SSC (Staff Selection Commission) recruits thousands of aspirants in various Departments and Ministries under the Government of India through SSC CGL, SSC CHSL, SSC CPO, SSC GD, and other Exams. We expect that you’ve been working hard to crack the SSC Exams. With the exam going all around the year in the SSC, it is a good opportunity for the aspirants to crack the exams and get a good job.
To obtain a top score overall in the exam, you need to focus on every section, especially English.
Students face difficulty in English Comprehension/Language, as the syllabus is vast, and the paper pattern has a lot of variation.
If you're looking for a focused learning plan and strategy to clear the SSC English Exam, you are at the right place. Here at Eduncle, we’ll provide you with the necessary tips and strategies for every type of question for SSC English Exams.
SSC English Section Paper Pattern
SSC English Section Important Topics
Pattern of English Section for SSC Exams
The exam pattern is the most important thing in SSC Exams as each exam has a different weightage for all the sections including the English Language. Here, we are discussing the exam pattern and the topic-wise weightage for the SSC English Section for SSC CGL, CHSL, CPO, and GD Exams.
English language for SSC CGL Exam
In SSC CGL Tier 1 Exam, there are 25 questions from the English Language Section.
The Topic wise breakup of the questions for the previous years is given below:
In SSC CGL Tier 2 Exam, there are 200 questions in the Paper 2 of English Language and Comprehension.
| SSC CGL English Topics |
No. of Questions |
| Reading Comprehensions |
30 |
| Para jumble |
20 |
| Idiom and Phrases |
15 |
| Cloze Test |
25 |
| One Word Substitution |
10 |
| Direct/Indirect Speech |
25 |
| Sentence Improvement |
10 |
| Fill in the Blanks |
10 |
| Correct Spelling |
4 |
| Synonym/Antonym |
6 |
| Error Spotting |
20 |
| Active Passive Voice |
25 |
Check here - SSC CGL Exam Pattern.
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English Language for SSC CHSL Exam
The weightage of the English Section in the SSC CHSL Exam is 50 marks having 25 questions. The negative marking in the exam 0.50 marks. The topic wise analysis of the SSC CHSL English section is as below:
| Topics |
Number of Questions |
| Fill in the blanks |
2 |
| Synonym/Antonym |
2 |
| Idioms/Phrases |
2 |
| One Word Substitution |
2 |
| Spotting Error |
3 |
| Sentence Correction |
3 |
| Reading Comprehension |
5 |
| Cloze Test |
5 |
| Spelling Mistakes |
1 |
Check here - SSC CHSL Exam Pattern
English Language for SSC CPO Exam
The weightage of the English Section in the SSC CPO Exam is 50 marks having 50 questions. The negative marking in the exam is 0.25 marks for the SSC CPO Exam.
The topic-wise analysis of the SSC CPO English Section is as below:
| Topics |
Number of Questions |
| Reading Comprehension |
10 |
| Cloze Test |
5 |
| Error Spotting |
5 |
| Sentence Improvement |
10 |
| Synonym/Antonym |
6 |
| Spelling Mistakes |
5 |
| Idioms and Phrases |
5 |
| One Word Substitution |
3 |
- Check here - SSC CPO Exam Pattern
English Language for SSC GD Constable Exam
The weightage of the English Section in the SSC GD Exam is 25 marks having 25 questions. The topic wise analysis of the SSC GD English Section is as below:
| Topics |
Number of Questions |
| Reading Comprehension |
5 |
| Direct/Indirect Speech |
3 |
| Common Error |
2 |
| One Word Substitution |
3 |
| Synonym/Antonym |
4 |
| Idioms and Phrases |
2 |
| Sentence Arrangements |
1 |
| Sentence Correction |
2 |
Check here - SSC GD Exam Pattern
Important Topics from SSC English Syllabus
There are some common topics which appear regularly in the SSC English Section in SSC CGL, CHSL, CPO and GD Exams. Below are some important topics, which will help the aspirants in preparing well for the SSC English Section. You can prepare them to score well in the SSC Exams.
Synonym/Antonym
The SSC English Vocabulary is quite vast and there are many words which you have to learn. It become quite impossible to learn all the words. Hence the best method to improve your vocabulary is reading English Books, Newspapers, Novels, Magazines etc. Focus more on new words and learn their meaning. Revise the words you learnt on previous day.
Reading Comprehension
Identify the tone of the paragraph, it helps in answering the questions very quickly.
Practicing more and more passages will improve your speed to identify the answers quickly.
You can follow the basic steps to solve the reading comprehensions as below:
Step 1: Understand the essence and language of the passage.
Step 2: Read questions based on that passage so that you know which points you need to focus on.
Step 3: Read first and last para twice.
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Error Detection
Questions asked in this topic are doable and must be attempted as they take less time.
Some common mistakes which candidates do in this topic are as below:
'No sooner' is followed by 'than'.
More than one indicates a plural sense, but it is treated as a group of one.
Example: More than one employee was killed in the accident.
'Unless' expresses a condition and is always used in the negative sense. Thus 'not' is never used with 'unless'.
Example: Unless you work hard, you will not excel in the examination.
The preposition "off" denotes "separation", "at a distance from" or "far from" whereas the preposition "of" denotes cause, origin, quality, possession.
Example: He put off his coat.
Idioms and Phrases
The common question which was asked in the SSC Exams are Idioms and Phrases. The topic usually has good weightage in the exam, so prepare them well. There are some basic examples for the Idioms and Phrases, which are given below:
Under the cloud - Under a suspicion
Flogging a dead horse - wasting time in useless efforts
Look Down up - Hate intensely
Hard to hearing - Somewhat deaf
Spelling Mistake
This is the one of the simplest things which we have learnt from our childhood. There are some simple rules to solve question from Spelling Mistakes Section. So, have a look at some of these rules to solve these questions for the SSC English Section.
Silent "E" is usually kept before a suffix beginning with a constant.
Example: Care + Less= careless.
Silent "E" at the end of a word is usually dropped before a suffix beginning with a vowel.
Example: Dine + ing= Dining.
Consonant "L" is doubled in the words ending in the single Vowel + "L" before a suffix beginning with a Vowel.
Example: Repel + ent= Repellent.
Para Jumbles
Questions from this section can be asked in the form of various sentences and various paragraphs. You have to arrange the sentences into the meaningful paragraph or sentence. Anyone can score full marks in this section if he/she is not a good reader. You just have to arrange the paragraph according to the grammar and idea flow.
Active - Passive
Here are some rules for active passive voice.
Simple Present
Active voice: Subject+V1+Object
Passive voice: Object+ is/am/are+V3+Subject
Present Continuous
Active voice: Subject +is/am/are+V1+ing+Object
Passive Voice: Object +is/am/are+being+V3+by+Subject
Present Prefect
Active voice: Subject +has/have+V3+Object
Passive Voice: Object+ has/have+been+V3+by+Subject
Simple Past
Active Voice: Subject+V2+Object
Passive Voice: Object+ was/were+V3+by+Subject
Past Continuous
Active Voice: Subject +was/were+V1+ing+Object
Passive Voice: Object+ was/were+being+V3+by+Subject
Past Perfect
Active Voice: Subject+ had+V3+Object
Passive Voice: Object+ had+ been+V3+by+Subject
Simple Future
Active Voice: Subject+ Will/Shall+V1+Object
Passive Voice: Object +Will/Shall+Be+V3+By+Subject
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Direct/Indirect Speech
| Direct |
Indirect |
| Present Indefinite (write) |
Past Indefinite (wrote) |
| Present Continuous (is writing) |
Past Continuous (was writing) |
| Present Perfect (has written) |
Past Perfect (had written) |
| Present Continuous (has been writing) |
Past Perfect Continuous (had been writing) |
| Past Indefinite (wrote) |
Past Perfect (had written) |
| Past Continuous (was writing) |
Past Perfect Continuous (Had been writing) |
| Past Perfect (had written) |
No Change |
| Past Perfect Continuous |
No Change |
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Best SSC English Books
The books in the SSC Exams play an important role to ease your preparation. You just need to focus on consistency in solving these books. The important SSC English Books are given below:
| S.No. |
SSC English Books Names |
Author Names |
| 1. |
Quick learning Objective General English |
RS Aggarwal & Vikas Aggarwal |
| 2. |
Perfect Competitive English |
V.K. Sinha |
| 3. |
Competitive General English |
Kiran Prakashan |
| 4. |
Word Power Made Easy |
Norman Lewis |
| 5. |
Objective General English |
S P Bakshi |
SSC English Preparation Tips
There are many candidates, who are more comfortable with Reasoning and Quant sections, but English is the most avoided section in SSC Exams. English Section preparation also depends on the educational background. For some it may be easy but for others it may be traumatic.
English is not the subject, which you can master in a day. Consistency is the key to prepare for English in SSC Exams. If you are well prepared, you can score well in English as compared to Reasoning and Quant Section in relatively less time.
Read newspapers and magazines to improve your reading habits.
Learn at least 10 new English words and meanings daily.
Solve previous year papers as there are many questions, which are repeated.
Read the questions carefully and check what is being asked.
Use method of elimination in confusing options and try to get answers by it.
Give mock tests as you will come across many questions with the help of the mock tests.
Analyze the tests you gave and note down the mistakes in separate notebook.
Practice quizzes on the different topics.
Don't waste much time on one question and move onto the next if you are not sure about the correct answer.
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Suggested Reads:
SSC General Intelligence and Reasoning
English Language in SSC Exams is of the elementary type. So, practice more and more to crack the SSC Exams. Study daily and revise the topics regularly.
If you have any doubt regarding this article, you can freely post your queries in the comment section. We are here to help you.
Thank You!!
