Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner and Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (APFC and EO/AO) 2025 recruitment test. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, PENA-A-PTS); answer worked out by our faculty — UPSC has published no answer key for this sitting. This question is in Part A. Answer last reviewed 25 August 2026.

I was _________ exhausted by the end of the week spent in the library doing research work.

(a)exceedingly
(b)inordinately
(c)very
(d)completely

Answer

Why

Correct — D, (d) completely.

The item turns on a single distinction in English adjectives: gradable against non-gradable.

A gradable adjective names a quality that comes in degrees. Tired is gradable - one can be slightly tired, quite tired, very tired, extremely tired. Non-gradable adjectives already sit at the end of their scale, and 'exhausted' is one of them. It does not mean tired; it means tired to the point where no more tiredness is available. Grammars call these extreme or absolute adjectives, and the family is large: furious, freezing, boiling, starving, filthy, enormous, terrified, delighted, ancient.

English modifies the two kinds with different adverbs. Gradable adjectives take degree adverbs - very, rather, quite, extremely, exceedingly. Non-gradable adjectives take what grammars call maximisers, which do not raise a quality but confirm that it is complete: completely, absolutely, totally, utterly, entirely. Hence 'very tired' but 'absolutely exhausted'; 'very cold' but 'completely frozen'; 'very angry' but 'absolutely furious'.

'Completely' is the only maximiser in this option set. The other three are degree adverbs, and each of them tries to place 'exhausted' somewhere on a scale that the word itself has already exhausted.

The sentence around the blank supports the reading. A whole week spent in the library on research work is the kind of cause that produces the extreme state rather than a moderate one, and 'by the end of the week' marks the point at which the state is complete. 'I was completely exhausted by the end of the week' is the sentence the context is asking for.

Why the others are wrong

(a)exceedingly — 'Exceedingly' is a degree adverb of the formal register - exceedingly kind, exceedingly rare, exceedingly difficult - and it does what 'very' does, only more emphatically. That is precisely what an extreme adjective will not accept: it asks how tired, of a word that has already answered the question. The formality of 'exceedingly' makes it feel like the careful choice in a written sentence, which is why it is offered first, but register is not the point at issue here. The test is not how elevated the adverb is but whether it grades or completes, and 'exceedingly' grades.
(b)inordinately — 'Inordinately' means to an unusual or excessive degree, beyond what is normal or proper - inordinately proud, inordinately fond of something, inordinately long. It is a degree adverb like 'exceedingly', so it fails the same test, and it adds a second problem of sense: it carries a suggestion that the degree is improper or out of proportion. Being exhausted after a week of research is neither improper nor disproportionate; it is the ordinary consequence. The option therefore misfits both grammatically and in tone.
(c)very — 'Very' is the plain degree adverb and the one candidates reach for by habit, and it is worth being honest about it: 'very exhausted' is heard in speech and nobody misunderstands it. It is nonetheless the wrong choice in a test of usage, because the whole point of an extreme adjective is that it has no room above it for a degree adverb to occupy. Standard usage says 'very tired' or 'completely exhausted', and the pairing is exactly what an item with 'exhausted' in the stem and a maximiser among the options is built to check. The colloquial availability of 'very' is what makes it the commonest wrong answer here rather than a defensible one.

Concept

Adjectives in English fall into two classes for the purpose of modification.

Gradable adjectives sit on a scale and can be moved along it: big, cold, tired, angry, interesting. They take degree adverbs - a little, fairly, quite, rather, very, extremely, exceedingly - and they form comparatives and superlatives freely.

Non-gradable adjectives are of two sorts. Some are classifying - nuclear, wooden, digital, annual - and simply do not admit degree at all. Others are extreme or absolute: they already express the top of a scale. Exhausted is the extreme of tired, furious of angry, freezing of cold, starving of hungry, enormous of big, terrified of afraid, delighted of pleased.

Extreme adjectives take maximisers rather than degree adverbs. Completely, absolutely, totally, utterly and entirely do not add degree; they assert that the state is whole. 'Absolutely furious' does not mean angrier than furious - it confirms that the anger is complete.

Two useful cross-checks follow. First, 'quite' changes meaning across the classes: 'quite tired' means fairly tired, while 'quite exhausted' means entirely exhausted. Second, extreme adjectives resist comparison - 'more exhausted' and 'most freezing' are avoided in careful writing for the same reason that 'very exhausted' is.

The practical drill in a blank-filling item is to identify the adjective first, decide which class it belongs to, and then look at the option list for the adverb of the matching kind.

This is the fourth item of the fill-in-the-blank set, and the only one in the set whose option list is four adverbs rather than four verbs. That difference is the signal: where the previous two items tested the modal system, this one tests collocation - which words go with which.

Collocation items are unforgiving in a way that grammar items are not. There is no rule that can be derived from first principles about why 'absolutely exhausted' is right and 'very exhausted' is loose; it is a fact about how English pairs its words, learned from reading. What can be systematised is the class distinction behind the pairing, and that is what makes the extreme-adjective rule worth holding: it converts a long list of individual collocations into one principle plus a short list of extreme adjectives.

The option list is also arranged to punish choosing by register. Two of the wrong options - 'exceedingly' and 'inordinately' - are more formal and more impressive-looking than the answer, and a candidate who assumes that an examination rewards the elevated word will pick one of them. The plainest word in the list is the correct one, because it is the one that belongs with the adjective in the stem.

Key facts

'Exhausted' is an extreme or absolute adjective - it means tired to the limit - and extreme adjectives take maximisers such as completely, absolutely, totally and utterly rather than degree adverbs.
Degree adverbs like very, rather, quite, extremely and exceedingly belong with gradable adjectives: very tired, extremely cold, rather difficult.
The extreme-adjective family is worth learning as a list, because each member replaces a gradable adjective at the top of its scale: furious for angry, freezing for cold, starving for hungry, enormous for big, terrified for afraid.
'Quite' shifts meaning across the two classes - quite tired means fairly tired, while quite exhausted means entirely exhausted - which is a quick way to test which class an adjective belongs to.
'Inordinately' means to an excessive or improper degree, so it fails on tone as well as on grammar in a sentence describing an ordinary consequence of a week's work.

Study next

Gradable, extreme and classifying adjectives, and the modifiers each class admits.Maximisers and boosters: completely, absolutely, utterly, totally against very, extremely, highly, exceedingly.Common extreme-adjective pairs and their gradable partners, learned as a list.How 'quite' and 'rather' change meaning depending on the class of the adjective they modify.Collocation as a distinct area of preparation from grammar, and how reading builds it faster than rules do.

Common traps

Choosing 'very' because it is heard in speech; the item tests standard usage, where an extreme adjective leaves no room for a degree adverb.
Picking the most formal-sounding adverb on the assumption that examinations reward elevated vocabulary; here the plainest option is the correct one.
Failing to classify the adjective before looking at the options, which leaves four adverbs that all seem to fit.
Missing the tone of 'inordinately', which implies impropriety or disproportion and does not describe an expected consequence.
Treating collocation as a matter of taste rather than a testable system with a rule behind it.

EPFO's English section devotes several items in every paper to word choice rather than to grammar proper: which adverb goes with which adjective, which preposition with which verb, which noun with which fixed phrase. The option lists are built from the same part of speech, so the item can only be answered by knowing the pairing. What generalises across papers is not the individual pairs but the small number of principles that generate them - extreme adjectives take maximisers, phrasal verbs take fixed particles, comparison takes 'different from'. Candidates who collect those principles as they read handle collocation items quickly; candidates who treat each one as an isolated fact are left choosing by sound.

Related PYQs

EPFO_APFC_2023_Q10

Notwithstanding our victory today we must be careful to avoid a feeling of complacency.

(a) Smug and self-satisfied
(b) A defensive attitude
(c) Pride
(d) Feeling of superiority

Answer(a) Smug and self-satisfied

'Complacency' glossed as smug and self-satisfied, an item in which the correct option is the plain description and the elevated-sounding options are the traps.

EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q14

Which one of the following phrasal verbs may be used in the blank space in the sentence, “He is fond of art and seems ____ (suited) to be an artist”?

(a) fit out
(b) bring out
(c) cut out
(d) suit out

Answer(c) cut out

A blank to be filled with the phrasal verb that collocates with the sense supplied in brackets - the same collocation testing in a different word class.

EPFO_APFC_2023_Q17

The Government’s policies were aimed at relieving the distress of the homeless, the unemployed and the poverty-stricken sections of society.

(a) needy
(b) indigent
(c) disadvantaged
(d) challenged

Answer(b) indigent

Asks which single word best replaces a description of the poor, with four near-synonyms differing in register; another item where knowing the pairing beats knowing the definition.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
After three days without a proper meal the men were ______ starving.
- (a)very
- (b)absolutely
- (c)exceedingly
- (d)inordinately
Answer(b) absolutely - 'starving' is the extreme form of hungry and takes a maximiser rather than a degree adverb. The other three are degree adverbs and try to grade an adjective that is already at the top of its scale.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following pairings is correct in standard usage ?
- (a)very furious
- (b)absolutely tired
- (c)completely freezing
- (d)extremely enormous
Answer(c) completely freezing - freezing is an extreme adjective and takes a maximiser. (a) and (d) put degree adverbs with extreme adjectives, and (b) puts a maximiser with the gradable 'tired', which takes very or extremely instead.

Why