By Mithila Kotibhaskar, Mumbai: Every year, lakhs of CGL aspirants appear for SSC exam and only thousands can pass it with flying colors. One of the major reasons being the cut-throat competition.

SSC CGL Exam Online applications mostly closes in 1st week of June, which is why it’s time for the aspirants to hit the books. Preparing for the competitive exams from (physical) books is a method of the old school, especially when Online Coaching is a bandwagon.

Surely, Internet is a formidable tool for learning, but with a  large influx of learning opportunities, it may become difficult for the aspirants to trust the resources or study materials freely available on the Internet.

This is when reputed coaching institutes in the education sector come handy. These educational institutions offer classroom training, study material, mock tests, quizzes, etc.

Below are a few factors to consider before joining any paid course for SSC CGL:

1. Go through the course syllabus and cross check whether they cover a ground after comparing it with the syllabus from the official website
2. Ask for a demo lecture
3. Enquire about the qualifications of the staff
4. Watch other resources from the institute like blog or videos to assess the quality of the content
5. Look for the ex-student testimonials
6. Take online mock tests to get an idea of the difficulty level of the questions

SSC CGL Online coaching is definitely useful for the aspirants to easily crack the exam.

It has many benefits which are listed below:

1. Aspirants get the syllabus curated according to the official standards (in this case, CGL’s official website)
2. Faculty provides the tips and tricks which would make the concepts as easy as ABC
3. As opposed to the self-study, the aspirants feel a competitive environment since there are a number of other aspirants
4. The aspirants are provided with a proper day-wise schedule (30 to 40 days)
5. One-to-one doubt clearing sessions are held be the faculty
6. Aspirants are made aware about the exam pattern
7. Some of the mock tests tools might give the analytics which helps to understand the strong/weak points
8. Regular mock tests are held by the coaching institute to get the aspirants the feel of real exam.

Before I walk through the exam related tips, keeping the below things in mind is a prerequisite:

• Never lose hope
• Keep yourself motivated
• Be consistent
• Be focussed on your goal

Let me ask you one question. How do you think any XYZ software (for e.g. say any game on the Play Store) is developed? Or How is a house made? Or How is the road constructed?

Well, these questions may sound a little odd to you because you may think that they’re no way related.

I would say, they are related by one common aspect –  a plan. A Software Architect prepares a plan to develop a software, an architect creates a plan before the construction work begins.

Similarly, to crack any competitive exam, it’s necessary to create a proper study plan before preparation. To create a plan, the aspirants should know the syllabus and exam pattern.

Generally, the aspirants would follow these steps to prepare for the exam within short span of time:

1. Thoroughly know the exam pattern and syllabus
2. Analyse the topics from each subject and know which subjects they already know
3. Prepare the study plan by prioritizing and categorizing the most important and least important topics

The below tips would help you crack the exam in one month:

1. Make a day-wise plan – (Similar to the below table)

• You can also make a topic-wise plan for the day. You can use this template and make your own plan:

The aspirants can customize the above time-table as per their requirements.

2. Practice subject-wise unlimited online test series by downloading SSC CGL Testbook app.
3. Don’t neglect the ‘General Awareness’ section. You can keep yourself updated with the latest happenings by downloading the ‘Current Affairs’ app.  

Wishing you all the success! Happy learning!