1,26,30,885 candidates are waiting for the exam date of RRB NTPC CBT 1. There are expectations from the Railway Recruitment Boards, of Indian Railways, that they will publish the exam date soon. Higher chances are for the event to happen next month that is in January 2020, though from a few quarters December 2019 is also being speculated as the month for the announcement.
However, a very important aspect to take note of is the number of days that candidates will get from the date of exam announcement to the exam. Because everyone will get only those many days for their last minute preparations, and revision.
Here is a compilation of the past railway recruitment exam date announcement dates, and the number of days that candidates got to revise.
The first of the seven railway recruitment exams that have taken place since 2018 was the RRB ALP and Technician recruitment, against CEN 01/2018. For it, CBT 1 exam date was announced on July 21, exam was conducted from August 9 to 31, and September 4. And for its CBT 2, exam date notification came on January 9 an exam dates were January 21 to 23, and February 8.
Then for RRB Group D recruitment for CEN 02/2018, date of exam was notified on August 27, and exams were held from September 17 to December 17.
For RRB JE recruitment, CEN 03/2018, railways announced the exam dates on May 8 and held the exams from May 22 to June 2, and June 26 to 28. For the same recruitment, CBT 2 exam date was published on August 13, when the exam dates were August 28 to September 1 and September 19.
The last railway recruitment exam that was held was the RRB paramedical exam. For it, exam date came out on July 4, and exam was held from July 19 to 21.
Thus, the gap between announcement of exam date, and the first exam date was 19 days for RRB ALP CBT 1, 12 days for RRB ALP CBT 2, 21 days for RRB Group D, 14 days for RRB JE CBT 1, 15 days for RRB JE CBT 2, and 15 days for RRB Paramedical.
As can be seen, the range is 12 to 21 days. Therefore it is expected that for RRB NTPC 2020 also, the gap between the exam date announcement and the first exam date will be anytime between 2 to 3 weeks.
However, it is important to note that this is the least number of days for preparation, which the candidates who get the first exam date will get. Considering the large number of candidates who have applied for the Non Technical Popular Categories recruitment, its CBT 1 will probably be held over 1-2 months at least. So those who will get a later exam date, will get more days to prepare and revise. Nevertheless, other than that, the level of exam shall remain the same.
The first stage computer based test for RRB NTPC recruitment for 35,208 vacancies will shortlist candidates equal to 20 times the number of vacancies, for CBT 2. CBT 1 will have negative marking of ⅓ of marks allotted to the question, for incorrect answers. The paper will have questions on general awareness, mathematics, and general intelligence and reasoning.
RRBs are expected to announce the NTPC exam date any time now.
