Presumably they don't repeat the same questions so I don't really see how the past question bank is so helpful when the possible subject matter is incredibly broad. That said apparently what I've heard is wrong and people do manage to pass these just by studying.
On the larger point, trivia is popular here in the US too but I would be amazed to see sports trivia questions on a government exam. It's hard to understand what the legitimate purpose of these questions could be for someone applying to be a train conductor.
Aside: In case anyone else wondered GK is apparently General Knowledge, it took me a while to find that initialism since I wasn't familiar with it.
When you interview at Blackrock in SF, they walk you thru a bunch of rooms. Each room has a door. On each door is the name of a famous economist. When the interview begins, you have to recollect all of these economists and then drop some tidbits about each of them. You know, to signal that you are part of the in-group. Like, you can say hey wasn’t Krugman at Princeton when he got the Nobel but doesn’t he teach at cuny now because that’s where your phd advisor saw him last week hint hint. Now, would you rather do such obsequious ass-kissing, or remember that ALU stands for arithmetic logic unit ? Compared to Blackrock, Railway Board is god, son and holy ghost rolled into one.
That seems pretty weird but at least you are expected to demonstrate that you have a genuine interest in the field outside some narrow specialization (or would talking about their actual work not count as “tidbits”?
The listed Indian train service exam questions just seem beyond absurd in comparison. If the questions were about random niche train related trivia it would make a whole lot more sense (of course still stupid..)
On the larger point, trivia is popular here in the US too but I would be amazed to see sports trivia questions on a government exam. It's hard to understand what the legitimate purpose of these questions could be for someone applying to be a train conductor.
Aside: In case anyone else wondered GK is apparently General Knowledge, it took me a while to find that initialism since I wasn't familiar with it.