Preparation strategy for CGL exam

Preparation for CGLE

Preparation for this exam is not easy yet not as hard as aspirants think it is.

Success depended on following 4 things:

1. Choice of sources
2. Full length Practices
3. Personalized Strategy, and
4. Constant Motivation.

1. Choice of Sources

You don't have to fill cupboards with books just to have a feel that you are going to compete. Restrict the number of books you use to less than 4. You may also have some more books but treat them as mere reference books. You don't have to
finish all the books from start to finish. Find out how they can help you the best by reading them or asking for reviews on the internet. I will recommend some of the books I fee are useful

1. Quantitative Ability by Arun Sharma: Remember that this is a CAT book. I recommend you to read the theories of topics relevant to CGLE. This will be helpful for concept builder and reference. Solve only limited problems from this book.

OR

1. Quantilative Ability by R S Agarwal: This is also a good book and can be used as an alternative to the above book. It also has exhaustive and useless number of problems. Please don't get lost into it.
2. Verbal Ability: I can't help you much on English. It is one of my weak point. Though, I made up for English by reading Newspapers and Magazines in Office, it was still not enough to correct my Grammar. You can Try Wren & Martin for this. There is no better book on Verbal Ability.
3. Non-Verbal Reasoning by R S Agarwal: A separate book is not required for this but it is your choice. You can purchase this book if you are weak in Reasoning.
4. Sample Papers Book: This book is your most important resource for the exam. It gives you an understanding of the previous year papers and to test your strengths and weaknesses. You can buy either by Kiran Prakashan or by Upkar Prakashan. Use it everyday.
5. Others: Apart from this have a yearbook, a monthly magazine and if possible read newspaper daily. If you are finding it difficult to kill time you can try reading NCERTs as well. :)

2. Full Length Practices

A good practice is as much necessary for a champion as a good diet is. Test your understanding with timed tests. Start with topicwise tests and build your stamina. Then you can go for a full length test once in a fortnight. It is very important to keep note of time while practicing the test. Evaluate yourself with negative marking and classify your mistakes as silly and genuine.

Take lessons from these tests that you will eradicate chances for silly mistakes and try to skip the topics in which you are genuinely weak. It may be difficult to attempt more than 80% of the questions in the given time but try to make sure you read all the questions and attempt only the ones which you find easier and solvable. Timely practices give you confidence about your preparation as well as provide food for thought.

3. Personalized Strategy

It is common knowledge that every body has his strengths and weaknesses. For competitive exams it is very important to understand your plus and minus points. While working on strengths gives us confidence, improving our weak points may become a big pain. It is not useful to worry about the cut-offs before the exams. It is fine to have the previous years' data but predicting the current years' cut-off will only lead to the wastage of time. Let us now come to the exact strategy.

	Prelim Marks	Prelim Weightage	Mains Marks	Mains Weightage	Total Weightage
Arithmetic	50	25%	200	50%	41.7%
Verbal	50	25%	200	50%	41.7%
Reasoning	50	25%	0	0%	8.33%
General Awareness	50	25%	0	0%	8.33%

Source: Gurpreet Seehra

Understand that you need to crack both the Prelim and Mains in this attempt to get a job. If you see the exam pattern, you will know that the weightage is tilted towards Verbal Ability and Arithmetic. Remember:

1. There will be little time to prepare for Mains separately. You will waste time expecting for the Prelim result to be out before opening books for Mains.
2. Mains carries 400 marks while Prelim carries only 200 marks. Mains has only Arithmetic and Verbal Ability.

Keeping these 2 things in mind you will be able to make the most of your time. When your Prelim preparation is in line with your mains preparation you will gain three times more. The above chart outline these facts. Total weightage of Reasoning and General Awareness combined is less that 20%. This does not mean that you can ignore your weak subjects and risk clearing the cut-offs. I just want you to take home the following points.

1. Keep in mind that Verbal Ability and Arithmetic will be useful for Mains as well. They are majority subjects, therefore, devote more time on them.
2. General Awareness requires a lot of time and may give you sleepless nights because it is very difficult to understand how much is enough. Sit down and tell yourself that getting above 30-35 in GA will not be a realistic goal howsoever you study. Getting 15-20 marks is sufficient in it if you can utilize your precious time in other more measurable subjects.
3. Don't ignore your weaknesses even if they are minority subjects, they may let you down. Give at least 25% of your time to your weakest subject if it is a minority subject and 50% if it is majority subject.

4. Constant Motivation

This is more of psychology than guidance. If you want to get the CGLE jobs you will remain motivated to work for it. There may be sometimes when we tend to lose sight of out goals. In those times used to remember the prestige, security, benefits, peace, etc. associated with the government job to keep motivated.