SSC CGL Syllabus – Tier I-IV Syllabus, Pattern, Marking Schemes, Exam Duration

SSC CGL Syllabus – The Combined Graduate Level entrance exam is conducted in four stages across India for 34 different posts in ministries/departments/organisations of the Government of India. Every year, more than 30 lakh students apply for this exam and around 15 lakh appear for the SSC CGL exam. The SSC CGL exam is conducted once a year in both online and offline mode. Tier I exam duration is 60 minutes, Tier II is conducted for a duration of 120 minutes and Tier III for 60 minutes. The last stage or Tier IV is an interview stage for candidates who qualify all previous three stages with the required cut off.

SSC CGL 2019 Tier 1 results are yet to be declared. SSC CGL 2019 Tier II & III exams are scheduled to be conducted in June 2020. However, the dates might get postponed due to the disruption caused by COVID-19. At the same time, the SSC CGL Tier III 2018 exam results, expected to be declared on May 8th 2020 (as declared by SSC, Government of India), have been postponed. SSC CGL 2020 exam notification is due in October 2020.

In this article, you will get familiar with the Tier I and II exam pattern and syllabus, key dates of exam, marking schemes, exam duration and difficulty.

SSC CGL Syllabus – Exam Pattern for Tier I and II Exam

Before we proceed to the syllabus section of each tier, let’s check out the exam pattern. First two tiers of the exam is computer based, third tier is a descriptive paper and the last stage involves a computer skill test and document verification.

To know how to register for this exam, read SSC CGL Registration here.

Exam Tier	Description
I	Computer-based examination
II	Computer-based examination
III	Descriptive paper, given in Pen and Paper format
IV	Computer proficiency test and document verification

The Tier I exam pattern is shown in the table below. There is a negative marking of 0.5 marks for each wrong answer in Tier I exam.

SSC CGL Tier I Exam Pattern

Subject	Questions	Marks	Duration
General Intelligence Reasoning	25	50	60 mins
General Awareness	25	50	60 mins
Quantitative Aptitude	25	50	60 mins
English Comprehension	25	50	60 mins
Total	100	200	4 hours

Exam pattern for Tier II Exam

Subjects	Questions	Marks	Duration	Paper Validity
Quantitative Ability	100	200	2 hours	Mandatory
English	200	200	2 hours	Mandatory
Statistics	100	200	2 hours	Valid only for candidates who apply for the post of Junior Statistical Officer (JSO)
General Studies (finance and economics)	100	200	2 hours	Valid only for candidates who apply for the post of Assistant Audit Officer or Assistant Accounts Officer

Tier II exam paper’s negative marking scheme

Quantitative Ability	0.50 marks
English	0.25 marks
Statistics	0.50 marks
Finance & Economics	0.50 marks

SSC CGL Syllabus – Tier I Exam Syllabus

SSC CGL Tier I 2020 exam was conducted in the month of March (3-9) 2020. The answer key for Tier I was released on March 15. Candidates are recommended to prepare each topic of the syllabus nicely to excel in the exam.

To know latest updates on SSC, check out official website from time to time.

Sections	Description
General Intelligence & Reasoning	Questions of verbal and non-verbal types
General Awareness	Questions in this section tests the candidate’s general awareness of the historical, political, cultural, social and economical environment around him/her.
Quantitative Aptitude	Questions are designed to test the candidate’s ability of appropriate use of numbers and number sense
English Comprehension	Tests candidate’s English comprehension and writing abilities etc.

SSC CGL Syllabus – Tier II Exam Syllabus

The Tier 2 exam syllabus is mentioned in the table below. For more information, applicants are advised to check the website for detailed syllabus, when released.

Paper	Parts	Description
Quantitative Ability	–	Questions in this section accesses the ability of appropriate use of numbers and number sense
English Language and Comprehension	–	Questions in this section judge the candidate’s understanding and knowledge of English Language.
Statistics	–	Topics include Collection, Classification and Presentation of Statistical Data, Measures of Central Tendency, Measures of Dispersion, Moments, Skewness and Kurtosis,etc.
General Studies – Finance and Economics	A (Finance & Accounts)	Questions on Fundamental Principles and Basic Concepts of Accounting.
	B (Economics & Governance)	Topics to prepare are Comptroller & Auditor General of India – Constitutional provisions, Role and responsibility, Finance Commission-Role and functions, Basic Concept of Economics and Introduction to Microeconomics etc.

SSC CGL Syllabus – Tier III & IV exam

Tier III exam 

1. Candidates will have to attempt subjective/descriptive paper in English or Hindi in pen-and-paper mode. 
2. They need to complete the exam in 60 minutes and the maximum marks that candidates can score in the exam are 100 marks.

Tier IV exam 

It covers data entry skill test (DEST) and computer proficiency test (CPT). Data entry has to be attempted by the candidates who apply for the post of Tax Assistants (Central Excise & Income Tax). The DEST test requires 8000 key depressions per hour whereas CPT test requires computer knowledge. The skill test will be conducted to test the candidate’s ability of typing 2000 words in a duration of 15 minutes. 

Computer proficiency test is conducted for the candidates who apply for the posts of Assistant Section Officer (CSS), Assistant Section Officer (MEA), Assistant Section Officer (AFHQ), Assistant in Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) etc under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Word Processing, Spreadsheet and Generation of Slides are the key modules in the test.

Document verification and physical tests are also carried out. In the document verification step, matriculation certificate, caste certificate, mark sheets of all the three years of graduation, certificate of graduation are required to be presented by the candidates in the given time schedule by SSC.

Physical examinations are required for certain posts like Inspector, Sub Inspector, Central Excise, Examiner, Preventive Officer and Sub Inspector for posting in NIA.

SSC CGL Syllabus – Key Dates

Events of SSC CGL exam 2019 are mentioned below along with their key dates.

Key Dates	Description
22 October 2019	Notification was released on the official website.
22 October 2019 to 25 November 2019	Application form filling dates (on the official website)
27 November 2019 (till 5:00 PM)	Last date for paying SSC CGL application fee of INR 100 in online mode
27 November 2019 (till 5:00 PM)	Last date for generating offline challan for making application fee
29 November 2019 (during working hours)	Last date for making application fee payment through challan
20 February 2020	SSC CGL 2020 admit card released
3 March to 9 March 2020	Tier-I exam was conducted
15 March 2020	Provisional answer key for SSC CGL Tier-I exam was released
16 March to 21 March 2020	Objections against the provisional Tier-I answer key were allowed to be made. Results of Tier I are awaited.
22 June to 25 June 2020	Tier II & III exams are scheduled to be conducted in June. Might get delayed due to COVID 19.

SSC CGL Syllabus – FAQs

Q. What are the posts SSC CGL is conducted for?

SSC CGL is conducted for various Group B and C posts available in the ministries/organisations of the Indian government.

Q. How many vacancies are available through the SSC CGL exam?

10,000 posts are made available every year by SSC for Group B and C posts.

Q. What is the minimum eligibility criteria to apply for the SSC CGL exam?

Graduates are eligible for applying to the SSC CGL government exam.

Q. Is it required to pass the individual tiers to qualify in the SSC CGL exam?

Yes, one has to pass all four tiers of the SSC CGL exam to obtain the required final cut off in the exam and get eligible to be recruited into government posts.

Q. How is the SSC CGL exam held?

The first two tiers of the SSC CGL exam are conducted in the online mode and rest in the offline mode.