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How to Prepare for SSC CGL 2018

Tier 1 Exam with Expert Tips!

The SSC will soon release the SSC CGL Notification for 2018. It is expected that the CGL

2018 Notification will be released on April 21st, 2018. It is important that you begin to

prepare for your exam before time. This article will give you the ultimate preparation

guidelines for SSC CGL 2018 Exam along with expert time management tips that

how much time you should devote to each section while preparing for SSC CGL Tier I.

To keep a plan of action handy for SSC CGL Preparation, you can download this post as

PDF.

Before you read ahead, don't forget to check the Detailed Syllabus to know the detailed

break-up of various sections and the probable mark-distribution. Now, first of

all, make sure you know everything about the De

Detailed Exam Pattern SSC CGL 2018

Detailed SSC CGL Tier I Syllabus

Exam Pattern to Prepare For SSC CGL Tier 1 2018

Exam

Subject Questions Marks

General Intelligence & Reasoning 25 50

General Awareness 25 50

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Quantitative Aptitude 25 50

English Language 25 50

Total 100 200

The total time you get for solving the paper is 60 minutes. There is no sectional time

limit so you have the liberty to attempt various sections in any order you want. Now let’s

go through each section individually and device a strategy that can give you the impetus

you require to ace this exam. You can check out the SSC CGL Study Plan for 1 month

here:

SSC CGL Study Plan

Now that you know study plan, do check out the SSC CGL Model Questions Paper (Live

Leak) which is based on new pattern & you would like to come across some of the

questions in SSC CGL 2018 Exam.

SSC CGL 2017 Tier I Model Question Paper (Live Leak)

How to Prepare for SSC CGL Tier I - General

Intelligence & Reasoning

Solving General Intelligence (GI) questions can be very tricky unless you have sufficient

practice. In addition to solving practice papers, try at least 50 GI and reasoning

questions every day. This way you will have practised at least 2000 questions of GI

and reasoning before your actual exam. As you go on practising, you will gradually

devise tricks of your own to tackle GI questions.

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Begin your Reasoning Preparation Here:

• Testbook Reasoning: This is undoubtedly the best place to clear all concepts in order

to prepare for SSC CGL Tier 1 exam.

• Testbook Reasoning Quiz: To ensure that you are actually learning and not just

wasting time, keep a track of your preparation by taking these quizzes. These quizzes are

prepared by keeping in mind the SSC CGL Exam pattern & last year exam analysis.

Topics like Puzzles, analogy, coding-decoding, series, figure-based questions,

etc. are very scoring. Start with these and move on to more versatile questions. You

will notice a massive improvement in your accuracy within a week if you practice

consistently. Furthermore, non-verbal reasoning topics like image assembling,

figure-counting, etc. require you to employ visual imagination. Do not skip or ignore

these questions because they seem time-consuming to you. Solving them is the best way

to make them less time-consuming.

Note: While practising, your aim is to be able to attempt at least 15-20 questions in

20 minutes with reasonable accuracy. In the exam also, try to solve this section in no

more than 20 minutes.

How to Prepare for SSC CGL in 3 months - General

Awareness

General awareness (GA) is the most scoring section of the exam. If you prepare this

section thoroughly now, it will not take more than 10 minutes of your time

during the exam. You can utilize the time you save here for doing calculations in

Quantitative Aptitude. The exam usually has more questions from static GK than

Current Affairs. Therefore, focus more on static GK and simultaneously stay in touch

with Current Affairs.

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Prepare the subjects in the following order of priority:

Science ⇒ Polity ⇒ History ⇒ Geography ⇒ Economy ⇒ Miscellaneous

Static GK mainly pertains to Culture, Indian History, Geography

(India+World), Environment, Economy and Polity. Instead of cramming

mindlessly, make notes and mindmaps to remember facts, a chronology of

events, cause and effect, etc. Doing this will also make your revision process

quicker. Practice at least 75 questions of GA everyday within 30 minutes. From this

sections focus on those topics which are asked in SSC CGL 2016 Tier I exam.

The following material will help you cover almost all aspects of General Awareness:

• Current Affairs App: Since you have more than two months of time, go through the

notes and capsules in the App. Also, take the Daily/Weekly/Monthly Quizzes.

• Static GK: These capsules are important to keep you up to date on trivia and events and

to boost your General Awareness.

• GK Quiz: Improve your General Awareness with these short quizzes. To prepare for SSC

CGL Tier 1 exam and simultaneously test yourself, these quizzes are the best platform.

• Current Affairs Capsules: If you don’t have an Android app, read Daily/Monthly

Capsules of the past 3 months.

• Current Affairs Quiz: Make it a point to take these quizzes daily.

For the list of recommended books for this section, check out more of our posts

on how to prepare this section more efficiently.

Note: When it comes to General Awareness, revision is the key to success!

How to Prepare for SSC CGL Tier I 2018 -

Quantitative Aptitude

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Quantitative aptitude is considered to be the most difficult and time-consuming part of

the exam. But since you still have an enough time to prepare for SSC CGL Tier 1 exam.

So, utilise this time & make yourself expertise in at least some of the areas of quant

section. For this you can start with the topics such as percentage, profit & loss, ratio &

proportion, speed distance & time, boat & stream, data interpretation etc. Begin your

preparation here:

• Testbook Quant: Carefully go through all the shortcuts, concepts and tips.

• Testbook Quant Quiz: Assess yourself with these tiny quizzes having solutions to fix

your mistakes on the spot.

• Math Shortcut Tricks: Shortcut tricks can help you big time in Quantitative Aptitude.

• Take one mock test daily leading up to the exam.

• Practice on app daily. When you’re travelling or bored. When you sit down to practice.

• Read all the solutions carefully to understand the concepts used in the questions.

Simplification, interest, percentages, ratio and proportion and age-

problems are easy and scoring so spend more time with these topics. Profit and loss,

number series, mensuration, number systems, speed and distance, etc. are

scoring topics but take more time to solve. While going through the previous years'

question papers, analyze the nature of the questions asked from these as well as other

topics. Learn all the important formulas by heart and time yourself while practicing.

Furthermore, practice on the app daily.

Don't underestimate the importance of analyzing your preparation while preparing

for Quantitative Aptitude. Solve as many different types of questions and topics as you

can to know your strong and weak areas. Two weeks before the exam, practice more of

those questions which you are more confident about. It's best if you keep reviewing your

strategy as per your progress.

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Note: Try to allocate at least 2 hours from your entire day to practice questions

from quantitative aptitude section. In the exam, don't give more than 25 minutes to this

section.

How to Prepare for SSC CGL Tier I - English

Language

There are three important aspects that you need to master to efficiently prepare for SSC

CGL Tier 1 English test. These are vocabulary, grammar and comprehension. If you

achieve proficiency in vocabulary and grammar, you will win half the battle. After this,

all you need is to work on comprehension.

The pattern and questions in this exam often get repeated. Therefore, a thorough

preparation can help you wrap up this entire section within 10 minutes in the

exam.

To take a look at the kind of questions you should practice, see our post on Preparing

English Language for SSC CGL.

Comprehension:

Practice at least 10 comprehension passages daily. The trick here is to read the

questions before you read the passage, as then while reading the passage you will

know exactly what you are looking for. In fact, sometimes, the answers to all the

questions which follow the passage lie in the initial paragraphs.

Vocabulary:

Since you have to prepare for the SSC CGL Tier 1 exam, you probably get to read a lot.

Whenever you come across a new word, check the meaning of the word and try to reuse

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it and its synonyms and antonyms in sentences. Also, make sure you do this for all the

new words that you come across in the model/previous years’ question papers and while

studying Current Affairs. Do make it a point to go through our Word Power Made

Easy Capsules to learn memory techniques for vocabulary, grammar lessons, tips,

tricks and more.

Grammar:

Just like vocabulary, your grammar will also improve if you read more sincerely. In any

case, try as many questions as you can on:

• Error Spotting

• Phrase Replacement

• Fill in the Blanks

Once you exhaust model/previous years’ papers, move over to other sources to practice

at least 30 questions of grammar each day. Try to quickly scan across newspapers

like 'The Hindu' daily. Some other sources you can rely on are:

• English for Competitive Exams Modules: The best technique for contextual usage,

grammar.

• Testbook English Quiz: Practice questions in tiny quizzes and see where you stand

among your peers.

• Grammarly: Type in your grammar-related query on Google and click on the links

from Grammarly.

• English Stack Exchange: Type in your grammar-related query on Google and click on

links from English Stack Exchange. Or visit the forum to learn English in an

unstructured format, one doubt at a time.

• Thesaurus: Learn synonyms and antonyms for different words.

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More Rules to Follow While You Prepare for SSC

CGL Tier 1 Exam:

1. The first thing you should do when you sit to study is to solve a mock question paper.

Solve at least one mock paper every day.

2. Time yourself section-wise.

3. After you solve a mock test, review it in and out. Analyze your errors, time taken,

accuracy and approach.

4. Try different time-management strategies like the ones given below and adopt the one

that suits you the best.

5. Try more SSC CGL Tests here.

• Give more time to sections that you are more strong in. This will ensure that you can

effectively use the time duration of the exam. Remember that there are no

sectional time limits and no sectional cut offs. So your job is to simply

maximize your score however you can.

• Try different order of attempt patterns in your mock tests. Some with English first, some

Quant first. Or try your toughest section first. See which strategy works best for you.

You can also check out blogs for SSC CGL Exam Preparation from the link below:

SSC CGL Exam Analysis 2017 All Slots & All Days

SSC CGL Questions Asked 2017 All Days & All Shifts

Official SSC CGL Tier I Cut Off

Hopefully, after reading this post you will know exactly how to prepare for SSC CGL Tier

1 exam. However, if there is still something more you need help with, then please

comment below and let us know.

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As we all know, practice is the key to success. Therefore, boost your preparation by

starting your practice now.

Solve Practice Questions for Free

Furthermore, chat with your fellow aspirants and our experts to get your doubts

cleared on Testbook Discuss:

Go to Testbook Discuss!