(Article) SSC CGL English Preparation Strategy by Naman Garg (AIR-5) 

Naman Garg with his outstanding score of 610/700 in SSC CGL 2017 secured an all-India rank of 5. He has also scored a whopping 676.88/700 in his 2018 attempt. Currently, he is serving as an Assistant Section Officer in the Ministry of External Affairs.

The Key: Solving Mock Papers

The key to scoring well in English in both CGL Tier-I and CGL Tier-II is solving mocks according to Naman. His score in phase-I in the English section was 38.5/50 which is on the lower side compared to the other sections. On the other hand, his normalized score was 182 in tier-II which is quite a bit higher than average. Naman insists that his strategy had mostly remained the same except that he greatly increased the number of practice papers he solved. He did so consistently daily.

Online Mock Test Series for SSC CGL Exams

The Vocabulary Dilemma

Vocabulary is the most unpredictable section of the CGL paper. Many aspirants swear they read newspapers every day and pick up 10-15 words from them daily to increase their vocabulary. Naman appreciates such intense preparation strategies, however, his strategy was much more convenient.

In the vocabulary section, there are mainly four topics, namely –

1. One Word Substitutions
2. Idioms and Phrases
3. Spelling errors
4. Synonyms and Antonyms

The trouble with these is that there are innumerable words in the English language and to think you would know any word under the sun that SSC puts in the paper are a pipedream. Instead, this is where smart work comes to play. Naman particularly focused on the first 2 topics as their scope is much more limited than the last 2. 

He followed the below books :

1. Kiran’s Previous Years
2. Plinth to Paramount
3. MB Publications

He maintained a separate notebook for vocabulary and noted down new words he learned from solving each paper each day. He ended up collecting 10-15 words every day and revised them frequently to retain them in memory. Naman does not feel vocabulary is something to be unnecessarily stressed about.

SSC CGL Tier-1 Exam Printed Study Notes

Time Management

Time management during the examination is very important to ensure you attempt all questions, play to your strengths, spend more time in sections you are weak in, and score your very best. 

The English paper has 3 rather time-consuming sections –

1. Comprehensions
2. Para jumbles
3. Cloze Tests

Naman recommends marking these questions up for later review and solving the easier ones such as tenses, synonyms, word substitution, voice change, etc. first. That way you end up covering most of the paper first and are only left with a few lengthy questions. This helps you to peacefully solve the rest without the anxiety of missing out.

For comprehension, the trick is to read the questions first and then move on to reading the passage. That way, you have context on which portions of the passage to pay more attention to and you end up solving the questions quicker and more accurately.

Overall SSC CGL does not test your English for expertise; it tests you to ensure you can perform your duties of drafting and processing documents while on the job. 

Be diligent and brush up on the basics and you should score as well as Naman has in his attempt.