Indian Forest Service Examination (IFoS) — Forestry optional · India · Union Public Service Commission
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe structure of wood and how it determines strength, density, durability and use: macroscopic and microscopic identification of timbers and their physical and mechanical properties.
In the exams: ICAR AICE-JRF 59 Unit 7 (wood anatomy); IFoS Forestry Paper II Section B (forest resources and utilization); PRC Forest Engineering and Utilization
How our questions for Indian Forest Service Examination spread across the units of Wood Anatomy & Wood Properties. Difficulty: 6 easy, 21 medium, 13 hard.
| Mechanical properties: bending, compression, hardness | 5 | |
| Hardwood structure: vessels, fibres, parenchyma; ring-porous and diffuse-porous | 4 | |
| Cell wall structure and chemical composition | 4 | |
| Macroscopic and microscopic identification of timbers | 4 | |
| Wood-water relations: moisture content, fibre saturation point, shrinkage | 4 | |
| Timber grading and the uses of important timbers | 4 | |
| Formation of wood: cambium, sapwood and heartwood | 3 | |
| Softwood structure: tracheids, rays, resin canals | 3 | |
| Wood density and specific gravity | 3 | |
| Natural defects and reaction wood | 3 | |
| Natural durability of timbers | 3 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Cross-field pits in softwoods connect:
C. Ray parenchyma to axial tracheids
Their shapes (window-like, pinoid, piceoid, cupressoid, taxodioid) aid identification.
Extractives in wood can affect:
A. Colour, durability, gluing and finishing
Some also cause dermatitis in workers.
A wood with basic density 600 kg/m³ has basic specific gravity of:
C. 0.6
Specific gravity = density ÷ density of water (1000 kg/m³).
A quarter-sawn board shrinks less in width than a flat-sawn board because its width is:
A. Radial
Radial shrinkage is about half tangential.
Compression perpendicular to the grain is important where:
B. Beams rest on supports or rails on sleepers
Bearing areas crush under concentrated load.
Tension wood is characterised by:
B. Gelatinous fibres with a G-layer
The G-layer is cellulose-rich; tension wood gives woolly sawn surfaces.
Interlocked grain, common in dipterocarps and some eucalypts, causes:
C. Tearing in planing but attractive ribbon figure
Alternating spiral direction resists splitting and gives ribbon figure on quarter-sawn faces.
In EN 338, the D classes are strength classes for:
B. Hardwoods
C classes are for softwoods.
Fast-grown plantation teak may differ from natural teak in that its heartwood can be:
D. Less durable
Durability varies with growth conditions and tree age.
Which of these is a perishable timber needing treatment for exterior use?
C. Mango
Mango, semul and poplar are non-durable.
Ten here, 40 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to Indian Forest Service Examination in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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