A Guide to SSC Preparation

12/30/2014 14:57

SSC or Staff Selection Commission is the central body under Indian government. This commission is responsible for recruitment of positions such as assistants, sub inspector, Clerks, Junior Engineer and non gazette posts. Primarily, the lower category posts in departments and ministries are filled up through this commission. The Combined Graduate Level Exam, in short, SSC CGL is for graduates. Through this exam, posts such as Inspectors, Auditors, Assistants and so on are recruited in various ministries and departments.  

SSC CGL is a two tier exam. It comprises of a preliminary and main exam followed by interview. For some posts, a Tier III exam is also held as skill tests such as typing, computer skills and so on. Students who clear through the first phase are allowed for the next phase or the Tier II exam. Preparation of the exam depends on your skills. Here is a quick guide:

• A general approach for any exam is to know about the extent of its questions. Tier I of SSC CGL has four sections of fifty questions each. They are General Intelligence & Reasoning, General Awareness, Quantitative Aptitude and English Comprehension. The best way to know the pattern of questions and difficulty level is to follow the previous year question papers.
• After you got to know the level of difficulty; it is time for original preparation. What you will need to spent time the most is on Quantitative Aptitude. Quantitative aptitude questions comprise of secondary level mathematics. To prepare for this, you must know and remember the concepts and some simple formulas. Go through all the sections of its syllabus and learn every tricky question for this. For this section you would need to study the concepts as well as practice the questions hand in hand. Following some standard book is better.  The Quantitative Aptitude by RS Aggarwal and the Tata McGraw Hill Publication for Civil Services Preliminary exam are good books.
• General Intelligence & Reasoning is more about practicing the questions. There is no much tricks and concept learning for this. Practice the questions directly with hints and solutions. It is about how quickly you can think and come at a conclusion. For self evaluation, you may appear a SSC online test.
• For English, in CGL, you will need to master some grammar rules. Voices transformation, Speech transformation, Tenses, Prepositions and at the best, the comprehensions, comprise most of the questions. Concept learning is more important in English. Once you understand the concepts clearly, solving the questions becomes easy. Online practice test helps to solve questions quickly.
• For general awareness, there is no fixed strategy. Watching news, reading daily news papers, reading the Year Book and good general knowledge books will help. There is no practice for this. Just keep your leisure time occupied with a current affair or a general knowledge book.
• The Tier II exam is about Speed. There are 150 to 200 questions in each of two papers. CGL Tier II comprises only of Quantitative Aptitude and English paper. The syllabus and the question pattern are same. But the speed with which you solve them in Tier I must be increased to thrice for Tier II.  Forming up the speed of solving is always a part of SSC Preparation.

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