| Re: SSC CGL Mrunal Reasoning
As you want the details about the SSC CGL Mrunal Reasoning so here I am providing you the details below
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 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 (they’re 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, 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?
NCERT textbooks: Social Science Class 7 to 10
NCERT Geography Class 11, 12.
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, 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 Zip file given @bottom.
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
NCERT Science Text books from Class 7 to 10
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.
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.
They had asked question on Shree Krishna Committee report. (which was released somewhere in Jan 2011)
Author of book Kurukshetra to Kargil. (again launched in Jan 2011)
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?
SSC recycles questions. You solve 10 papers, then 11th paper has hardly anything new, surprizing or challanging for you.
Trains Your Brain For Negative Marking
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).
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