RRB ALP · Psycho Test
The T-Score decides who qualifies in the RRB ALP CBAT. Here is RDSO's own formula, three worked examples (one of them a negative score), the composite score out of 30, and the target Pindel Sir sets for every student.
By Team Kautilya · 12 Oct 2026 · 8 min read
Every result in the RRB ALP psycho test, the Computer Based Aptitude Test (CBAT), is a T-Score, not a count of right answers. You need a T-Score of 42 or more in each of the five tests to qualify, and the five T-Scores together give a score out of 30 that goes into the final ALP merit. RDSO, the Research Designs and Standards Organisation of Indian Railways, designs the test, and its FAQ for candidates gives the formula and three worked examples. This article walks through them, in RDSO's own figures, and then says what they mean for the way you prepare.
If you are new to the exam, read the complete guide to the RRB ALP psycho test first. It explains the five tests and the 20 kinds of question the hall can give. On the Kautilya Classes portal, every practice paper and every Full Mock reports this same T-Score, computed the same way, so the number you see in practice is the number that matters in the hall.
RDSO's answer to "what is the criterion to qualify" is short: a T-Score of 42 or more in each test, and the T-Score is different from the raw score. The raw score of each test is converted into a T-Score. The conversion compares you with everyone who sat that test. So the T-Score does not say how many you got right; it says where you stand in the group. Five tests, five groups, five T-Scores. Each one must clear 42 on its own.
T = 50 + 10 × (x − Mean) ÷ SD, where x is your score in the test, Mean is the average score of all candidates who appeared in that test, and SD is the standard deviation of their scores.
Two numbers describe the group. The mean is the average score. The standard deviation (SD) says how spread out the scores are: a small SD means most candidates scored close to the mean, a large SD means the scores were spread wide. The formula puts the average candidate at exactly 50, and every one SD above or below the average moves the T-Score by 10. RDSO notes that for most candidates the T-Score falls between 20 and 80, though the formula does not rule out scores outside that range.
Six marks above the mean, with an SD of 3, is two standard deviations above the average. That is a T-Score of 70: comfortably qualified, and well above the 60 that Pindel Sir sets as the practice target.
RDSO answers this exact complaint in its FAQ, with figures:
Seventy-five right out of a hundred looks like a strong paper. But when the average candidate got 85 right, 75 is one full SD below the average, and the T-Score is 40: not qualified. This is the trap of the speed tests. In the Power of Observation Test and the Perceptual Speed Test, most candidates score high, so the mean is high, and every careless error pushes you further below it. A score that feels good is not enough; you have to be at least near the middle of the group.
RDSO adds that such candidates are very few. The lesson is not the number but the cause: a zero in one test. It happens when the study part of the Memory Test goes wrong and the candidate gives up on the test part, or when a candidate misreads the instruction screen and answers a different question from the one asked. The CBAT has no negative marking, so there is never a reason to leave a question blank, and never a reason to stop before the clock does.
Four rules from RDSO's FAQ, in one place:
Put 42 on the scale: it is 0.8 of a standard deviation below the average candidate. On a normal curve about one candidate in five lands below that line in any one test. That sounds easy until you remember that you must clear the line five times in a row, in five different abilities. A good Memory Test does not rescue a weak Depth Perception Test. Each test is a separate pass or fail.
The aptitude test carries a weight of 30 in the final selection, and RDSO's FAQ shows how the five T-Scores become a score out of 30:
The scores in the RRB examination and in the aptitude test are then apportioned 70:30 for the final merit list. So 42 is a floor, not a goal. Every T-Score point above 42, in every test, adds to your composite score and lifts your rank. The Full Mock scorecard on the Kautilya Classes portal is out of 30 for this reason: it uses the same formula on the same five T-Scores, so one look tells you both whether you qualified and how much merit the five tests earned.
Start with the free Full Mock: create a free account, sit the five tests in the hall's order, and read the five T-Scores. Then take the kinds of your weakest test from the list of all 20 kinds of question, and the packages when you want every practice paper.
ALP साइको टेस्ट (CBAT) का हर परिणाम T-Score में आता है, सही उत्तरों की गिनती में नहीं। RDSO का सूत्र है T = 50 + 10 × (आपका स्कोर − औसत) ÷ मानक विचलन, जहाँ औसत और मानक विचलन उस टेस्ट में बैठे सभी उम्मीदवारों के अंकों से निकलते हैं। औसत उम्मीदवार का T-Score ठीक 50 होता है। हर टेस्ट में 42 या उससे ज़्यादा T-Score ज़रूरी है, और यह कट-ऑफ पूरे देश के हर RRB में एक जैसा है; न आरक्षण है, न नेगेटिव मार्किंग। RDSO का उदाहरण याद रखें: 100 में से 75 सही होने पर भी, अगर औसत 85 और मानक विचलन 10 हो, तो T-Score सिर्फ़ 40 आता है, यानी असफल। पाँचों टेस्ट के T-Score जोड़कर, 400 से भाग देकर, 30 से गुणा करने पर 30 में से स्कोर मिलता है (जैसे 300 → 22.5), जो अंतिम मेरिट में 70:30 के अनुपात से जुड़ता है। पिंडेल सर की सलाह: लक्ष्य हर टेस्ट में 60 रखें, कोई सवाल खाली न छोड़ें, और वहीं अभ्यास करें जहाँ T-Score दूसरे उम्मीदवारों के मुकाबले दिखे।
Source: RDSO (Research Designs and Standards Organisation, Lucknow), Psychology Directorate, Candidates' Corner and Frequently Asked Questions, rdso.indianrailways.gov.in. The ALP test pattern is from the RDSO guideline "ALPs Guidelines CBT, Jan 2020".
Educator · शिक्षक
Founder & Director, Kautilya Classes · M.Tech., NIT Jalandhar
Pindel Sir has taught the RRB ALP psycho test (CBAT) for ten years at Kautilya Classes in Jaipur and Jodhpur, with thousands of selections to the institute's name. He built this portal so that every student practises the five tests on a screen like the hall and sees the same T-Score the railway reports.
पिंडेल सर दस साल से कौटिल्य क्लासेस, जयपुर और जोधपुर में RRB ALP साइको टेस्ट पढ़ा रहे हैं; संस्थान के नाम हज़ारों चयन हैं।
All five tests in one sitting, the hall's order and timing, a scorecard out of 30 and your T-Score in each test. Free with every account, no package needed.
पाँचों टेस्ट एक बार में, असली क्रम और समय, हर टेस्ट का T-Score। हर अकाउंट के साथ मुफ़्त।
RDSO gives it as T = 50 + 10 × (your score − mean) ÷ standard deviation. The mean and the standard deviation come from the scores of every candidate who sat that test. A score equal to the mean gives exactly 50.
Yes. RDSO's own example is a test of 50 questions with a mean of 40 and a standard deviation of 5: a raw score of 0 gives 50 + 10 × (0 − 40) ÷ 5 = −30. Very few candidates land there, but the formula allows it.
Because the T-Score is relative. In RDSO's example, 75 right out of 100 gives a T-Score of only 40 when the mean is 85 and the standard deviation is 10. In a test where almost everyone scores high, an ordinary score falls below the average.
Yes. RDSO states that the qualifying criterion, a T-Score of 42 or more in each test, is the same in all RRBs across the country, with no variation. There is no reservation in the aptitude test and no negative marking.
Add the T-Scores of the five tests, divide by 400 (taken as 80 × 5) and multiply by 30. RDSO's example: 300 ÷ 400 × 30 = 22.5. This is the aptitude test's share in the 70:30 final merit with the RRB examination.
Pindel Sir sets 60 in every test. 42 is the floor; 60 leaves a margin for a hard paper and lifts your composite score, which still counts in the final merit.
No original vision certificate in the Annexure VI-A format, no entry to the CBAT: that is the RRB's notice of 8 October 2026 for CEN 01/2025. Here is the format in Hindi and English, what every box means, who may sign it, and a step-by-step guide to getting it made without a mistake.
Er. Mahendra Pindel (Pindel Sir), founder and director of Kautilya Classes, has coached RRB ALP psycho test batches for ten years in Jaipur and Jodhpur. This is his method, and how the portal puts it on a screen like the hall.
What RDSO tells candidates to do before and during the aptitude test session, and the ten rules Pindel Sir gives every Kautilya Classes batch in the last class before the CBAT.
