About the SCRA Examination

The UPSC in India conducts a number of examinations to select candidates for various government jobs all over India. The most famous one of such examinations is the Civil Services. However besides this premier recruiting examination there are various other exams also conducted by the Union Public Service Commission and one of them is the SCRA Exam. Only a handful of the deserving candidates get selected via this one of kind examination. The SCRA or the Special Class Railway Apprentice selects aspirants to the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Institute of the Indian Railways. This is an undergraduate program, after the completion of which the candidates can join the Indian Railways as their top ranking officer. The seats for SCRA are a miniscule 10 and as such are most coveted by any standard. The competition is an extremely tough one; however the perks for the successful candidates are many. Students who have been trained through the SCRA have gone on to win accolades in a number of fields. There are academicians, inventors as well as inventors besides the top officers in the Railway department. This examination is one of the oldest one in the country and was started by the British in the year 1927.

The eligibility criteria for the SCRA
The SCRA Exam is conducted by the UPSC which also conducts the Civil Services examination in India. The eligibility criteria for the SCRA include an age limit between 17-21 years. Other requirements are an intermediate or equivalent first/second division marks from a government recognized board; the candidate must have Math and Physics/Chemistry as a subject in the intermediate level examination; also any candidate having a graduate degree in Mathematics with Physics/Chemistry as the subject is also eligible for applying for the SCRA examination.

The syllabus for the SCRA
The syllabus for the Special Class Railway Apprentice examination consists of the class XII CBSE Board study material. The examination is the written type where the questions come from various subjects such as Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, General Knowledge and English along with questions on mental ability. However this is not all, after the successful completion of the examination the aspirants have to sit for the interview, based on which the final selection is done. The UPSC, SCRA Exam is conducted only once in every two years. This is different than the civil services examination where the aspirants can sit for the test every year.