Kerala Pharmacist Grade II
Kerala PSC Pharmacist Grade II is a state recruitment exam for pharmacists in the Health Services / Insurance Medical Services departments. The paper mixes core pharmacy subjects with general knowledge and Kerala-specific current affairs, so a balanced study plan matters as much as subject depth.
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How to prepare for Kerala Pharmacist Grade II
1. Fix the syllabus first
Print the official PSC syllabus and tick off topics as you finish them. Pharmacology, Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacognosy, Hospital & Clinical Pharmacy and Forensic Pharmacy (Drugs & Cosmetics Act, Pharmacy Act, NDPS) carry the bulk of the questions.
2. Build the D.Pharm / B.Pharm base
Most questions are direct and factual — drug classes, mechanisms, doses, dosage-form definitions, storage conditions, schedules and legal timelines. Revise from your D.Pharm notes rather than heavy reference textbooks.
3. Do not skip the general part
General Knowledge, Kerala Renaissance, Indian Constitution, simple arithmetic, English grammar and Malayalam-medium current affairs regularly appear. A few easy marks here decide the rank list.
4. Solve previous questions daily
Kerala PSC repeats questions heavily across pharmacist and health-department exams. Work through previous-year sets, then use our topic-wise practice sets to close each weak area.
5. Full mock tests in the last month
Attempt full-length timed mocks in the exact OMR pattern so you learn to finish 100 questions in 75 minutes and to judge when a guess is worth the negative mark.
Marking scheme & scoring
- Question type
- Objective MCQ, OMR based
- Total questions
- 100
- Total marks
- 100 (1 mark each)
- Duration
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Negative marking
- −1/3 mark for every wrong answer
- Medium
- English / Malayalam
Unanswered questions carry no penalty, but multiple shaded bubbles on the OMR are treated as wrong. Cut-off is usually decided by a handful of marks, so accuracy beats volume.
Exam tips
- Answer only when you can eliminate at least two options — one blind guess costs a third of a mark.
- Finish the general knowledge and arithmetic part first; it is faster and protects easy marks.
- Memorise legal numbers — schedules, licence forms, validity periods and storage temperatures are repeated favourites.
- Keep a one-page sheet of antidotes, drug-of-choice lists and brand/generic pairs for last-week revision.
- Practise darkening OMR bubbles; transferring answers in bulk at the end is the most common reason for lost marks.
- Follow Kerala PSC notifications and current affairs for the six months before the exam date.