Staff Selection Commission conducts Combined Graduate Level exam each year for the recruitment of personnel in various central government departments. SSC CGL being one of the most sought after paper in the country, a lot of candidates appear for the paper. As such the competition is naturally very high. Thorough preparation is very important if you want to make it to the finish line.
SSC CGL tier 1 has 4 sections :
1. Reasoning
2. Quantitative Aptitude
3. General Awareness
4. English.
Here let us discus about the preparation strategy for reasoning section. This section once you master can be your winning jack! So word of advice: start practicing this section as much as possible so that you are just accurate in this section. A glance at the question pattern and the probable number of questions that can be asked:
- Series: roughly 20-30 questions are asked from this section as per previous years question papers. This includes questions like a. Point the odd pair (both words/letters and numerical) b. Word based and numerical analogy c. Find missing number (series given in box form) d. Correct word arrangement (as found in English Dictionary), find the missing letter.
- Coding-decoding: ~10 questions are asked. a. Coding –decoding of words b. Coding decoding using mathematical symbols (if + is –, * is = , – is /; then what is the value type questions)
- Logic: 4-5 questions can be from this section. a. Venn- diagram b. Syllogism c. Assumption – inference – conclusion
- Arrangement: 5-8 questions a. Sitting/standing arrangement (e.g in line, around table circular/rectangular) b. Living /driving (Building, car)/dress colour/ occupations of persons/ Schedules oflecture on week days – combination and match. c. Direction based (Mohan moves three kms north, four kms south…how far he is from home d. Blood relations
- Image based non-verbal questions: 4-5 questions a. Cubes/dices – match the sides b. Fit the pipes or the figures c. Paper folding cutting punching holes etc d. Reflection :mirrors
Apart from these there may be questions from clock – calendar, permutation combination, age related reasoning etc. The number of these varies from 4-5 (max.)
Now lets check out some important tips on how to prepare Reasoning For SSC CGL 2015
- General intelligence section will have questions that are aimed at testing your verbal-non-verbal skills. For Coding-Decoding, alphabet series and syllogism it is better if you write down the alphabets and then approach to solve these.
- Series based questions: Word based series questions are easier to approach than numerical based. At times (definitely with practice) you will be able to solve it within a minute. That is the solution will click instantly. If not read the question one more time and try solving. If you are still stuck with the question, do not give it more time. Ask yourself if it is worth to give 5-10 minutes to just one question in a competitive exam when you have a whole lot others to attempt?
- Practice blood relations and word formations as these are relatively easy topics.
- Sitting/Standing arrangements, who-stays-on-which-floor, in a group of working friends who likes which color and who works in which shift etc. kind of questions can be really tricky and if you are not thoroughly practiced these can take up a lot of time. But once you have the hang of these questions it is rather easy and scoring.
- Assertion and reasoning and decision making questions are tricky but not tough. So again practice practice practice.
Some of the good books to learn tricks and practice reasoning questions available in the market for SSC CGL are :
- Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning by R S Aggarwal – Buy on Flipkart or Buy on Amazon
- Analytical Reasoning by M K Pandey – Buy on Flipkart or Buy on Amazon
- A New Approach to Reasoning Verbal and Non-Verbal (English) by B S Sijwali, Indu Sijwal – Buy on Flipkart or Buy on Amazon
- Logical and Analytical Reasoning (English) by A.K Gupta – Buy on Flipkart or Buy on Amazon