Staff Selection Commission has issued the notification for Combined Graduate Level(CGL) Examination, 2016. The SSC CGL 2016 Tier-I exam will be held on SUNDAY the 8th & 22nd May, 2016. Check out the complete details and changes in SSC CGL 2016 notification here.

Paper Pattern of SSC CGL 2016:

SSC CGL 2016 Tier 1 Paper Pattern:

The recruitment exam will be of 2 hours and 200 marks consisting four sections of 50 marks each viz.

1) English: Easy to average in difficulty level.
2) Maths: Average to tough in difficulty level.
3) Reasoning : Easy.
4) General Awareness: Average to Tough in difficulty level.

There will be negative marking of .25 marks.

SSC CGL 2016 Tier 2(Mains) Exam Paper Pattern:

1) Numerical/Quantitative Aptitude: 100 Questions, 200 Marks, 2 Hours
2) English Language: 200 Questions, 200 Marks, 2 Hours

Section A) English Language:

1) General English by Lucent Publications: This is my personal favorite book for English language and by far the best book available in the market for the preparation of all entrance exams. The topics in this books are explained in both English and Hindi language for easy understanding. So, this book is even good for students who come from Hindi medium schools. All the concepts are explained in a step by step manner and properly. There are Hundreds of rules of English grammar that are explained in this book, so you can score really good marks in the English section.

2) English for General Competitions from Plinth to Paramount: Paramount Coaching Centre is a well known coaching centre in Delhi. Now, you can buy its books online.

If this is not available on Flipkart, buy it on Amazon:

3) SSC English Language Chapterwise Solved Papers 1997-Till Date: All the English language questions asked in the last 17 years in all SSC exams. This is a really helpful book as SSC repeats many questions from its previous years’ papers.

Section B) General Intelligence and Reasoning:

1) A Modern Approach To Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning by RS Aggarwal: It is an exhaustive book that covers all topics of reasoning in detail. This book is enough to prepare for reasoning section.

2) SSC Reasoning Chapterwise Solved Papers 1999 Till Date: It contains Chapter wise Compilation of reasoning questions of Previous Years’ Papers of all Exams Conducted by SSC (CGL, CHSL ,FCI ,Delhi Police,SI etc.).

3) Analytical Reasoning by MK Pandey (BSC Publication): If you want to prepare more for reasoning section, this is also a great book.

Section C) General Awareness: General Awareness is a tricky section. No matter how much you prepare for this, still it is difficult to score very good marks. So my advice to all the candidates would be to focus on current affairs more, there would be around 10-15 questions of current affairs only and for the rest of the part, read one of the books given below.
Also, don’t waste your time preparing much for this section. First you need to focus on other three sections, then only come to preparation of this section.

1) Lucent’s General Knowledge 4th Edition: A comprehensive book that covers an exhaustive range of topics such as History, Geography, Economy, Polity, Science, etc.

2) General Knowledge 2014: Essential ‘Knowledge Capsule’ in General Awareness and Current Affairs by Manohar Pandey(Arihant Publications) I strongly recommend this book as you can do it within a week and it covers the entire General awareness in a concise manner.

3) SSC General Awareness Chapterwise Solved Papers (1997 – till date): Chapter wise solved previous years’ questions of general awareness section of all SSC exams.

D) Numerical Aptitude/Maths: For mathematics, I would suggest you to prepare from 3-4 books. The more you practice, the more you would be solve difficult questions in quick time.
In SSC CGL exam, it is very important that you solve maths’ questions quickly to score good marks.

1) Quantitative Aptitude For Competitive Examinations by R. S. Aggarwal One of the best book for basic Quantitative/Numerical Aptitude. It will help you learn all the basics of mathematics.

2) Fast Track Objective Arithmetic by Arihant: This is another great book for basic Mathematics to improve your speed and efficiency with thousands of shortcuts. It covers all the topics with so many formulas, concepts, shortcuts, examples and thousands of questions to practice. Between RS Aggarwal and this book, I would suggest to go for this book.

If book is not available on Flipkart, buy it on Amazon:

3) SSC All Graduate Level Exams Solved Papers 1997 Upto Date: Chapter wise solved questions from all SSC exams(CGL, CHSL, etc.) from 1997 up to now.

4) Quantum CAT: Quantitative Aptitude Common Admission Test for Admission Into IIMs by Sarvesh K Verma(Arihant): If you don’t want to leave anything, this is another great book for high level mathematics.

6) Mathematics (Class 10) 7th Edition by R D Sharma: Let’s go back to school. As SSC questions are class 10th level, this book is really useful and it can also help you to clear your basics about Trigonometry, Geometry, Mensuration, Algebra, etc.

7) Arithmetic for General Competitions – By Paramount: Amazing Book for arithmetic by Paramount Coaching Centre.

If this book is not available on Flipkart, buy it on Amazon:

8) Advance maths for General Competitions (English) (Paramount Maths for General Competitions): For topics such as Trigonometry, Geometry, Mensuration, Algebra, etc. – this is the my favorite book. As Paramount coaching centre is a famous name for SSC exams coaching, they have compiled this great book for advanced mathematic.

If this book is not available on Flipkart, buy it on Amazon:

Section E) SSC Statistics Practice Work Book, Tier – II (Paper – III):

Apart from books given above, we would also recommend SSC aspirants to buy previous years’ question papers as you can get a basic idea about the SSC CGL paper pattern and questions.

SSC Combined Graduate Level Tier-I and Tier-II Exam: Solved Papers 2010, 2011 and 2012 by Kiran Prakashan

Paramount Study Material for SSC Exams (English)

Paramount Test Series of English Language & Comprehension for SSC CGL (Tier-II) Mock Tests 1 to 20

PARAMOUNT TEST SERIES (CGL Tier 1) Test # 1-20

All the best to all the SSC aspiring candidates. If you have any query, please leave it in comments.