Railway Appendix-3 IREM Exam Pattern and Full Paper-wise Syllabus

The Appendix-3 (IREM) examination is the qualifying test that accounts staff of Indian Railways pass to become supervisors. Para 20 of the IREM reserves 99% of Sr. SO/A posts and all Traffic and Stores Inspection posts for Appendix-3 qualified staff; the other 1% of Sr. SO/A posts go to Sr. Accounts Assistants who have not passed it. Since the 2023 merger, a pass qualifies you for all three streams: Senior Section Officer/Accounts (Sr. SO/A), Senior Section Officer/Traffic Inspection (Sr. SO/TI) and Senior Section Officer/Stores Inspection. The Railway Board sets and conducts it; zones and production units only nominate candidates. This guide gives the full list of topics the IREM prints for each paper. The live summaries we checked, our own notice board included, cut that list short. It also shows how the pattern changed in 2024 and what you may and may not take into the hall.

IREM Vol I Appendix 3, paras 3(i), 3(ii) and 3(xi).

All four papers are part of one examination. The objective papers are computer-based tests (CBT) of multiple-choice questions. The subjective paper uses the same CBT hall to show its questions, and you answer them in a written answer book. The examination is bilingual in Hindi and English, in the medium you choose. Where the two versions differ, the model paper says the English version prevails.

The IREM says each objective paper has 100 multiple-choice questions. The Board's model papers of 01.05.2024 say something slightly different: 110 questions are set, and you attempt any 100. Each carries 1 mark, so the paper is still out of 100. The 2024 papers followed the model. We read the Paper I scan to question 110, and Paper III also runs to about 110. So in practice you get ten questions to skip. The model paper does not say what happens if you answer more than 100. Treat 100 as a hard limit and count as you go.

The IREM gives headings, not a detailed syllabus. RBA 71/2021 promised that a "detailed syllabus will follow", and we found none on the Board's compendium pages up to 09.09.2026. What exists instead is better for revision: an 818-page objective question bank for "Appendix III A IREM", issued on 27.03.2023; three model objective papers with answer keys and a model subjective paper (01.05.2024); and all four actual 2024 papers. The tracker below splits the IREM headings into the units you revise, in the order the IREM lists them. The split into units is ours; every objective heading is the IREM's. For the subjective paper the IREM names only three parts, so the examples in brackets come from the 2024 model paper.

What the headings mean in practice is best read from the papers themselves. The first pages of the 2024 papers ask about GFR 2017, Constitution articles and appropriation accounts. The model Paper I asks when the General Manager may sanction an excess over an estimate, which plan heads count as umbrella works, and when an Additional Post Allowance is admissible. Those are code-and-rule questions, not general knowledge. Paper II was the one that sank most candidates in 2024. Our count of the official marks list of 07.08.2024 puts 1,354 of the 2,446 candidates with a Paper II mark (55%) below 40, against 772 of 2,446 (32%) in Paper I. Absentees have no mark and are left out; the list shows no exempt candidates in 2024, the first sitting of the new pattern. Stores and workshop accounting deserves more than its one-in-three share of your time. The results guide breaks this down.

Until 2022 the examination ran on the pattern of ACS 239 (RBA 133/2017): compulsory papers plus one combination of optional subjects. Each optional subject was split into a with-books part and a without-books part. The 2022 special examination, held 14 to 24 March 2022, was described as the last exam in the old pattern. It was open only to candidates who already held an exemption in at least one paper. The 2024 sitting was the first under the merged scheme.

The scheme was announced by RBA 71/2021 (15.12.2021): objective papers, a subjective paper and a compulsory Rajbhasha question. It entered the IREM as ACS 282 on 21.08.2023, which also merged the three supervisory streams. ACS 288, issued with RBA 07/2024 on 07.03.2024, rewrote six clauses: the subjective paper's contents (3(iii)(b), where "one compulsory question on Rajbasha" became a "question on Rajbhasha as per ACS No.283 dated 4.12.2023"), answers written on paper (3(v)), the 30/35% relaxation named for SC/ST/PwBD (3(viii) and (x)), exemption for 5 attempts instead of 5 years (3(ix)), evaluation of the subjective paper only for candidates who qualify all objective papers (3(xii)), and the rule for being declared passed (3(xiv)). The cross-reference to ACS 283 looks like an error: ACS 283 of 04.12.2023, issued as RBE 134/2023, amends IREM Chapter II on Group C to Group B promotion, as reported by gconnect.in. We found no Rajbhasha provision in it. Since then, RBA 19/2025 (17.06.2025) has told accounts departments to hold their examinations as CBTs through an agency engaged by the Railway Recruitment Board. It names the DF/CCA of the Railway Board as nodal officer for Appendix III. How the next Appendix-3 sitting will be run under that letter has not been published.

For pass marks, exemptions and a pass checker, see the pass marks guide. For the written paper, see the subjective paper guide. For who may sit, see eligibility and the promotion ladder.