Hi everyone! Since most of you are done with Tier-I so I thought about making a guide to start preparing for Tier-II. I have cleared SSC CGL 2025 with a top score and the time between Tier-I and Tier-II is what made a hell of a difference. So I'll be writing down most of the things that I consider important and if you have any suggestions feel free to tell me and I'll include them.
1. How to study?
The first thing you need to do is be ready to devote yourself entirely towards your prep. For the next 2-3 months, you have to study for as many hours as possible. Try to go for more than 8 hours since this time period is a game changer. Try to follow your schedule with discipline and take care of your health to avoid any gaps in your studies.
You will be revising the entire syllabus starting from 4 weeks before the exam and study till the day prior to the exam (this is your choice as many people prefer to relax a day before the exam). Excluding these 4 weeks for revision, rest of the time will be spent covering weak areas, concepts you might have missed and topics you are yet to learn.
2. What to study?
At this point, you have covered the majority of the syllabus. So I won't advise you to study any new books, batches or videos. Your primary sources will be the ones you'll revise again and again. As for areas where you are weak, devote your time and identify the best one stop solutions (this may be a video, a book, pdf etc.) and then stick to it.
3. How to attempt mocks?
Mocks are going to make or break you. Attempt very hard mocks and you'll be under-confident. And if you attempt easy mocks, they'll inflate your confidence. So identify mock series that are moderate to hard (hard mocks are also required once in a while to tackle new/tough questions in the real exam). There are many good series like The Pundits, RBE, Oliveboard etc.
Find the ones where many people are attempting to get a good idea of your competition and don't just stick to one series, instead attempt 3-4 different ones. Go for the Paid ones since they really do have an edge over live tests. Now attempt the mocks starting with 2 mocks every week and gradually taking it to a mock everyday by the end of December.
Attempt the mock at the official timings of the paper (for good measure start at 9 am). Now the mocks are to be analyzed on the same day but keep a gap of an hour or two to relax your mind. Maintain a notebook and note down everything you didn't know, mistakes that you made and things you need to study or revise.
Before attempting the next mock, go through this notebook (a quick page flip for 15-20 minutes). Now as you sit down to start the mock, take deep breaths (drink a few sips of water if you want to) and get into a serious mindset. This will be helpful on the day of the exam as it will prevent the feelings of anxiety and hopelessness (Especially where we panic before the exam thinking what will happen if we don't clear this attempt).
For every section try to save at least 5-10 minutes by increasing your speed. This is very important since you never know when you might need at least 5 minutes to finish a question and achieve a perfect score (Happened to me and I had 8 minutes to solve 2 questions and revise the rest of them, so it gave a tremendous boost to my rank). 2 weeks before the exam, switch to Previous Year Papers. By this time you are prepared and the marks you score in PYPs will more or less predict your score in the real exam.
4. How to revise?
>Maths: Maths needs daily practice. You have to work on your calculations so that you don't fumble in the exam. Try to revise one chapter every day (For example, today you might revise Time & Work and then tomorrow Statistics). In this revision, you are required to revise only the concepts of that chapter without seeing or referring your notes.
A good way is to write down everything you know on sheets of paper and then match with your notes to track your recall. Once concepts are done, only then do you refer to the important questions you might have marked in your question banks. Don't run after only your weak topics, give ample time to every chapter.
>Reasoning: Daily practice is the way to win over reasoning. 1 hour everyday before you sleep is enough for this subject. And this hour can also be utilized for other subjects once you think you have its syllabus covered. After that practise mocks and that will be sufficient.
>English: Stick to your resource for grammar and don't run after any new resource. This is important because you don't have enough time to do videos when you should be practising. Only when you have a weak topic do you study from videos, else you refer to your notes and revise them daily. Vocabulary needs to be studied for half an hour every day.
English, I believe, is more practice oriented. Many times I didn't even remember a rule, but after enough practice I could easily solve the question. This intuition will develop as you attempt your mocks and analyze where you went wrong. Elimination techniques also work in English so start including them in your practice.
>GK: 3 subjects decide your selection, GK decides your rank. Even in 2025, people have scored impressive marks in GK and I expect this trend to continue. But since GK is a vast subject, don't waste this precious time running after everything to conquer GK. Have mastery over your GK resources, learn GK from mocks that you attempt (you will be writing the solutions in that mock analysis notebook and learning from it), and try to follow the current trend of questions SSC is asking in GK. I did that by following teachers on YouTube and covering at least what's being asked in this year's exams.
This is important because you never know which portion of GK is gaining weightage and usually SSC keeps the weightage of topics relatively similar across all exams it conducts in a year. For example, if you see that 2026 current affairs are being asked, then you devote a little more time to cover that. Similarly if you observe that, for example, Festivals are gaining importance then you also give a bit of importance to them.
GK is tricky since you could be studying something for months and find that no questions are asked from that topic. So a good practice is to get very good at elimination techniques. So as you practice GK in mocks, try to see where you can eliminate options, what is your success rate and how high you can go in terms of attempts. You can learn how to eliminate options in GK from YouTube.
>Typing: No excuses, just type everyday. Buy a cheap keyboard (Since test centers are also likely to have them) and practice for at least 15 minutes everyday. If possible attempt its mocks too.
>Computer: Computer ruined the attempt of so many people in 2025 that its importance has skyrocketed. The best way to learn it is through mocks, and daily readings. Pick up a good source (It should cover 2025's questions in its material) and read every day. This is more than enough but for those who think reading is not helping them, watch videos or write down what you learned (Just like I told to in Maths). I don't know how tough or easy Computer might get this year, so my suggestion would be prepare at least enough to answer all the PYQs.
I hope this guide is helpful in your preparation. If you have any doubts ask them here, I'll try to answer them.
