The physical test decides more selections than the written paper
Ask anyone who has been through a constable recruitment ground what ends most candidatures and they will not say the written paper. They will say the tape and the track — a centimetre short at measurement, or a race finished forty seconds late.
What makes it worth writing about is that this stage is almost entirely predictable. Height is fixed. Chest expansion responds to training over months. Running times respond to training over weeks. None of it is a surprise on the day unless nobody told you the number.
Three separate stages, often confused
PST — the Physical Standard Test — is measurement. Height, and for men chest with and without expansion. Nothing is timed and nothing is scored. You either meet the standard or you do not.
PET — the Physical Efficiency Test — is performance. Running, and depending on the force, long jump, high jump and shot put. In most central recruitments it is qualifying only, meaning it does not add to your marks. In several state police recruitments it is scored and builds the merit list, which changes how you should train entirely.
The medical comes last and is the one people prepare for least. Vision standards, colour perception, knock knees, flat feet, varicose veins. For Sub-Inspector posts in particular, eyesight ends more candidatures than the running does.
The numbers, side by side
These are the standards recorded on our exam pages, unrelaxed and for male candidates unless marked. Each links through to the full breakdown including the women's standards.
| Exam | Height | Chest | Main endurance event |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSC GD Constable | 170 cm | 80 cm, +5 cm | 5 km in 24 minutes |
| SSC CPO (Sub-Inspector) | 170 cm | 80 cm, +5 cm | 1.6 km in 6.5 minutes |
| Bihar Police Constable | 165 cm (Gen/BC) | 81 cm, +5 cm | 1600 m, scored on time |
| RRB Group D | No height standard | None | 35 kg carried 100 m, then 1000 m in 4:15 |
Two things jump out of that table. The railway standard is a working test rather than an athletic one — it rules out far fewer people than candidates fear, and the lifting event is the part to practise, not the run. And Bihar's is scored: finishing the 1600 m comfortably inside the limit is not the goal there, finishing it fast is, because that time goes into the merit list.
Relaxations that actually exist
Height and chest standards are relaxed, but not on the same basis as age. The usual grounds are Scheduled Tribe status, and residence in specified hill areas and states — the Northeast, Garhwal, Kumaon, Himachal, Ladakh and others named in the notification. Ex-servicemen have separate provisions.
What is not relaxed anywhere is being under the standard for your own category. There is no borderline allowance, no rounding, and asking on the ground achieves nothing — the board measuring you has no authority to waive a number the notification fixed.
Do check your category's exact figure rather than the headline one. The gap between the general standard and the ST standard is frequently five centimetres, which is the difference between a wasted year and a job.
How measurement actually happens
Height is taken barefoot, standing against a stadiometer, heels together, looking straight ahead. It is worth knowing that human height varies through the day by roughly a centimetre — you are tallest in the morning, after lying flat all night, and compress through the day. If your measurement is marginal, an early slot genuinely helps, and so does not spending the previous hour carrying a bag around the ground.
Chest is measured at the nipple line, unexpanded first, then on full inhalation. The expansion figure is the one candidates neglect; a chest of 84 cm expanding only 3 cm fails a standard that 80 cm expanding 5 cm passes. Expansion improves with breathing work and swimming over a couple of months, which is why this is worth starting before the notification, not after.
Most recruitments allow a re-measurement on the same day if you object immediately, in writing, at the ground. That window closes when you leave. If you believe the reading is wrong, say so there and then to the presiding officer.
The medical, and the disqualifiers nobody expects
Knock knees, flat feet, bow legs, squint, colour blindness, varicose veins, and in some forces tattoos on parts of the body that are visible in uniform. Several of these are correctable or partly correctable, and several are not — but the important point is the timing. A candidate who learns at the medical that they have knock knees has lost the cycle. A candidate who learns it a year earlier has options.
If you are serious about a uniformed post, get a basic physical check done now, including vision and colour perception. It costs a few hundred rupees at a district hospital and answers a question you will otherwise answer at the worst possible moment.
Age on the crucial date, qualification, category relaxation — for every exam we track, computed on your device. Free, no signup.
Check my eligibility — free →Training, in the order that pays
- Verify the numbers for your category and post in the current notification. Standards differ between forces within the same exam.
- Fix the medical unknowns first. They are the only part you cannot train around, and finding out early is the whole advantage.
- Build the run before the speed. For a 5 km standard, comfortable distance first, then pace. Candidates who start with time trials pick up shin injuries in week two.
- Work chest expansion daily if you are near the line — it moves slowly and it moves.
- Practise the specific events. Shot put and long jump are technique as much as strength, and an afternoon with somebody who knows the technique is worth weeks of gym work.
Related reading
- SSC GD Constable: eligibility, standards and selection
- Documents required for government job verification
- The cutoff date: why your age on the form is not your age today