most tradesman aspirants are already working as cooks, drivers or helpers. A modest routine you can stick with after a shift is better than an ambitious one you drop in a week.

1. Fitness first: since the race now comes before the CBT, start running from day one. Build up 1 km at a time until you can cover your distance well under the limit.
2. Maths in short bursts: 20 minutes a day on percentage, interest and time and work from class 8 to 10 textbooks.
3. Reasoning on the phone: solve 15 series and coding questions during breaks.
4. GK from one source: a daily newspaper plus the class 6 to 10 NCERT social science books.
5. Language: choose English or Hindi for Part D early and practise only that one.

Where to read the official notice

The force publishes the brochure, admit cards and results on its recruitment website. Other armed police forces run similar tradesman drives with their own schemes; compare the BSF tradesman syllabus, and for the general duty route through the Staff Selection Commission see the SSC GD syllabus. Other forces and their papers are gathered in our forces and police section.