TNPSC Group 4 · CCSE-IV

TNPSC Group 4 cut-off marks: how they are actually decided

குரூப் 4 கட்-ஆஃப் மதிப்பெண் எப்படி நிர்ணயிக்கப்படுகிறது.

We do not publish a cut-off we cannot source. The figures that matter are the ones TNPSC itself releases with each result on tnpsc.gov.in. Every other site's "expected cut-off" is a guess, and a guess that is ten marks low is the reason somebody stops revising in October.

What a cut-off is, and what it is not

It is not a pass mark set in advance. It is the mark of the last candidate who got a post in your category, worked out after everyone has written the paper. So it moves every cycle, and it moves for three reasons: how many vacancies were announced, how many people sat, and how hard the paper turned out to be.

It is different for every community

TNPSC publishes the cut-off separately for each category — General, BC, BCM, MBC/DC, SC, SCA and ST — and the gap between the highest and the lowest is usually substantial. A single "the Group 4 cut-off is X" number is meaningless without saying which list it belongs to. There is also a minimum qualifying mark you must reach regardless of rank; the notification states it.

Why it moves, in the direction it moves

More vacancies, lower cut-off. The list goes deeper, so the last selected candidate has a lower mark.
More candidates, higher cut-off. Group 4 draws lakhs of applicants and the top of that distribution is crowded.
An easier paper, higher cut-off. When everyone scores well, the mark that separates people rises. This is the one aspirants get backwards: walking out feeling the paper was easy is not good news.

The number that is actually useful to you

Not last year's cut-off — your own current score under real timing. A full-length paper taken properly tells you where you stand today, and the report afterwards tells you which sub-topics are costing you the marks between here and the range that has historically been safe.

That is the whole argument of this site: every mock test can tell you a score. The useful part is why the score is what it is, and what to study on Monday.

See where you stand — free test See a sample report