Staff Selection Commission Combined Higher Secondary Level exam, otherwise known as SSC CHSL, is conducted every year by SSC for candidates who have passed class- 12th and aspire to secure a job in the public sector. Candidates who are going to apply for the SSC CHSL exam and are eligible as per SSC CHSL Eligibility Criteria should keep in mind some key tips while attempting SSC CHSL.
On that note, let’s take a look at six key points along with some general tips for cracking the SSC CHSL exam.
- Reading Questions Carefully
Carefully read the questions while attempting them, as oftentimes candidates miss out on small details that can create a big difference between their answer and what was asked. Thereby, they end up marking the incorrect answer. Questions often contain words and prefixes like not, non-, doesn’t, etc that a candidate must pay attention to so that they stay clear of committing silly mistakes. - Optimal Time Management
Efficient usage of time during examination is of vital importance in order to crack the exam. As in SSC CHSL, unlike the Banking exam, there is no sectional time allotted to different sections so a candidate is free, to begin with, the section he is more well versed in. Also, he/she must quickly skim through the section and should attempt those questions first that he is more familiar with or are easy. This strategy will also pump your confidence after which you will be able to attempt difficult questions with ease. It should also be kept in mind that you have limited time, therefore you should not spend too much time on each question and must move on to the next one if you are having trouble with answering any question. - Keep Your Mind Calm and Relaxed
It is very important to keep your mind cool and calm during the examination. Especially, when you get stuck in a question that is difficult and this drains out your confidence, and so you end up losing your calm. Go for easy questions at first and then to the difficult ones. This will help you maintain your mental composure. - Be Ready for Surprises
Adapt. Improvise. Overcome. These three words say it all. Candidates appearing for the CHSL exam must expect surprises and slight changes in Exam syllabus, Pattern, Cut off, Exam date and Level of examination, etc. There can also be changes in No. of questions to be asked or the Weightage of different topics in each section. So, candidates should adapt to these changes and overcome them with the best of their strategy and effort. - Section-Wise Approach
It is crucial to have a strategy to attempt the questions in each section. Given below are some section-wise approaches that you can follow.- Quantitative Aptitude: This is the most scoring section of all. Candidates, to save time and to score good marks in this section should start with questions that are easy and are less time consuming, he/she should begin with questions for topics such as Average and percentage, Simplification, Ratio and Proportion, Problems on numbers and ages, Profit and loss and more. After which he/she should move to more tricky and time-consuming questions.
- General Intelligence/ Reasoning: Questions from topics like Coding/Decoding, Classification, Direction and distance, Blood relation and Analogy, etc must be attempted first by the candidate as the level of these questions is generally of easy to moderate level.
- English Language: A Candidate can easily score above 20 marks out of 25 in the Tier-I exam, if he knows the fundamental rules in Grammar, has a good knowledge of Vocabulary, and great Comprehensive reading skill. He should apply the same approach in English as in the above-mentioned sections to go for less time-consuming topics like a Spelling error, Error spotting, Fill in the blanks, Correction in sentences, Antonyms, and Synonyms, etc. This is going to save an ample amount of time to attempt a Comprehension passage and Cloze test, as they carry high weightage.
- General Awareness: There is no strategy for attempting questions in the general awareness section other than to just go only for those questions to which you know the answer and are confident about it.
- Avoid Wild Guesswork
Candidates must avoid making guesswork during the exam as it can cost them a penalty of 0.5 marks for each incorrect answer. So, wild guesswork is not going to help here. Calculated guesses by the elimination of options can work sometimes but, not always.
