
Special Class Railway Apprentices’ Examination, 2010
Scheme And Syllabus of Examination
Paper-I :
- English
- General Knowledge
- Psychological Test
Paper-II
Paper-III
Personality Test
Paper-I
(i) English
The questions will be designed to test the candidates' understanding and
command of the language.
(ii) General Knowledge
- The questions will be designed to test a candidate’s general awareness
of the environment around him and its application to society. The standard
of answers to questions should be as expected of students of standard 12 or
equivalent.
Man and his environment
Evolution of life, plants and animals, heredity and environment-Genetics,
cells, chromosomes, genes.
Knowledge of the human body-nutrition, balanced diet, substitute foods,
public health and sanitation including control of epidemics and common diseases.
Environmental pollution and its control. Food adulteration, proper storage and
preservation of food grains and finished products, population explosion,
population control. Production of food and raw materials. Breeding of animals
and plants, artificial insemination, manures and fertilizers, crop protection
measures, high yielding varieties and green revolution, main cereal and cash
crops of India.
Solar system and the earth, Seasons, Climate, Weather, Soil-its formation,
erosion. Forests and their uses. Natural calamities cyclones, floods,
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. Mountains and rivers and their role in
irrigation in India. Distribution of natural resources and industries in India.
Exploration of under-ground minerals including Oil Conservation of natural
resources with particular reference to the flora and fauna of India.
History, Politics and Society in India
Vedic, Mahavir, Budhdha, Mauryan, Sunga, Andhra, Kushan. Gupta ages (Mauryan
Pillars, Stupa Caves, Sanchi, Mathura and Gandharva Schools, Temple
architecture, Ajanta and Ellora). The rise of new social forces with the coming
of Islam and establishment of broader contacts. Transition from feudalism to
capitalism. Opening of European contacts. Establishment of British rule in
India. Rise of nationalism and national struggle for freedom culminating in
Independence.
Constitution of India and its characteristic features - Democracy,
Secularism, Socialism, equality of opportunity and Parliamentary form of
Government. Major political ideologies-democracy, socialism, communism and
Gandhian idea of non-violence. Indian political parties, pressure groups, public
opinion and the press, electoral system.
India’s foreign policy and non-alignment-Arms race, balance of power. World
organisation-political, social, economic and cultural. Important events
(including sports and cultural activities) in India and abroad during the past
two years.
Broad features of Indian social system: The caste system, hierarchy - recent
changes and trends. Minority social institution - marriage, family, religion and
acculturation.
Division of labour, co-operation, conflict and competition, Social control -
reward and punishment, art, law, customs, propaganda, public opinion, agencies
of social control - family, religion, state educational institutions; factors of
social change- economic, technological, demographic, cultural; the concept of
revolution.
Social disorganisation in India - Casteism, communalism, corruption in public
life, youth unrest, beggary, drugs, delinquency and crime, poverty and
unemployment.
Social planning and welfare in India, community development and labour
welfare; welfare of Scheduled Castes and backward classes.
Money - Taxation, price, demographic trends, national income, economic
growth. Private and Public Sectors; economic and non-economic factors in
planning, balanced versus imbalanced growth, agricultural versus industrial
development; inflation and price stabilization, problem of resource mobilisation.
India’s Five Year Plans.
(iii) Psychological Test
The questions will be designed to assess the basic intelligence and
mechanical aptitude of the candidate.
Paper-II
(i) Physics
- Length measurements using vernier, screw gauge, spherometer and optical
lever. Measurement of time and mass.
- Straight line motion and relationships among displacement, velocity and
acceleration.
- Newton's laws of motion, Momentum, impulse, work, energy and power.
- Coefficient of friction.
- Equilibrium of bodies under action of forces. Moment of a force, couple.
Newton’s law of gravitation. Escape velocity. Acceleration due to gravity.
- Mass and Weight; Centre of gravity, Uniform circular motion, centripetal
force, simple Harmonic motion. Simple pendulum.
- Pressure in a fluid and its variation with depth. Pascal’s law.
Principle of Archimedes. Floating bodies, Atmospheric pressure and its
measurement.
- Temperature and its measurement. Thermal expansion, Gas laws and
absolute temperature. Specific heat, latent heats and their measurement.
Specific heat of gases. Mechanical equivalent of heat. Internal energy and
First law of thermodynamics, Isothermal and adiabatic changes. Transmission
of heat; thermal conductivity.
- Wave motion; Longitudinal and transverse waves. Progressive and
stationary waves, Velocity of sound in gas and its dependence on various
factors. Resonance phenomena (air columns and strings).
- Reflection and refraction of light. Image formation by curved mirrors
and lenses, Microscopes and telescopes. Defects of vision.
- Prisms, deviation and dispersion, Minimum deviation. Visible spectrum.
- Field due to a bar magnet, Magnetic moment, Elements of Earth’s magnetic
field. Magnetometers. Dia, para and ferromagnetism.
- Electric charge, electric field and potential, Coulomb’s law.
- Electric current; electric cells, e.m.f. resistance, ammeters and
voltmeters. Ohm’s law; resistances in series and parallel, specific
resistance and conductivity. Heating effect of current.
- Wheatstone’s bridge, Potentiometer.
- Magnetic effect of current; straight wire, coil and solenoid
electromagnet; electric bell.
- Force on a current-carrying conductor in magnetic field; moving coil
galvanometers; conversion to ammeter or voltmeter.
- Chemical effects of current; Primary and storage cells and their
functioning, Laws of electrolysis.
- Electromagnetic induction; Simple A.C. and D.C. generators.
Transformers, Induction coil,
- Cathode rays, discovery of the electron, Bohr model of the atom. Diode
and its use as a rectifier.
- Production, properties and uses of X-rays.
- Radioactivity; Alpha, Beta and Gamma rays.
- Nuclear energy; fission and fusion, conversion of mass into energy,
chain reaction.