SSC CGL 2016 exam analysis: Paper easy but server slow, say candidates

The question paper had four parts: Quantitative Aptitude (Maths), Reasoning (general intelligence), English Language and General Knowledge (GK).

Most of the students felt that exam was easy but the server for the online exam was slow leading to lots of time getting wasted in the questions being loaded to their computer.

One candidate, Praveen Singhal, said, “A lot of time was spared for each section. GS was a bit tough compared to other sections. Otherwise, overall it was an easy paper. I did not expected this level paper for the graduate level exam.”

Another candidate, Anand Singh, said that the difficulty level of the GK and English sections was moderate. “The English section had one synonym, one antonym, one spelling and passage normal question. The Maths paper was also moderate with about five bar/chart questions,” he said, adding that the software was a little slow which took a bit of time to load the next question.

Ajay Dahiya, an SSC CGL aspirant who gave the exam this morning, said that the polity, economics and science papers were well proportioned. “Almost 30 per cent questions in Maths and GK were repeated (from previous years) but the English paper was totally different,” he said.

Read: SSC CGL exam 2016: Tips for last day preparation

Sharing student feedback, Abhishek Kalra from Vidya Guru Institute said, “Each of the four sections of the exam had 25 questions. The Tier – I exam is not very difficult and its main purpose is to shortlist candidates for the main exam only, hence it is very manageable.”

He said that candidates need to attempt at least 70 to 80 questions with an accuracy of 75 per cent if they expect to be shortlisted for the mains.

“The English and the Maths sections are pretty doable. Candidates should attempt 18 to 20 questions. Most candidates attempt at least 20 questions. The same goes for the Reasoning section,” he said.

Abhishek felt that the GK (including current affairs) section could be a little tricky. “The syllabus is vast, touching almost everything. So, an average candidate is able to attempt about 12-15 questions,” he said.

Throwing light on what will the SSC CGL Tier – I exam be like in the coming days, Abhishek said that since this is the first time that the exam has been taken online, it is not expected to be complicated.

“The difficulty level is not expected in the pre-round. The level of toughness will rise with the mains exam. Many questions from previous years are repeated. Candidates said that idioms, phrases and one word substitutions (in the English paper, as well as many GK questions were repeated, so old questions can be expected. Candidates should revise previous years’ paper,” he said.

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“The exam pattern changed this year. Earlier there were 200 questions to attempt in 120 minutes. This year it was 100 questions in a 75 minutes exam. Students had a lot of anxiety around the change in pattern but the overall difficulty level remained the same,” said Shekhar Rajput, SSC Community Manager, Gradeup, a community based mobile education platform.

“Most questions were expected as they followed the previous years’ pattern. A lot of the questions were repeated. People thought the questions would change since the examination was made computer based but none of that happened. In fact, students had more time as there were 75 minutes for 100 questions which is an improvement from previous years,” he said.

Read: How to crack SSC CGL 2016 in 30 days

Talking about what kind of cut-offs can be expected this year for the exam, Rajput said, “Since the candidates had more time and the number of questions were less, they were expected to solve more questions. Because this was a shorter exam, the overall cutoff may be higher than what it was last year.”

For more information on SSC CGL 2016, click here