Staff Selection Commission (SSC) conducts the SSC JE exam every year to recruit Junior Engineers in various engineering jobs available in the Group-B posts (non-gazetted posts) of the government administration. This exam aims to recruit engineers in the branches of Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Quantity Surveying & Contracts. The exam is conducted on an All India level. Anyone who is a citizen of India and meets the eligibility criteria of this exam can fill the exam form, irrespective of his location.
SSC JE Available Job Posts
Many engineers are recruited for the Junior Engineer positions each year through this exam. If you earn good merit in this exam, you can get recruited on one of the following job designations depending on your choice of engineering stream:
SSC JE Exam Pattern
The exam pattern of SSC is straightforward. It is, in fact, easier than most competitive exams.
SSC JE exam is conducted in two parts — Paper 1 and Paper 2
The General Awareness section is only included in the first paper of SSC JEE.
SSC JE PAPER 1
PAPER 1 is usually conducted through the online mode.
It is an objective type paper consisting of MCQ questions. The maximum marks for this exam is 200. You will get 2 hrs to finish this paper.
This paper is further divided into the following sections:
- General Intelligence and Reasoning (50 questions)
- General Awareness (50 questions)
- General Engineering (100 questions)
For every correct answer, you are awarded one mark, whereas there will be a negative marking of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer.
You will be eligible for Paper 2 only if you clear Paper 1.
SSC JE PAPER 2
PAPER 2 is to be conducted offline at the exam centre designated to you by the exam board.
It is a subjective paper with 2 hrs of total duration and maximum marks as 300. The paper is based on the subjects of the candidate’s choices.
SSC JE Syllabus for General Awareness Section
The general awareness section in the SSC JE exam consists of 50 questions related to the following main topics:
- Indian History
- Indian Polity
- Geography
- Indian Economy
- Science (Physics, Chemistry, and Biology)
- Miscellaneous
Usually, 5 to 6 questions will be asked from each of the topics mentioned above. Hence, a general study of all these topics is required.
Suggested Books for SSC JE General Awareness Preparation
For the preparation of the general awareness section of the SSC JE exam, you can refer to these standard books as reliable study material:
- General Knowledge Manual by Pearson
- Objective General Knowledge by S. Chand
- Mechanical Objective R. K Jain
- Reasoning by Disha
- General Knowledge by Lucent
- Static General Knowledge by Arihant Publications
Tips for Preparation of SSC JE General Awareness Section
If you are unsure about how to prepare for the general awareness section on your own, here are some tips that would help you to prepare for the same:
Limit your resources
Since the general awareness section carries only 50 marks, you should make sure that you do not spend too much time preparing this section alone. It would help if you paced your time while studying, and hence, it would be best to limit your study material and control the time you spend on studying general awareness and solving General Science MCQ. Do not compromise on other sections, and do not take your preparation lightly.
Use Highlighters
While studying from your textbooks and study material, study actively by marking the important events, places, dates, names, facts and figures. Use different colours of highlighters, sticky notes, and underline, circle mark whatever you need to memorise. This will make your study sessions more effective and help you during your revisions.
Revise thoroughly
You cannot expect your mind to recall everything you have read-only once in your life. Hence, make sure you revise multiple times all the important topics from your study material. Do not focus on finishing the syllabus; rather, focus on making whatever you have prepared stronger. Revision is the key to better memorisation and quick recalling. You can also prepare GK Question and General Science Questions in Hindi and English, both languages, to make your preparation stronger.
Previous Years’ Question Papers
If you are not sure what and how to study, going through the past years’ question papers would help you greatly. You can get an idea of the important topics that are being repeated every year, the type of questions that are being asked, and the depth of each topic that you would need to delve into. You can also solve the same question papers once you have prepared a certain percentage of the syllabus of General Awareness.
Mock Tests and Quizzes
To practise some questions for this paper, you can solve as many mock tests and quizzes as you can. Such mock tests are easily available online and offline through various sources. There are also several apps that would give you different questionnaires and quizzes about topics such as India GK in Hindi and English to solve each day. Solving at least one long-form quiz weekly would help you supplement your general awareness preparation greatly.
Prepare Regional GK
A very important topic that most students skip or simply prepare to forget while studying for the General Awareness Section is their own regional GK. For example, if you are from Rajasthan, you should prepare Rajasthan GK in Hindi or English, whichever your preferred language is, and so on.
