- 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. 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 doesn’t 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 you’re applying for Statistical Investigator Grade-II, then you’ve 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 you’ve to appear for Interview worth 100 marks.
- For some posts, you’ve to give computer proficiency test or Skill Test.
- For example, Candidate for Tax Assistant job, will have to give test for data entry speed.
What’s the reform/change?
candidates qualifying in Tier-II of the Examination, will be subjected to a short descriptive paper of not more than one hour’s duration, with questions drawn from
- English Language and Comprehension
- Quantitative Abilities
- General Awareness
- Please note: The main objective of above “Descriptive-Paper” reform is to prevent cheaters and dummy candidates.
- So there is no need “fear” the descriptive paper. If you’ve 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, they’ll conduct this descriptive paper via computer.
Anyways, let’s 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 you’ve 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 doesn’t 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 |
- I’ve divided the General awareness portion of SSC-CGL exam, into
“S+S+C”= Static + Science + Crap.
(^in decreasing order of priority and importance.)
- In the SSC exams, new players tend to pay too much attention to the ‘crap’ 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 = “no. of data entries to be mugged up vs probability of getting a question vs probability of recalling the correct answer in actual exam.”
- 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 “bigger picture”, almost 80% of General awareness questions come from Static + Science portion alone. Hence they should form the priority.
- The “Action-Plan” 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 you’re 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 “Bharat Ki Rajya Vyavastha”
- So, if you’ve Laxmikanth, don’t bother much with NCERT/NIOS/Lucent etc.
- But If you don’t 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 “major” 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 “Culture” happened during Ancient + medieval. So, you’ll simultaneously 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 you’ve time, else don’t bother much.)
- That pretty much sums up History + culture. Although revision =essential.
Geography+Biodiversity+Environment
- For SSC exam, we’ve to prepare only Physical Geography + Indian Geography.
- World Geography doesn’t come into picture. (sometimes a question or two, but that’s again not worth our trouble, remember the “Cost-benefit”.)
- 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, don’t 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. (India’s economy and Development.)
- NIOS Zip file given @bottom.
- Only major “current affairs”. Usually SSC’s Economy questions are based on budget. (if at all they ask from current affairs.)
This concludes reading sources for “Static.” 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 doesn’t 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 “double-majoori”, unless you’ve time and mood.
- Finally Lucent to fill up any missing details Big inventions/inventors, applications of various chemicals, computer related terms etc. (again don’t 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.)
“Duration”
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 you’re 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. (you’ll find them in Lucent.)
- Most importantly: these things don’t stay in long term memory. Hence frequent revision essential.
Source?
Competitionmaster.com (they release monthly updates) OR Pratiyogita Darpan (PD).
Extra-preparation
- Once you’ve 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 don’t contain solutions. Hence makes the whole exercise frustrating. Because you can’t 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)
Revise minimum three times, practice a few old papers. General awareness shouldn’t give much trouble. |
This concludes how to approach General Awareness for SSC-CGL Exam. In the upcoming articles, we’ll see how to approach
- English vocabulary, Grammar and Comprehension (Tier I and II)
- Maths (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) https://files.secureserver.net/0fdAWETp4sONW5
NCERT files: topicwise: https://mrunal.org/download
NCERT file: classwise (they’ve same pdfs as above)
Science Class 7 | Download |
Our Pasts Part 2 – Class 7 | Download |
Social and Political Life Part 2 – Class 7 | Download |
Our Environment Class 7 | Download |
Science Class 8 | Download |
Our Pasts Part 3 – Class 8 | Download |
Resource and Development Class 8 | Download |
Social and Political Life – 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 doesn’t 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.)
Lucent’s Worthiness for this exam if one is preparing for UPSC ?
tx sir….
I DON’T NO
very fruitfull..
aap bhagwan hai…..
hi, I thought this was a website for help of upsc cse exam. you’ve made a mess out of it .
Wow! Mrunal is trying to help people out here.. And all we can do is criticize.?
It is also helping upsc aspirants,bt if u r d one dnt undermine the efforts of ppl who r preparin fr othr xams..they too needed guidance..
Now students are simultaneously preparing for both UPSC and SSC + other exams. I prepared for CAT 2011 but qulified-IBPS PO-2/CLERK 2011,FCI 2013(PRE),U.P.S.I.2011(PRE), SSC CGL 2012 for non-interview post(most probably Auditor)and now I’m going for both- UPSC and SSC. so mrunal is helping immensely by providing useful guidance.
hey Mrunal sir if u allow RSS feeds for every section it will be great and also if there is any way to downlaod your articles in epub format that will help many people
Hi Mrunal,
Hope u are doing good.You are doing a great job by publishing stratigies for all exams.Great work man.May god fulfill all your wishes.Best of Luck.
hi, Mrunal ji, lots n lots of thanks for ur article,,,,
sir when india yearbook 2013 will come??
http://www.flipkart.com/ssc-graduate-level-previous-years-papers-practice-test/p/itmdyuhqbtfehz4f?pid=9788178124285
one can buy this book too….this is cost efficient book
thank u Devesh
Thaks bro for such a wonderful guidence material…..by god’s grace i will make it to the CBI this time 4 sure!
Best of luck to all my friends who are true cgl aspirants……. go on with confidence fight with all that u have. hard work do prove fruitfull……..
Hi Amal K Nair, I m new to CGL and I am also towards CBI .I hope u would not mind if i ask u smthng about the Exam. Can u plz share ur contact in my ID princet001cpf@gmail.com (zero zero one). I would call you up in sometime..!!
Prince.
sir , bihar sachivalaya exam BSSC , ki kuch stratgy bataye
Is there Sectional cut off in SSC CGL Tier 1 and Tier 2?
No sectional cutoff,cut is decided on the basis of cumulative marks of all d four sections in t-1,last tym it ws 83/200(GN)..Final merit-t1+t2+interview,no seperate cutoff fr eng nd maths in t-2 also.gud luk
I just read the notification, sectional cut off in tier 1 is mentioned.
PLEAS GIVE ME THE LINK WHERE IT MENTIONED?
Page no 15, Note-2. There must be a cut off this time. There was no sectional cut off last time(2012). I did only 4-5 from Quant, but as per key a total of 101 marks. I didn’t get through (2013 exam).
WHICH DOC U REFERING TO??
NOTE – 2 : The Commission shall have the discretion to fix different minimum qualifying standards in each component of the Tier-I Examination taking into consideration among others, category-wise vacancies and category-wise number of candidates. Only those candidates, who have scored above the cut off marks fixed by the Commission would be required to appear in the Tier –II Examination.
U MAY BE RYT…
MRUNAL SIR WHAT’S UR INTERPRETATION OF THIS???
I’m referring to 2013 notification. I got a net score of 101, even then I didn’t qualify. I did only 4-5 questions from quant. Since, there were no sectional cut offs in 2012, I concentrated on the other three sections, since quant section is time consuming. So, my interpretation is that there are sectional cut offs this time. I didn’t make any mistakes in filling the forms or OMR sheets.
MRUNAL SIR ..PLZ XPLAIN..IS DERE SEC CUT OFF IN SSC CGL TIER-1???PLZZZZZ
dere is no sec cut off in tier 1..
NO SECTIONAL CUT OFF IN SSC
when is the exam notified and when is it held.
notification will come on 19th January 2013
thanx
kya final year student es cgl k leye able hai
Respected sir, the link of Economics Basics and Geography is not working properly in NIOS download links, thanks sir, plz rectify the error, sir.
sir, please tell me how i can get india get book 2013 ?
plz reply
It will be released at the fag end of Feb. Have Patience and save ur time till that is published.
sir please can u post smthing related to indian forst service xam………….
i m doing m.sc maths n want to appear for ifs
unable to decide 2nd optional
material for gen std.
hi!
i have a small doubt about the previous papers of general studies . basically i have few old papers of G .S prelim . my question is that apart from knowing the pattern . what other things we can cover from it. do questions repeat from those papers
Mrunal Sir, again thanx for the assisstance..!!
I am very good in English and GK, okay in reasoning, But DUMB in “Maths”.All I want to know is what to cope up with Maths..!
And I want to get in to CBI…so its important to be taken care of.!
Help..Helppp.!!!!
Can any one tell me about promotion aspects of income tax inspector…..
thanks mrunal sir for providing study material for competitive exams………….. sir plz give me guidance for english prepration for cgl 2013………………….
did not find NIOS science notes which was depicted earlier on ur website. pls help
namskar bhai,
bhai hu lag-bhag 2-3 mahina thi aapni aa site ne follow karu chu bhai mare aa site na tamara agal na lekh vanchava che to tema 2009 thi aapna lekh che to aapni drashti a kya month thi follow karva hitavah rehse reply karso…
“u r such a lion of Gujarat”
mrunal sir,
you r simply great. you r doing very gratefull job.
thanks
sir please give a strategy for math for cgl. tire-1 also about english and reasoning.
friends please dont worry too much about maths…. first change ur mind set. i will not say that maths is easier. work out more problems. spare more time for maths.RS AGARWAL’S book on mathematics is a good option!! choose the morning time from 3-6 am for studying the difficult topics. best of luck…..
Sir,
I have got Arihant’s GK. Will it replace Lucent’s or should I have to buy Lucent’s? Need your suggestion. Please reply.