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[Studyplan] SSC CGL General Awareness Tier-1:

Booklist, approach, free study material for
Combined Graduate Level exam
SSC3 years Ago1372 Comments
For SSC CGL, I recommend
GA/GK: Lucent GKMaths: Fast-track Rajesh VermaReasoning: RS AgrawalEnglish: SP Bakshi

This article only deals with General Awareness part. The approach to Maths, English
and reasoning, covered in separate articles.
1.

Introduction

2.

SSC CGL General Awareness (Tier I)

3.

Topicwise Analysis: 2010, 11, 12

4.

Indian Polity

5.

Indian History + Culture

6.

Geography+Biodiversity+Environment

7.

Economy

8.

Science

9.

CRAP (Misc.GK, Sports, PIN etc.)

10.

Final Touch to preparation

11.

Summary: Plan for SSC-CGL (GK)

12.

Free Download material for SSC General Awareness

NCERTs (English) Free download

NIOS Download links

Blank Answersheets

13.

SSC CGL Tier 1 Cutoffs (2011, 2012)

14.

SSC CGL Tier-2 Cutoffs (2011, 2012)

Introduction
Notification for SSC-Combined Graduate Level exam was released on 19 th 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

Reasoning

Maths

English

Total

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 doesnt have descriptive paper. You just have to face Multichoie
Questions (MCQ).
Total

Duration

Paper I (Maths)

200 marks

2 hrs

Paper II (English)

200 marks

2 hrs

Total

400 marks

These two papers are compulsory for all candidates.

But If youre applying for Statistical Investigator Grade-II, then youve 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 youve to appear for Interview worth 100 marks.

For some posts, youve to give computer proficiency test or Skill Test.

For example, Candidate for Tax Assistant job, will have to give test for data entry
speed.

Whats the reform/change?

candidates qualifying in Tier-II of the Examination, will be subjected to a short
descriptive paper of not more than one hours duration, with questions drawn from
1.

English Language and Comprehension

2.

Quantitative Abilities

3.

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 youve 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, theyll conduct this descriptive paper via
computer.

Anyways, lets start. The studyplan is divided into four articles.

General Awareness Tier I

Maths / Quantitative Aptitude for Tier I and II

Reasoning / General Intelligence for Tier I

English Grammar, Vocabulary, Comprehension for Tier I and II

Job profiles of various posts offered under SSC-CGL

Tier I (Prelims)

Here youve 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 doesnt
have much use for competitive exams.

Topicwise Analysis: 2010, 11, 12

Topic

Static

Polity

Indian History+Culture

Geograhpy (Physical+Indian)+Biodiversity

Economy

Subtotal (Static)

Biology

Chemistry

Science

Physics+Space

Computer

Subtotal (Science)

Misc.GK, Sports, PIN, Books, Current Affairs

Crap

Yearbook (institutes, schemes, dates etc.)

Subtotal (Crap)

Grand Total

Ive 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.

Im not saying ignore current affairs, all Im saying is, dont 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.

1.

The Action-Plan of SSC General awareness, rests on three pillars

NCERT+NIOS

Static + Science.

Lucent General Knowledge

Filling up any missing details

Competitionmaster.com OR Pratiyogita Darpan

For crap current affairs.

Indian Polity

If youre 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 youve Laxmikanth, dont bother much with NCERT/NIOS/Lucent etc.

But If you dont 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 (theyre 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,
youll 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 youve time, else dont
bother much.)
That pretty much sums up History + culture. Although revision =essential.

Geography+Biodiversity+Environment

For SSC exam, weve to prepare only Physical Geography + Indian Geography.

World Geography doesnt come into picture. (sometimes a question or two, but
thats 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.

(^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, dont 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. (Indias economy and Development.)

NIOS Zip file given @bottom.

Only major current affairs. Usually SSCs 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

1.

Gravity

1.

uses, common names and composition of various chemicals.

2.

Motion

2.

Alloys

3.

Work

3.

Definition based questions. (heat, oxidation, reduction etc)

4.

Pressure

5.

Units of measurement

6.

Sound

7.

Heat

8.

Eletronics

9.

Magnetism

By and large the science questions come from ^above topics. (it doesnt 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 youve time and mood.

3.

Finally Lucent to fill up any missing details Big inventions/inventors, applications

of various chemicals, computer related terms etc. (again dont 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 youre
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. (youll find them in Lucent.)

Most importantly: these things dont stay in long term memory. Hence frequent
revision essential.

Source?
Competitionmaster.com (they release monthly updates) OR Pratiyogita Darpan (PD).

Extra-preparation

Once youve 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 11th 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 dont contain solutions. Hence makes the whole
exercise frustrating. Because you cant 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 >> scien

Essential booklist/reading list for SSC-CGL (GA)

1.

NCERT, NIOS (free download links @bottom)

2.

Lucents General Knowledge book

3.

competitionmaster.com OR Pratiyogita Darpan (from Jan 2012)

Revise minimum three times, practice a few old papers. General awarene

This concludes how to approach General Awareness for SSC-CGL Exam. In the
upcoming articles, well see how to approach
1.

English vocabulary, Grammar and Comprehension (Tier I and II)

2.

Maths (Tier I and II) (update: article published-CLICK ME)

3.

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://files.secureserver.net/0fHCh0CLd6Az63

NCERT file: classwise (theyve same pdfs as above)

Science Class 7

Our Pasts Part 2 Class 7

Social and Political Life Part 2 Class 7

Our Environment Class 7

Science Class 8

Our Pasts Part 3 Class 8

Resource and Development Class 8

Social and Political Life Class 8

Science Class 9

Contemporary India Social Science for Class 9

Economics for Class 9

India and Contemporary World 1 for Class 9

Science Class X

India and the Contemporary World 2 Class X Social Science

Democratic Politics Part 2 for Class X Social Science

Contemporary India Part 2 for Class X Social Science

Understanding Economic Development Class X Social Science

Fundamentals of Physical Geography Class 11

India Physical Environment Geography Class 11

Indian Economic Development Economics Class 11

Themes in World History Class 11

India People and Economy Class 12

Introductory Microeconomics Class 12

Macroeconomics Class 12

Fundamentals of Human Geography Class 12

Themes in India History 1 Class 12

Themes in India History 2 Class 12

Themes in India History 3 Class 12

If it doesnt work visit (or you want Hindi

version): http://www.ncert.nic.in/ncerts/textbook/textbook.htm

Description

NIOS study Material

Economy, Environment n Biodiversity, Polity etc.Many zip files on various subjec

requirements.

Blank
Answersheets

For practicing mock questions @home

SSC CGL Tier 1 Cutoffs (2011, 2012)

Out of 200 marks.
Year

2011

General

86.75

SC

63.5

ST

63.25

OBC

70.25

EXS

60

OH

50

HH

50

VH

50

(excluding Statistical Investigator/Compiler.)

SSC CGL Tier-2 Cutoffs (2011, 2012)

2011

2012

category
Interview posts

Non-Interview posts

Interview posts

General

354.75

315.25

349

SC

281.25

247.25

284

ST

295.75

251.75

282

OBC

323.75

283.75

319

EXS

293

180

308

OH

246.5

208

274

HH

200

150

191

VH

246.5

150

261

(excluding Statistical Investigator/Compiler.)