- Introduction
- SSC CGL General Awareness (Tier I)
- Topicwise Analysis: 2010, 11, 12
- Indian Polity
- Indian History + Culture
- Geography+Biodiversity+Environment
- Economy
- Science
- CRAP (Misc.GK, Sports, PIN etc.)
- Final Touch to preparation
- Summary: Plan for SSC-CGL (GK)
- Free Download material for SSC General Awareness
- SSC CGL Tier 1 Cutoffs (2011, 2012)
- SSC CGL Tier-2 Cutoffs (2011, 2012)
Introduction
Notification for SSC-Combined Graduate Level exam was released on 19th Jan 2013. Ā Click ME to read it
SSC-CGL exam is made up of three stages: Tier 1, 2 and 3.
Tier I (prelims)
Subject | |
General Awareness | 50 |
Reasoning | 50 |
Maths | 50 |
English | 50 |
Total | 200 |
- Time-2 hours. No. of question =200
- Negative marking: 0.25 marks
Tier II (mains)
Those who qualify in the Tier-I, have to appear for Tier-II. But unlike the UPSC mains, the SSC tier-II doesnāt have descriptive paper. You just have to face Multichoie Questions (MCQ).
Total | Duration | Negative marking? | |
Paper I (Maths) | 200 marks | 2 hrs | – 0.50 |
Paper II (English) | 200 marks | 2 hrs | – 0.25 |
Total | 400 marks |
- These two papers are compulsory for all candidates.
- But If youāre applying for Statistical Investigator Grade-II, then youāve to appear for one more paper, that is Paper III for Statistics, worth 200 marks.
Tier III (interview/CPT)
Those who qualify in Tier II (Mains), are called up for third stage (Tier III)
- For some posts youāve to appear for Interview worth 100 marks.
- For some posts, youāve to give computer proficiency test or Skill Test.
- For example, Candidate for Tax Assistant job, will have to give test for data entry speed.
Whatās the reform/change?
candidates qualifying in Tier-II of the Examination, will be subjected to a short descriptive paper of not more than one hourās duration, with questions drawn from
- English Language and Comprehension
- Quantitative Abilities
- General Awareness
- Please note: The main objective of above āDescriptive-Paperā reform is to prevent cheaters and dummy candidates.
- So there is no need āfearā the descriptive paper. Ā If youāve the guts and brains to clear Tier II (Mains), then you can handle this descriptive paper without much trouble.
- And SSC chairman says if possible, theyāll conduct this descriptive paper via computer.
Anyways, letās start. The studyplan is divided into four articles.
General Awareness Tier I | Explained here in this article. |
Maths / Quantitative Aptitude for Tier I and II | Click me |
Reasoning / General Intelligence for Tier I | Click me |
English Grammar, Vocabulary, Comprehension for Tier I and II | Click me |
Job profiles of various posts offered under SSC-CGL | Click me |
Tier I (Prelims)
- Here youāve to face Multichoice questions on General Awareness, English, Maths and Reasoning. (50 questions each).
- This article only deals with how approach General Awareness.
- How to approach Maths, Reasoning and English= will be explained later, in separate articles.
General Awareness (Tier I)
First of all, throw away Manorama Yearbook from your study-desk. That book doesnāt have much use for competitive exams.
Topicwise Analysis: 2010, 11, 12
Topic | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | |
Static | Polity | 7 | 5 | 8 |
Indian History+Culture | 5 | 6 | 5 | |
Geograhpy (Physical+Indian)+Biodiversity | 6 | 11 | 6 | |
Economy | 11 | 7 | 4 | |
Subtotal (Static) | 29 | 29 | 23 | |
Science | Biology | 6 | 4 | 8 |
Chemistry | 4 | 4 | 3 | |
Physics+Space | 7 | 6 | 4 | |
Computer | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
Subtotal (Science) | 18 | 16 | 17 | |
Crap | Misc.GK, Sports, PIN, Books, Current Affairs | 3 | 3 | 6 |
Yearbook (institutes, schemes, dates etc.) | 0 | 2 | 4 | |
Subtotal (Crap) | 3 | 5 | 10 | |
Grand Total | 50 | 50 | 50 |
- Iāve Ā divided the General awareness portion of SSC-CGL exam, into
āS+S+Cā= Static + Science + Crap.
(^in decreasing order of priority and importance.)
- In the SSC exams, new players tend to pay too much attention to the ācrapā part. They keep buying books and magazines all the time as if there is nothing else to prepare except current-affairs.
- But you must keep in mind that the Cost-benefit ratio is not really great for crap questions = āno. of data entries to be mugged up vs probability of getting a question vs probability of recalling the correct answer in actual exam.ā
- I’m not saying ignore current affairs, all I’m saying is, “don’t invest too much time and energy in them”.
- On the other hand, If you look at ābigger pictureā, almost 80% of General awareness questions come from Static + Science portion alone. Ā Hence they should form the priority.
- The āAction-Planā of SSC General awareness, rests on three pillars
|
Static + Science. |
Filling up any missing details in Static + Science Part | |
|
For crap current affairs. |
Indian Polity
- If youāre simultaneously preparing for UPSC or State PSC exams, then just go with Indian Polity by M.Laxmikanth.
- Same book available in Hindi, under the name āBharat Ki Rajya Vyavasthaā
- So, if youāve Laxmikanth, donāt bother much with NCERT/NIOS/Lucent etc.
- But If you donāt have Laxmikanth there is no need to specifically buy/borrow Laxmikanth for SSC Exam alone, because the questions are very rudimentary in nature and can be solved via NIOS zip files (given @Bottom), in combination with Lucent.
- Also prepare current affairs associated with polity. But āmajorā current affairs only.
- For example Shree-Krishna Committee =Telengana. Who is the chairman of new Finance Commission, who is the new CJI etc.etc.etc.
Indian History + Culture
- In SSC exam, History means Indian History only.
- So donot waste time preparing World History.
- Sometimes one question may comes, but that is not worth the Cost-benefit.
Approach Indian History?
Indian History is subdivided into three parts
Ancient | Harappa, Vedic Age, Maurya, Sangam etc. |
Medieval | Delhi Sultanate, Mughals etc. |
Modern | 1857 Sepoy Mutiny + Freedom struggle. |
- Start with TN State education board books class 11 and 12 (they’re better than NCERT for the history portion, free download at bottom).
- Then use Lucent to fill up the missing details.
- SSC questions on History, are mostly from the important personalities and events. So, Please donot waste too much time in mugging up trivial names, dates etc.
Approach Culture?
- Culture= art, painting, dances, temples, mosques, Architecture etc.
- Most of the āCultureā happened during Ancient + medieval. So, youāllĀ simultaneouslyĀ prepare it while going through NCERT Textbooks.
- Also use the NIOS ZIP file. Given @Bottom of this article.
- Lastly Lucent to fill up the missing details.
- +Winner of Gyanpith award, Sangeet Natak etc. (ONLY IF youāve time, else donāt bother much.)
- That pretty much sums up History + culture. Although revision =essential.
Geography+Biodiversity+Environment
- For SSC exam, weāve to prepare only Physical Geography + Indian Geography.
- World Geography doesnāt come into picture. (sometimes a question or two, but thatās again not worth our trouble, remember the āCost-benefitā.)
- Lately SSC too has started asking questions on Biodiversity and environment. Although they overlap with biology/science portion.
Source?
- NCERT textbooks: Social Science Class 7 to 10
- NCERT Geography Class 11, 12.
- Environment and biodiversity ZIP file of NIOS.
(^free download links given @bottom of this article)
Finally Lucent to fill up any missing details, such as names of multipurpose river valley projects. But here again, donāt waste time with numbers.
- Hirakud=Mahanadi River in Odisha=important.
- Hirakud=4800m long = useless.
Economy
- Generally very straightforward questions based on definition and concepts of Economy.
- NCERT Economy book Class 11. (Indiaās economy and Development.)
- NIOS Zip file given @bottom.
- Only major ācurrent affairsā. Usually SSCās Economy questions are based on budget. (if at all they ask from current affairs.)
This concludes reading sources for āStatic.ā Moving to the next important portion for SSC-General Awareness.
Science
Physics | Chem | Bio |
|
|
|
- By and large the science questions come from ^above topics. (it doesnāt mean other topics are not important though!)
- Best way to prepare science=NCERTs.
- Science tech related current affairs are usually not asked in SSC exam.
- At most sometimes current-affairs question on NASA satellite launch etc. So just keep an eye on major events, without doing any Ph.D.
- Candidates from science background shouldnot ride with overconfidence. Because whatever you have learned in college = not asked here. And whatever you had prepared in highschool= long evaporated from your memory.
- Hence start with the basic NCERT Science textbooks of Class 7 to 10, irrespective of graduation.
Source
- NCERT Science Text books from Class 7 to 10
- NIOS material almost overlaps with whatever science is discussed in NCERTs. So not much point in doing ādouble-majooriā, unless youāve time and mood.
- Finally Lucent to fill up any missing details Big inventions/inventors, applications of various chemicals, computer related terms etc. (again donāt go in trivial details, for example Lucent has even given long chemical reaction formulas= useless.)
This concludes science. Now the final part
CRAP (Misc.GK, Sports, PIN etc.)
āDurationā
Based on SSC-CGL Tier I conducted in July 2012.
- They had asked question on Shree Krishna Committee report. (which was released somewhere in Jan 2011)
- Author of book Kurukshetra to Kargil. (again launched in Jan 2011)
- Santosh Football trophy (somewhere in May 2011)
So, Duration of Current affairs for SSC-CGL, is last one calendar year. (i.e. if youāre preparing for 2013, then prepare major events starting from Jan 2012.)
- PIN=persons in news, like xyz person won ICC cricketer of the year award, new CJI, new army chief, sports winners etc. There is no dearth of magazines and books circulating this garbage.
- But always remember, your mind has a limited memory capacity. So prepare the big personas, major events, avoid the small timers.
- Same for books and authors.
- Same for places in news.
- Same for [Yearbook]: Government schemes, location of various Government institutes etc. (youāll find them in Lucent.)
- Most importantly: these things donāt stay in long term memory. Hence frequent revision essential.
Source?
Competitionmaster.com (they release monthly updates) OR Pratiyogita Darpan (PD).
Extra-preparation
- Once youāve sufficiently prepared Maths+English+Reasoning+General Awareness, solve the as many old question papers of SSC exam as you can. (Blank answersheets given @bottom)
Why should you practice old papers?
- SSC recycles questions. You solve 10 papers, then 11th paper has hardly anything new, surprizing or challanging for you.
- Trains Your Brain For Negative Marking
- Improves Your Speed.
- Google search will lead you to many download links for SSC papersets.
- Problem?
- 1) scanned PDF files are in very poor quality. + the half mile long watermark only blocks the view= very tiresome for the eyes to read.
- 2) most of the time, they donāt contain solutions. Hence makes the whole exercise frustrating. Because you canāt evaluate your performance without going wasting another hour and so in searching the answers manually (for GK etc.)
- So if you can afford, just go for the Paperset of Kiran Prakashan.
- Good thing: they give detailed solution of each and every question.
- Same way, if you can afford, buy the NCERT textbooks from market (even second hand-used books will work).
Summary: Plan for SSC-CGL (GK)
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Revise minimum three times, practice a few old papers. General awareness shouldnāt give much trouble. |
This concludes how to approach General Awareness for SSC-CGL Exam. In the upcoming articles, weāll see how to approach
- English vocabulary, Grammar and Comprehension (Tier I and II)
- MathsĀ (Tier I and II) (update: article published-CLICK ME)
- Reasoning (Tier-I)
Free Download material for SSC General Awareness
NCERTs (English) Free download
TN State edu Books (for History) https://files.secureserver.net/0fnzZYT7SDNuC9
NIOS (for Culture)Ā https://files.secureserver.net/0fdAWETp4sONW5
NCERT files: topicwise:Ā https://mrunal.org/download
NCERT file: classwise (they’ve same pdfs as above)
Science Class 7 | Download |
Our Pasts Part 2 ā Class 7 | Download |
Social and Political Life Part 2 ā Class 7 | Download |
Our Environment Class 7 | Download |
Science Class 8 | Download |
Our Pasts Part 3 ā Class 8 | Download |
Resource and Development Class 8 | Download |
Social and Political Life ā Class 8 | Download |
Science Class 9 | Download |
Contemporary India Social Science for Class 9 | Download |
Economics for Class 9 | Download |
India and Contemporary World 1 for Class 9 | Download |
Science Class X | Download |
India and the Contemporary World 2 Class X Social Science | Download |
Democratic Politics Part 2 for Class X Social Science | Download |
Contemporary India Part 2 for Class X Social Science | Download |
Understanding Economic Development Class X Social Science | Download |
Fundamentals of Physical Geography Class 11 | Download |
India Physical Environment Geography Class 11 | Download |
Indian Economic Development Economics Class 11 | Download |
Themes in World History Class 11 | Download |
India People and Economy Class 12 | Download |
Introductory Microeconomics Class 12 | Download |
Macroeconomics Class 12 | Download |
Fundamentals of Human Geography Class 12 | Download |
Themes in India History 1 Class 12 | Download |
Themes in India History 2 Class 12 | Download |
Themes in India History 3 Class 12 | Download |
If it doesnāt work visit (or you want Hindi version): http://www.ncert.nic.in/ncerts/textbook/textbook.htm
Description | Download Link | |
NIOS study Material |
Economy, Environment n Biodiversity, Polity etc.Many zip files on various subjects. Download as per your requirements. | click ME |
Blank Answersheets |
For practicing mock questions @home | click ME |
SSC CGL Tier 1 Cutoffs (2011, 2012)
Out of 200 marks.
Year | 2011 | 2012 |
General | 86.75 | 82 |
SC | 63.5 | 64 |
ST | 63.25 | 62 |
OBC | 70.25 | 70 |
EXS | 60 | 25 |
OH | 50 | 60 |
HH | 50 | 25 |
VH | 50 | 25 |
(excluding Statistical Investigator/Compiler.)
SSC CGL Tier-2 Cutoffs (2011, 2012)
category | 2011 | 2012 | |||
Interview posts | Non-Interview posts | Interview posts | Non-Interview posts | ||
General | 354.75 | 315.25 | 349 | 313.5 | |
SC | 281.25 | 247.25 | 284 | 251 | |
ST | 295.75 | 251.75 | 282 | 242 | |
OBC | 323.75 | 283.75 | 319 | 281.5 | |
EXS | 293 | 180 | 308 | 211 | |
OH | 246.5 | 208 | 274 | 227 | |
HH | 200 | 150 | 191 | 123 | |
VH | 246.5 | 150 | 261 | 225 |
(excluding Statistical Investigator/Compiler.)
sir please, send me the detail study plan for railway exams
Sir, me self study kar ke ssc cgl exam ki preparation krna chahta hu. Pls give me suggetion and books.
I AM VERY GLAD I GOT UR WEBSITE , I WISH I COULD HAVE GOT ALL THIS STUFF A LONG BACK.
thank you
Dear Sir,
Kindly send me previous year G.S question paper of SSC at dipak4275@gmail.com
Thanks & Regards,
Deepak
sir can you plzz send me all gk Question answer which was asked in 2010 to 2016 in CGL only
sir please, send me the detail study plan for SSC CGL 2017
Plz update ssc cgl 2017 exam pattern for tier i ,ii,iii nd iv
I need complete study material for upsc IAS 2020
I am ex serviceman. after completion of 28 years of service in the Army, my present age is 49 yrs 01 month/ Can I eligible to appear in SSC CGL 2017 exam.
Sorry Sir. You have crossed the age limit.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing detailed information about SSC CGL General Awareness syllabus.
The knowledge provided by you for every topic is very helpful for us. Itās get very easy to understand the syllabus after reading your article.
Candidates should also check Example SSC CGL important topics
Thanks.
nicely explained!!!!
keep up the good work.
Hi sir please update the syllabus , pattern
Hi
thankyou so much sir perfect details about ssc cgl and can you share pattern about 2018 ssc cgl
Sir ,
Can you please share a study plan according to new exam pattern in sac CGL
It would be great help .
Rahul
Sir,please update SSC Section
Sir plz tell me..That kon sa book english ke topic wise k ly follow kry..jesy noun hy to sirf noun ka isi trha all topic with answer..?
Sir only practise set with answer key of English topic wise ..noun , pronoun , adjective etc. Plz tell me sir
Tier 1 exam paper time is 1 hour ,no. Of questions are 100 and -ve marking 0.50 for each wrong answer acc. to 2018 notification.
all things is good but plz suggest on 2018 pattern.i,e tear 1:-100 question
SIR
You have done so much by this website as I can feel that someone personally guided me.
Thank You so much
I am unable to open the link for NIOS files. It might be broken. Can you check and update the link?