Every year, Staff Selection Commission conducts the SSC CGL Exam. So, if you are appearing in the exam for the first time then you must take care of some common mistakes made by the SSC CGL aspirants at the time of preparation as well as attempting the paper.
If you repeat the mistakes in the exam, you may not be able to clear the exam. Candidates often face stress and pressure at the time of SSC CGL Exam and make some common mistakes from which they lose their marks and couldn’t pass in SSC CGL.
To help you in understanding the mistakes made by the other SSC CGL aspirants, we have listed out the all the frequent mistakes in the exam. You must avoid these mistakes which are given below to score higher marks in the exam.
List of Common Mistakes to Avoid in SSC CGL Exam
Check out the list of common mistakes that candidates makes during the SSC CGL preparation. You should keep these mistakes in mind and make sure that you do not repeat the same mistakes during preparation.
1. Not Understanding the Complete Exam Pattern and Syllabus
When aspirants start preparing for SSC CGL Exam, first they must know about the exam pattern and syllabus. Most of the candidates prepare for the exam by joining coaching institutes but they don’t analyze the exam pattern and syllabus. They prepare only those topics which are covered by the institutes.
Therefore, you must analyze SSC CGL Exam Pattern and Syllabus to make a perfect preparation plan.
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2. Preparing for Various Exams at the Same Time
Many SSC CGL aspirants prepare for multiple exams like IBPS, SBI, RRB and other exams following the mindset that they cover similar topics.
But, each exam has a different pattern, syllabus, and level of questions. Some of the competitive exams are more analytical, some are concept-oriented, and some are practice-oriented and are conducted in multiple tiers.
So, keeping in mind the variance in the level of all the exams, you should not opt to prepare for all of them. You will get better results if you prepare for SSC CGL exam with complete concentration.
3. Use Many Books and Sources for Exam Preparation
Some of the students refer too many books and sources for SSC CGL Preparation, which is not a wise strategy. The number of sources can confuse you because every source has its own language, difficulties, and methods of solving the questions.
This will result you wasting your time in comparing these methods and at the time of exam, you will not be able to find out the shortest way to get the answers.
Therefore, aspirants are advised to perform proper research and select a good reference book/online platform and refer the same for preparation.
4. Ignoring the Technical Features of the Exam
Most of the candidates ignore the technical aspects of the online exam system. They always practice on pen and paper with books. It can help you to clear the concepts and improving your speed but it creates difficulty when you face the online mode examination.
Candidates could not understand the online mode of CGL Exam if they are appearing for the first time. So, students must practice the online mock test and solve the sample papers through online mode to get the experience of online mode of exam.
5. Not Making the Strategy Plan
Candidates should make a perfect strategy and study schedule to crack the SSC CGL Exam. Perfect planning and strategy will help you to save your time and cover all the topics.
As you have a few days remaining for the preparation, you should add the practice of sample papers and previous years’ papers in your daily SSC CGL Study Plan. You should list out all the important topics based on their weightage and prepare them to score more in the exam.
6. Not Reading the Questions Properly
Candidates don’t read the questions given in the SSC CGL exam carefully which results in wasting their valuable time. If you don’t read the question properly in the first reading, you can’t get the answer easily. When they don’t get the answer in the first attempt, they read the question again and try another attempt.
Therefore, to avoid repeated reading and attempts, you must read the questions carefully. While reading you can also underline the important words to keep yourself on track.
7. Not Giving Importance to All Subjects
Students usually focus only on their strong areas, which is the biggest mistake because each subject has its importance and carries equal marks and can be potentially very scoring. If candidates will not focus on their weak areas, they can’t clear the exam.
So, you must make sure that you give an equal amount of time for preparing SSC CGL important topics under all the sections.
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8. Not Preparing Short Notes
Candidates sometimes start their preparation for the exam without making proper short notes. In the absence of proper notes, they are unable to revise the important topic in the last days of the exam and due to this mistake, they have to revise the entire syllabus.
Some subjects always need to revise regularly like General Studies. It is important to make short notes so that you can easily revise the topics before the exam.
9. Avoiding Proper Time Management During the Exam
Many candidates don’t make any strategy to manage their time in the exam hall and misuse a lot of time in the single section.
Candidates should always manage their time in examination hall by dividing proper time slots to all sections. You should not spend more time on a single question if you are not getting the answer on the very first try.
To learn the time management in SSC CGL exam you must solve SSC CGL previous year papers and mock tests.
10. Starting with the Toughest Questions in the Exam
Candidates sometimes leave the easy question for last time and start with the difficult questions, which is not always a good idea because you may not get the correct answer and waste lot of time in solving them. The chances are there that you may have to suffer through the negative marking.
You should develop the ability to find the easiest and toughest questions in the exam. The examiner sets some tough questions just to examine your intelligence to differentiate the time-consuming questions.
If you start with the easier one, then you can easily get more marks. So, candidates should always start solving the easier questions which they can understand easily.
Apart from these mistakes, the stress and pressure of the exam can lead the candidates to make a few more silly mistakes. You can read them as given below: -
(i) Concentrate Only on Short Tricks for Every Type of Questions
Students learn short tricks/ method to increase their speed for solving a question so that they can easily save their time and attempt all questions in the exam.
But you should also study the topics thoroughly to avoid confusion in case you find some variations in the questions. Short tricks should be practised after studying the topics completely.
(ii) Making Cut-Off as Target
This is also considered as the biggest mistakes by SSC CGL Aspirants. Aspirants usually make the previous year SSC CGL cutoffs their target to attempt questions in the exam. They attempt questions just for touching the cutoffs, which result them with bad scores. The reason is that every year the competition is getting higher and so the cutoffs are.
The merit list of final qualifies candidates are made based on the highest scored marks. So, try to score more in SSC CGL Exam without relying on the previous cutoffs.
(iii) Habitual to Last Minute Reading
Many students believe in last-minute reading but this strategy never helped anyone. It always creates a hurricane of confusion. It is advised by the experts that you should not study the last light and on the day of the exam to relax your mind.
So, candidates should avoid last-minute reading and stay confident about their preparation. You can revise important formulae at the end.
(iv) Leaving the Exam Room Before Time
Some aspirants leave the exam hall early if they finish it before time. They don’t check the mistakes in their answer and leave the exam hall. Once you leave the exam room, then you can’t go back in for something you thought of including in hindsight.
You should check all the answers if you have extra time in the examination hall to make sure that all your answers are correct.
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(v) Not Writing an Essay Plan
In SSC CGL Tier 3 paper, you have to write essays. If you write an essay plan before you begin, then the risk of losing your points will be less. Candidates should pre-plan a structure for an essay to save their time.
Here’s an example of what an essay plan could look like:
A. Introduction
B. Body
C. Conclusion
You must take care of the following:
1. Reading questions/planning
2. Timings
3. Checking spellings/grammar
You can make a plan according to these points as it provides a rough structure to write an essay.
(vi) A Lot of Mistakes in Spelling and Grammar
In SSC CGL Exam, a level of marking scheme generally includes a few marks for good spelling and grammar. If your answer paper has many spelling and grammar mistakes, then you may miss a few easy marks.
If you have finished your exam and have extra time at the end of the exam, then you should check your essay to ensure that your grammar and spellings are correct.
Avoid these common mistakes by SSC CGL aspirants as described above in this article and you will be able to gain more marks in SSC CGL Exam. If you feel that this article helped you in finding the mistakes that you could make in the exam, then please share it with your friends.
If you are facing or have faced any other problems while preparing or taking the exam, kindly share your experiences with us in the comment section below.
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