What has been announced
TNPSC published Notification No. 05/2026 on 23 June 2026 and accepted applications from 30 June to 29 July 2026. The Prelims was first scheduled for 6 September 2026. A press release on 16 July moved it to 27 September 2026. According to the Commission's press release of 17 September 2026, the objective-type OMR exam will be held in the forenoon at 38 district centres.
Hall tickets are available on tnpsc.gov.in and tnpscexams.in. To download yours, log in to your One Time Registration (OTR) dashboard and enter your application number and date of birth. Download it today and check your photo, name and centre, so that you still have a week to raise any problem with the Commission.
- Notification: No. 05/2026, dated 23.06.2026
- Prelims date: 27.09.2026, forenoon (revised from 06.09.2026)
- Mode: objective type, OMR answer sheet, at 38 district centres
- Hall ticket: through the OTR dashboard on tnpsc.gov.in / tnpscexams.in
The paper you will face
According to TNPSC's published scheme, the Group I Prelims is a single objective paper of 200 questions for 300 marks, lasting three hours. It has 175 General Studies questions at degree standard and 25 Aptitude and Mental Ability questions at SSLC standard. Prelims is a screening stage. It decides who goes on to the descriptive Main examination.
The 25 aptitude questions are the most predictable part of the paper. Simplification, percentages, ratio, simple and compound interest, LCM/HCF, area and volume, and logical reasoning come up again and again. Most serious candidates score heavily here, so any mark you drop in aptitude is a mark your competitors probably did not lose.
OMR rules that silently deduct marks
TNPSC's Instructions to Candidates, as amended on 22 September 2025, contain rules that many aspirants miss. Each question has an option [E], which you must shade if you do not know the answer. Do not leave any question blank. If none of the bubbles for a question is shaded, 0.5 mark is deducted from your total. You also lose 0.5 mark if you do not put your left-hand thumb impression in the space provided.
- Shade exactly one bubble, A, B, C, D or E, for every question. If you shade more than one, that answer is not evaluated.
- Shade the question booklet number correctly. If it is shaded wrongly or left incomplete, the OMR sheet can be invalidated.
- At the end, mark Yes if all 200 questions are shaded. Otherwise mark No and write how many were left unshaded.
- Bring only a black ball-point pen, your hall ticket and a photocopy of one approved ID proof.
- OMR sheets are handed out 30 minutes before the start and question booklets 15 minutes before. Use that time to fill in your particulars calmly.
A 10-day plan
Spend these days on revision and practice, not on new sources. A reasonable split looks like this:
- Days 1–3: Revise Tamil Nadu-specific areas: TN history and culture, the Thirukkural, TN development administration and social welfare schemes. These are Group I's signature areas and reward revision from notes.
- Days 4–5: Revise polity and the Indian economy from your short notes. Polity is factual and dependable. For the economy, focus on concepts and recent budgets and surveys.
- Days 6–7: Revise current affairs from roughly the past 12 months, with extra attention to Tamil Nadu government announcements.
- Every day: Do 25 aptitude questions under time pressure (about 30 minutes), then check every wrong answer.
- Days 3, 6 and 8: Take a full 200-question paper in three hours on a printed OMR-style sheet, shading option E wherever you would otherwise leave a blank.
- Days 9–10: Only light revision. Check your centre's location and travel time, and sleep on a fixed schedule so you are alert for a forenoon exam.
Exam-day approach
Try a two-pass method. In the first pass, answer every question you are sure of and shade them as you go, so you are never rushing the shading at the end. In the second pass, go back to the questions you can narrow down by eliminating options. TNPSC objective papers have not traditionally deducted marks for wrong answers. If the instructions with your hall ticket confirm this, a reasoned guess is better than shading E. Either way, never leave a bubble row completely empty. Keep the last 10 minutes, when the warning bell rings, for checking the booklet number and the Yes/No count.
If you want one more realistic rehearsal, practise the real pattern with a free full-length ExamguruX mock. Timing yourself across all 200 questions shows you where the three hours actually go.
Key takeaways
- Group I Prelims (Notification 05/2026) is on 27 September 2026, forenoon, at 38 district centres. Download your hall ticket from the OTR dashboard.
- The paper has 200 questions for 300 marks: 175 General Studies and 25 Aptitude and Mental Ability.
- A question left completely blank costs 0.5 mark. Shade option E if you don't know the answer, and don't forget your thumb impression.
- For the last 10 days, revise Tamil Nadu-specific topics, polity and current affairs, do aptitude practice every day and take three timed full papers.
Sources
Dates and patterns change — always confirm on the official website before applying.
