How to Prepare for SSC Exam at Home? - Tips & Strategy

How to Prepare for SSC Exam

SSC or Staff Selection Commission- Combined Graduate Level Examination, is one of the biggest exams in India and is conduct for hiring staff in various posts in ministries, departments and organizations in the Government of India. It is conducted by the Staff Selection Commission, which was set up in the year 1975, making it one of the oldest hiring exams in India.



Even with the ever-increasing number of candidates, it can be hard to sometimes focus with the insurmountable odds against you. Therefore, you should be prepared with the following tips in order to crack this behemoth of an exam:

           

1. Starting at the ideal time

While the time to prepare varies from individual to individual depending on skills, intellect, and whether you have been in touch with those subjects during your undergrad, ideally 1 year is a good time to devote to your preparation.

This means, if you are reading this, and thinking about giving SSC CGL 2019, you should have started yesterday, or maybe 6 months ago. However, do not lose hope, as you still have close to some time remaining, and if you put in your heart and soul in the same, you will be able to crack a good enough score in the exam.

2. Prepare your Preparation Timetable

In an ideal world, you devote 8 hours of study with 2 hours for each of the 4 sections for 6 to 8 months and then start giving mocks, and at the end of the day, you go back to sleep a happy and satisfied individual. However, this is not the ideal world and your comfort with each section may differ and this will throw a wrench in your preparation time.

Have a look at the entire SSC CGL syllabus and decide which one of the sections needs more time and create your timetable accordingly. Remember, taking suggestions from experts and mentors is good, but not every size fit on every individual.

3. Preparation by the tiers of the exam

Quantitative Aptitude, English, Reasoning and General Knowledge are the first 4 things that you must tackle in the Tier 1 examination and are your first hurdle. That being said, your preparation for each of them will depend on your previous comfort with these sections and hence you may have to create your own schedule.

While someone might be good with numbers, others may be good at their language skills, or with the ability to apply logic. Therefore, your time for each section will differ and so will your preparation strategy, and that is something that should always be at the forefront of your mind.

4. Get the right study material

While coaching centres always offer their own study material, you should consider getting few other books to complement your preparation. The following books can be helpful for each of the three sections:

SSC Hack Book is the best book for learning some unique tricks for Quant. It covers a wide range of hacks which will help you in solving questions quickly and it should be the best book that you should consider purchasing for Quants. You should also think about purchasing Kiran’s Quickest Mathematics as a secondary resource.

For grammar and vocab, you can use Wren and Martin, which is the standard book for English grammar everywhere and should clarify all your basic English queries.

Lucent is all you should read for the General Knowledge section and not waste time in any other thing, as this should be enough.

For Reasoning section, although you will find some reasoning tricks in the above SSC Hack Book. But to get confident in this section, solve all the 50 questions from the previous years in 25 minutes. The best book for past year paper is Kiran’s

However, this should not be the be all and end all of all the material that you should use. Immaterial of the coaching institute that you have joined, or whether you are preparing by yourself, you should give the online mock exams of every single possible institute that is out there.

5. Learn how to manage time

You need to learn how to manage time in order to crack the SSC CGL exam as the number of questions can be overwhelming because of the speed. As there is no sectional cutoff, it is advisable not to stick with one section for more than the planned duration for it.  Besides this, do not leave the questions hailed from your weak area for the last time because at the last time, clock tends to tick more quickly resulting in hampering your productivity.

We wish nothing but the best to every single candidate out there, and hope that everyone can crack this year’s SSC CGL exam.