ALP cut off by zone and stage: how RRB marks are set

What an ALP cut off notice contains

In every cycle, each RRB releases a result PDF at every stage. The PDF lists the roll numbers shortlisted and, at the end, a small table of the lowest normalised marks at which candidates were called, split by community (each reserved group and the unreserved list), often with a separate ex-servicemen row. That last row is the cut off.

• CBT 1 cut off: the lowest marks that got you into CBT 2. Boards shortlist a multiple of their vacancies, so this cut off rises in zones with few seats.
• CBT 2 cut off: based on Part A marks only, among those who also crossed 35 percent in Part B. It decides who sits CBAT.
• Final cut off: the merit position after combining Part A and CBAT (the newest notice counts the two half and half, while older cycles gave Part A seventy percent of the weight), which fixes the list sent to the document check.

We do not repeat unverified figures here. Read the PDF on your own RRB's website, since that is the only record that decides your selection.

Past cut offs: what earlier cycles showed

In the cycle notified as CEN 01/2024, the UR cut offs reported from zone notices were spread over a very wide band. Muzaffarpur and Patna were reported at the top, other eastern zones with heavy application numbers such as Kolkata, Gorakhpur and Malda also sat well above the middle, while Bhopal, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram were nearer the lower end. Published figures for individual zones differ between reports, so we do not print exact marks here.

Reserved category cut offs in many zones were close to the qualifying floor: ST figures near 25 percent and OBC or EWS near 30 or 40 percent. That pattern tells you the floor itself often decides shortlisting for these groups, while UR candidates face real competition.

Minimum marks are not the same as the cut off

Crossing these floors only makes you eligible to be counted. The selection cut off is whatever marks the last shortlisted person in your zone and category scored, and it is usually higher. For PwBD, the floor can be relaxed by 2 percent if seats would stay empty, though recent ALP notices have not had PwBD seats.

Why zone cut offs differ so much

• Seats: a board with a few dozen ALP posts shortlists very few people, so its cut off jumps. Large boards such as Secunderabad and Ranchi had far more seats in recent notices.
• Applicants: zones in Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal draw huge numbers of ITI holders.
• Normalisation: CBTs run in many shifts; marks are scaled so a hard shift is not penalised. Your normalised score can be higher or lower than your raw score.
• Category share: the number of seats reserved for each group changes per zone.

What may move the next cut off

Watch three things in the current notice: the number of ALP seats in your zone, the CBT 1 sections (the newest notice has dropped the general awareness block), and the merit weighting (the aptitude test now carries half of final merit instead of under a third). A paper with no GK questions tends to favour candidates strong in maths and reasoning, which can push cut offs up in competitive zones, and the heavier CBAT weight means a strong aptitude score can lift you past candidates with higher Part A marks. Nobody can predict exact numbers before results, so treat any figure called an expected cut off as a guess.

How to check your RRB ALP cut off officially

1. Visit the regional RRB site you chose on your form; results are hosted board by board.
2. Find the result notice for the stage you need (CBT 1, CBT 2 or CBAT and DV list).
3. Scroll to the end of the PDF for the community-wise cut off table.
4. Use your registration details to open your own normalised score in the scorecard link, when the board activates it.

For example, the Secunderabad board posts notices on rrbsecunderabad.gov.in. Related reading: the RRB ALP syllabus, RRB ALP eligibility, the RRB ALP previous papers guide and, for a sister post, the technician cut off page.