The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is currently conducting the SSC-CHSL 2015 exam. While the first few slots of the exam already took place on 1st & 15th November and 6th
Let’s first go through the exam pattern, which is as follows:
Section No. of Questions Total Marks
English Language 50 50
Reasoning Ability 50 50
General Awareness 50 50
Quantitative Aptitude 50 50
In the SSC-CHSL exam, there are a total 200 questions worth 200 marks that have to be solved in 2 hours. If we go through this year’s paper thoroughly, we can say that the level of difficulty was moderate.
Topic-wise Analysis:
Let’s discuss
English Language:
Name of the Topic No. of Questions
Antonym-Synonym 08
Cloze Test 10
Para Jumbles 04
Fill in the Blanks 04
Change the voice 02
Direct/Indirect 02
Idioms & Phrases 04
One-word Substitution 04
Spot the Error 04
Spellings 04
Sentence Correction 04
Almost 50% of this section was based on vocabulary questions. Candidates with good command over
Reasoning
Name of the Topic No. of questions
Find Odd one out 09
Analogy 09
Visual Reasoning 05
Statement Conclusion 02
Puzzle 02
Missing Number 03
Age-based Questions 02
Letter-Number Series 06
Word Arrangement 03
Matrix-based Questions 01
Directions 02
Coding -decoding 03
Venn Diagram 01
Word formation 02
This year, SSC placed emphasis on topics such as ‘Find the odd one out’ & ‘Analogy’. The questions asked in this section were easy to moderate in terms of difficulty level. With enough practice, candidates can attempt this section easily.
Quantitative
Name of the topic Number of Questions
DI 09
Trigonometry 05
Mensuration 05
Geometry 05
Algebra 06
Number System 05
Arithmetic 15
There were around 9 questions, in the form of two sets, based on Data Interpretation. These DI sets were based on bar graph & pie chart respectively and the difficulty level was fairly easy. Overall, questions on Geometry, Arithmetic, Mensuration, Algebra & Number System were easy to moderate in terms of difficulty level.
General Awareness :
Name of the topic Number of questions asked
History 07
Polity 04
Economics 04
Geography 05
Biology 07
Physics 02
Chemistry 07
Computers 02
Miscellaneous 12
General Awareness is very important in this exam and is the deciding factor in overall cut-off. This section in the exam was mostly based on static GK and there was greater emphasis on History, Geography, Biology & Chemistry. This year, the difficulty level of the questions based on science-related topics was moderate to difficult. Questions asked on other subjects were also quite easy.
Overall cut-off for Data Entry Operator (DEO):
The expected cut-off of SSC CHSL exam is:
Category Expected cut-off
General 125-130
OBC 116- 120
SC 102-107
ST 95 – 100
Candidates should note that the above mentioned cut-offs may vary in the range of +/- 3. (Further, there is some chance that the cut-offs may be lower than this. However, it is unlikely that the cut-offs would be higher than this.) Also, for LDC, the cut-offs might be fractionally lower than the numbers given above.
Ideal Number of Attempts:
Let us now consider the minimum number of questions that candidates should have attempted to secure their chances of clearing SSC-CHSL exam.
Based on the types of questions and the difficulty level of the test, candidates should have ideally solved around 140 to 145 out of total 200 questions (to be on the safe side). With around 90% accuracy, candidates would then easily cross the overall cut-off. (Do note that fewer attempts would also be sufficient to clear the cut-off, especially if the candidate has ensured higher accuracy.)
Overall, the SSC CHSL exam was of easy to moderate difficulty. Among all the sections, quantitative aptitude was a little tough, but for students with good practice, it was a cake walk.
Best of Luck!!!