Crack General awareness SSC

Introduction

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

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

NCERT+NIOS	Static + Science.
Lucent General Knowledge	Filling up any missing details in Static + Science Part
Competitionmaster.com OR Pratiyogita Darpan	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 
• 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 NCERT Textbooks Class 7 to 10. Then Class 11 and 12.
• 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?

1. NCERT textbooks: Social Science Class 7 to 10
2. NCERT Geography Class 11, 12.
3. Environment and biodiversity ZIP file of NIOS

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 
• 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
Gravity Motion Work Pressure Units of measurement Sound Heat Eletronics Magnetism	uses, common names and composition of various chemicals. Alloys Definition based questions. (heat, oxidation, reduction etc)	Parts of plant and their functions Parts of body, their functions Basics of animal kingdom. Disease

• 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

1. NCERT Science Text books from Class 7 to 10
2. 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.
3. 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.

1. They had asked question on Shree Krishna Committee report. (which was released somewhere in Jan 2011)
2. Author of book Kurukshetra to Kargil. (again launched in Jan 2011)
3. 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?

1. SSC recycles questions. You solve 10 papers, then 11^th paper has hardly anything new, surprizing or challanging for you.
2. Trains Your Brain For Negative Marking
3. 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)

Priority order for General Awareness preparation= static >> science >> crap Essential booklist/reading list for SSC-CGL (GA) NCERT, NIOS  Lucent’s General Knowledge book competitionmaster.com OR Pratiyogita Darpan (from Jan 2012) Revise minimum three times, practice a few old papers. General awareness shouldn’t give much trouble.

Preparation Strategy for SSC CGLE

All the SSC CGLE aspirants, We need to have some strategy to prepare for the exam in an efficient way.I would like to present a strategy which can help you clear it with normal efforts without spending more time on unusefull topics. 

The distribution of the marks and questions in T1+T2 and preparation strategy is as under:

The amount of time spent on preparation varies from individual to individual. But because the distribution of marks is so much skewed towards Maths & English, it becomes obvious to strategize the time in favour of these 2 subjects. General awareness has weightage only in Tier-1 and since nothing big can be done to improve this part in a small time we should limit our time spent on this. Also, for reasoning we should only spend limited effort because it will matter only in Tier-1. During Tier-1 it can be given 25-30 % share of time and G Awareness less than 15 %. In overall preparation these 2 subjects should not take more than 10% (each) of your time. Refer below chart to manage your time depending on your inclination towards English/Maths. These 2 most are the most important subjects and should take 80% of your time in total. You can spend 30-50% on a subject based on your strengths.

GK- total marks=50 No. of question 50.- Every individual is able to score 15 marks in this section without any extra effort. In other words, almost 15 questions asked in this section are very easy and belong to day to day life e.g. 1. What are the functions of WTO. 2. Who won the ICC cricketer of the Year in 2010 etc.

Your target in this paper should be 25-30 marks. For achieving target of 25 -30 or more than 30 read as much objective question with answers available in current magazines and practice book, as u can. 

Books Recommended: Lucent GK, Manorama/Scholastic Yearbook, CSR etc.

  

Reasoning- total marks=50 No. of question 50.- This is the scoring section of CGL, in this section one can easily score 45- 50 marks with hundred percent accuracy. The mool mantra for scoring 45-50 marks is practice practice and practice from any book(s) which you like most and which consist verbal and non-verbal both. 

Books Recommended: Practice Book of Kiran Prakashan, R.S. Aggarwal etc. 

Math total marks=250 No. of question 150(50T1+100T2) For this section your target should be between 170 to 220. It is a scoring subjects for aspirants with Mathematical background. Even if you are not good at maths you will need to score above 150 to have any chance of getting selected. You may select certain topics like geometry, probability etc, if you are short of practice. General these questions are lengthy and take time. Make sure you practice enough to complete the questions in time. Don't miss out on easy questions.  

Books Recommended: Quicker Math by M. Tyra (BSC Publication) , Objective Math by RS Aggarwal(S Chand Publication) .

English total marks=250 No. of question 250(50T1+200T2) For this section your target should be anything between 160 to 225. You may develop the habit of reading English News paper( The Hindu), monthly magazines like Pratiyogita Darpan(hindi) and Pratiyogita Kiran(hindi). This will help u to get 15 marks from GK without any extra effort

Books recommended: Monthly/Weekly Magazines like Reader's Digest & Sunday Indian, Word Power Made easy, r.s. agarwal's objective general english (S. chand publications).

All the best!

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Steps

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