Main Written Examination - General Knowledge for Sub-Inspector (merit paper)
The Main Written Examination (Part II) is the paper that actually builds your merit rank, alongside the Physical Efficiency Test and viva-voce. It is an objective General Knowledge paper, set bilingually, covering Indian polity and economy, Indian and Tamil Nadu history and culture, geography, general science, current events, and the reasoning/mental-ability component listed in the notification. Question stems are usually one-line factual recall or two-step (identify the concept, then apply it), so precision on names, numbers and years matters more than breadth of reading.
What is actually tested
- Polity: fundamental rights and duties, Parts and Schedules, key amendments, panchayati raj, constitutional bodies.
- Tamil Nadu history and culture: Sangam age and the three Sangams, Chera–Chola–Pandya polities, Bhakti movement, temple architecture and inscriptions.
- Geography: Cauvery basin and delta distributaries, Western Ghats passes, monsoon behaviour, Tamil Nadu soils and mineral belts.
- Science and economy: class 9–10 physics, chemistry and biology applied to daily life; banking, budgets and flagship welfare schemes.
Worked example
Question: Which amendment and Schedule deal with urban local bodies? Reasoning: Recall the 1992 pair - the 73rd Amendment created Part IX for panchayats and added the Eleventh Schedule (29 subjects); the 74th Amendment created Part IXA for municipalities and added the Twelfth Schedule (18 subjects). Urban bodies therefore mean 74th Amendment + Twelfth Schedule. Distractors are built from the 42nd Amendment (1976, fundamental duties, ‘socialist/secular’) and the 44th Amendment (1978, right to property moved out of fundamental rights), so anchoring the amendment number first removes two options instantly.
Traps that cost marks
- Article versus Schedule confusion: Article 40 (DPSP on village panchayats) is not Part IX.
- ‘First/largest/longest’ wording: Cauvery rises at Talakaveri in Kodagu, Karnataka, not in Tamil Nadu; Doddabetta (2,637 m) is Tamil Nadu’s highest peak, while Anamudi lies in Kerala.
- Current affairs outside the notification’s cutoff window.
- Negative stems (“NOT”, “except”) and options where two statements are individually true but only one answers the stem.