There will be Preliminary Examination or Screening Test which will be of two hours duration. There will be 100 multiple-choice questions of one mark each on the basis of following syllabus:
(i) History, Geography and Socio Economic development of Himachal Pradesh – 30 Marks.
(ii) Knowledge of current events of national and international importance and such matters of every day observation and experience in their scientific aspects as may be expected of an educated person who has not made a special study of any scientific subject – 30 Marks.
(iii) Modern History (From 1857 onwards) of India, Indian Culture, Indian Polity, Indian Economy, Geography of India, Disaster Management, Environment and Gender issues and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi – 40 Marks.
There will be negative marking for incorrect answers (as detailed below) for all questions:
(i) There are four alternatives for the answers to every question. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate, one third (0.33) of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty.
(ii) If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer even if one of the given answers happens to be correct and there will be same penalty as above for the question.
(iii) If a question is left blank i.e. no answer is given by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.
