Books for SSC CGL

Hello friends. This is my first blog on SSC CGL preparation. Here I will give you a rough idea on what books you need to study for the preparation if you are a tyro. I will talk section wise. Before reading this article I request you to first read the complete syllabus of SSC CGL from the official notification.

[link to official notification:

http://ssc.nic.in/SSC_WEBSITE_LATEST/notice/notice_pdf/CGLE_Notice_2018_05.05.2018.pdf]

So, as you should know SSC CGL is a Combined Graduate Level exam that is conducted by Staff Selection Commission every year for recruitment to various government posts that come under Group B and Group C of the central government. The exam is conducted in three tiers ie Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 but for some posts the commission also conducts a skill test on computer which includes typing and some other computer related basic knowledge. In this blog I will talk about Tier 1 only. I will write another blog on other two tiers on your request. So, here we go...

Tier 1 - Computer Based Objective Type Exam

This is the first or preliminary stage of the exam which contains 100 questions divided in 4 sections (General Intelligence or Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude or Mathematics, General Awareness and English Language & Comprehension) and have to be completed in 60 minutes. The paper consists of objective type questions only and the mode is computer based which means you have to attempt the paper on computer, online. For each correct answer you will be awarded 2 marks while for each wrong answer 0.5 marks will be deducted as part of the negative marking scheme. The subject wise book-list is given here:

General Intelligence (Reasoning):

Honestly speaking, you actually do not need any special book for reasoning. Just do only previous year papers and the rest will be taken care of while giving mock tests. So buy Kiran's previous year for Reasoning and no need to purchase the bulky and costly R S Aggarwal. It is more than sufficient.

Quantitative Ability (Mathematics):

When it comes to mathematics we have three categories of students. First are those who are form science background and have studied mathematics at graduation level too and scored good marks. For such students I suggest to practise previous year papers form Kiran's chapterwise. Second are those who are from science background but have not studied seriously and the Third category is of those who are from arts background or have completely forgotten even the basics of mathematics. Now here I want to tell you that SSC asks questions that are mostly (98%) based on high school level mathematics. So I suggest you here to start form 7th std NCERT mathematics. Take a look at the chapters given in Kiran's Chapterwise maths for SSC CGL and start doing a comprehensive study of the chapters. You need to go through the books from 7th to 10th std. Why this is essential? This is essential because only short tricks can never help you if your basic concepts are not clear. You will be puzzled while solving questions in real time mock tests. So clearing basis is necessary. After completeing all the four books now you need to solve the chapter wise previous year question form Kiran's Chapterwise maths. When you start with this book never, never, never forget to give weekly mock tests form a decent test series site (testbook, paramount, ssc adda, etc). No other book is required now. Practise as many mocks as you can to get more and new questions.

General Awareness:

Now this is the most important section these days that makes a huge difference in the scores. This section will decide your rank and score. If you want to get a good rank then GA section is indispensable. When it comes to book list for GA section then I see a long list in front of my eyes. But its not possible to read every single book available in the market. So I suggest two approach. First is you can make notes from NCERTs. If you have enough time and want to comprehensively prepare this section then I suggest you to go through the NCERTs of Social Science and Seience from 6th to 10th std. Second is if you have not much time then you have to study two books: Lucents GK and Lucents Objecitve GK. Besides this the most important thing is to practise previous year paper form Kiran's Chapterwise GK. Now when you are done with all these materials then do one thing: After doing a mock test note down all the unattempted and wrong questions in a note book and keep revising them regularly. For current affairs make daily notes form any current affaris app like ssc adda or testbook and revise them regularly. If you did all this you will surely get good marks in this section.

English Language and Comprehension:

English also plays an important role as it can be attempted in a very short time if practised properly. But English is problem of many students specially of those who are from hindi medium background. See, its not a big task to learn a language if you experience it in your daily life and English is becoming an important part of our life these days. So all you have to do first is start reading as much as you can. It is not necessary to start from newspapers, you can read anything that suits your taste. You can read a novel, comics, crime reports, sports related material, anything that is of your interest. While you do this, note down all the difficult words and keep revising them regularly. After you have developed a habit of reading your reading speed would increase that will help you in reading comprehension part of the paper. Now for grammar portion I suggest two books: Plinth to Paramount by Neetu Singh and SSC English of M B Publication by A. K. Singh. You also need to buy the Kiran's Chapterwise previous year. First read a chapter form the book Plinth to Paramount and do the exercise given at the end of the chapter. After completing the book exercise practise the previous year question of the same chapter from Kiran's. Do a weekly revision of the chapters completed till that day. For vocabulary refer MB Publication's book. It contains all previous year words and OWS along with Phrasal Verbs. You should also practise the vocabulary section from Plinth and Paramount. After you have completed half of the chapters, now come to newspaper. As the trend has changed a little bit now I suggest you to read editorial section of The Hindu and note down all the difficult words and idioms. And mock practise is indispensable. While you do mock test do note down all the unattempted and incorrect questions. Revise everything regularly.

NOTE: Only reading and making notes will not help you in getting selected. The two most important keys to success for any exam are - Practice and Mock Tests. Give them as much importance as you can.

PS: For any queries you can comment below or send me a message on my Facebook Page.

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