How to Prepare for the Quantitative Aptitude Section of SSC CGL for Tier 1 and Tier 2 Exam?

The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) conducts the Combined Graduate Level (CGL) recruitment exam every year for different posts in the Central Government’s ministries and departments. The syllabus of this examination has various segments, an important one being the quantitative aptitude. 

Any candidate who wants to crack the SSC CGL exam must get a good knowledge of the SSC CGL Syllabus. The syllabus and exam pattern will help you in devising a study plan and strategy to qualify the exam. Visit BYJU’S Exam Prep that will assist you in making your quantitative aptitude section stron for the exam through online test series, good quality of notes and pdfs. 

Start with the easy chapters

Easy chapters can be studied and understood quickly. They even help score high marks. Focus on increasing your calculation speed, as this will save time for tougher topics.

Qualifying the SSC CGL is not an easy task. You need to have a strong foundation, consistency  and familiarity with the numbers. You should ensure that you are able to do quick calculations to save time for the other questions of the exam. 

Following are some easy topics that you can study for the exam.

• Simplification: Practice more questions to increase your calculation speed. Learn tricks to help you solve fractions, surds, indices, etc. 
• Interest

• Percentage

• Average

• Ratio and Proportion

• Age-based Problems

Be sure to learn all the formulae thoroughly. After you have an understanding of the core concepts, try using tricks to solve questions faster. Practice all types of questions ranging from easy to difficult.

Move on to chapters with medium difficulty

A little hard work and effort will help you ace these chapters. Following are some topics that you can study for the exam:

• Speed, Time and Distance: Start with the basic formulae and concepts. Then, cover complex parts like the speed of the boat, upstream and downstream, etc.

• Profit and Loss: The main challenge is to understand the concept of successive dealings and partnerships.

• Number Series: There are fixed patterns in the number series question in the form of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square, etc.

• Number System: Problems based on HCF/LCM are important in this chapter.

• Mensuration: Practice questions on square, rectangle, circle, cone, cylinder, etc. by using maths tricks.
• Data Interpretation: Solve questions on bar graphs, pie charts, tables, etc.

Finally, study the difficult chapters

This section will need most of your time and energy, but if you ace this section it will take you ahead in the competition. Following are some topics that you can study for the exam:

• Time and Work: Focus on learning shortcuts for time and work, pipes and cistern. Work and efficiency is a major segment and your focus should be on solving maximum questions on efficiency.
• Mixture Problems: Learn the alligation method to solve this type of question as it will help you increase your speed.

• Algebra: Make linear equations to solve such questions.

• Geometry: Focus on remembering all the theorems such as similarity theorems, tangent theorems, etc. It will help you ace this section. 

• Trigonometry: Practising more questions is the only way to perform well in this chapter.

Important Books for SSC CGL 

Book Name	Author/Publication
Advance Maths	Rakesh Yadav
Magical Book on Quicker Maths	M Tyra
SSC Elementary & Advance Maths	Kiran
NCERT Maths Grade 6 to 12	NCERT
Quantitative Aptitude	Dr. R.S. Aggarwal

Additional tips for SSC CGL Exam

• If you are preparing for the first time, purchase any standard book of mathematics like R.S Aggarwal and start solving it chapter by chapter. After completing the book once, you will gain some confidence in quants.

• After covering core concepts, practice more questions.
• Solve as many mock test papers as you can within the given time limit.

You can also join BYJU’S Exam Prep which provides an online test series for the SSC CGL examination. If you adopt the strategy mentioned above, you should be well-prepared for the exams.