About SSC:
Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is an organization under Government of India to recruit staff for various posts in the various Ministries and Departments of the Government of India and in Subordinate Offices. The Staff Selection Commission was established in 1975.
SSC CHSL Exam
SSC CHSL Exam Staff Selection Commission – Combined Higher Secondary Level Examination, often referred to as SSC CHSL, is conducted every year for the recruitment for various posts under the Government of India. It is a major exam for only 12th pass as the minimum educational qualification. Candidates can apply to get a job in the prestigious government jobs for posts such as Data Entry Operator (DEO), Lower Divisional Clerk (LDC), Court Clerk, Postal Assistant, and Sorting Assistant etc.
Eligibility:
For LDC/ JSA, PA/ SA, DEO (except DEOs in C&AG): The candidates who is planning to appear in CHSL 2021 exam must have passed 12th Standard or equivalent examination from a recognized Board or University.
For Data Entry Operator (DEO) in the Office of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C&AG): 12th Standard pass in Science stream with Mathematics as a subject from a recognized Board or equivalent.
Age Limit:
The age requirements are between 18 to 27 years. The age is calculated as per the beginning of year of exam i.e. for 2021 it should be 1st Jan 2021. This means that the age of the candidate applying for the exam should be between 2nd January 1994 and 1st January 2003.
Exam Fee
There is also a required amount of application fee which needs to be paid for the examination. All women candidates and candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Physically Handicapped, and Ex-Servicemen eligible for reservation are exempted from paying application fee. For Unreserved and OBC – Rs 100.
Vacancies: 4893 vacancies.
SSC CHSL Last Year Vacancy (2019-20)
| Post Name | No. Of Vacancy |
| Lower Division Clerk / Junior Secretariat Assistant | 1269 |
| Postal Assistant / Sorting Assistant | 3598 |
| Data Entry Operator | 26 |
| Total | 4893 |
SSC CHSL Last Year Vacancy (2018-19)
| Post Name | No. Of Vacancy |
| Lower Division Clerk / Junior Secretariat Assistant | 1855 Vacancies |
| Postal Assistant / Sorting Assistant | 3880 Vacancies |
| Data Entry Operator | 54 Vacancies |
Important Dates
| Activity | Dates |
| SSC CHSL Notification | 6th November 2020 |
| SSC CHSL Registration Process | 6th November – 26th December2020 |
| SSC CHSL Tier-1 Admit Card | Jul-21 |
| SSC CHSL Exam Date 2021 (Tier-1) | August 4 to 12, 2021 |
| SSC CHSL Tier-1 Answer Key | Aug-21 |
| SSC CHSL Tier-1 Result | Sep-21 |
Exam Structure of SSC CHSL
The SSC CHSL Selection Process will require you to pass through 3 Tiers in order to be eligible to get appointed in the respective department. The selection process has been briefly mentioned in the table given below:
Tier – I: Objective Computer-Based Test
Tier – II: Descriptive Paper in English/ Hindi (Pen and Paper mode)
Tier – III: Skill Test/ Typing Test wherever Applicable
SSC CHSL Tier-I Exam Pattern:
A. SC CHSL Tier-I Exam Pattern:
SSC will conduct online Test comprising of 4 sections with about a 100 questions in total and with maximum marks of 200. The entire exam is needed to be completed in a time span of 60 minutes. There is a negative marking of 0.50 Marks for each wrong answer. Therefore, it has become imperative for aspirants to perform well in four sections to clear the exam. Clearly this exam requires speed and a very good strike rate. No Blind guesses.
Exam Pattern::
| S.No. | Name of the tests | No. of | Maximum Marks | Time allotted |
| questions | ||||
| 1 | General Intelligence and Reasoning | 25 | 50 | |
| 2 | Quantitative Aptitude | 25 | 50 | |
| 3 | English Comprehension | 25 | 50 | 1 Hour |
| 4 | General Awareness | 25 | 50 | |
| Total | 100 | 200 |
SSC CHSL Tier-II (Descriptive Paper) Exam Pattern:
SSC CHSL Tier-II Paper will be a descriptive Paper of 100 Marks in “Pen and Paper” Mode. The duration of the Descriptive Paper will be for one hour. The Paper would comprise writing of an Essay of 200-250 words and a Letter/ Application of approximately 150- 200 words. The minimum qualifying marks in Tier-II would be 33 per cent.
SSC CHSL Tier 3 (Skill Test/ Typing Test):
SSC CHSL Tier 3 Exam comprises of a couple of skill tests which are required for certain government posts.
Skill Test for Data Entry Operator (DEO):
Data Entry Speed of 8,000 (eight thousand) Key Depressions per hour on Computer. The duration of the Test will be 15 minutes.
Typing Tests for LDC/JSA and Postal Assistant/ Sorting Assistant:
Typing test will be conducted in English or Hindi and candidates while applying for the examination will have to indicate his/her choice for Skill Test Medium in Application Form.
Typing Test will be qualifying in nature.
Candidates opting for English medium should have typing speed of 35 words per minute.
Candidates opting for Hindi medium should have typing speed of 35 words per minute.
The speed will be adjusted on the accuracy of typing on the computer of a given passage in 10 minutes.
Note: After skill test or typing test, those candidates who qualify it, will be appointed based on their position in the merit list.
SSC CHSL Salary: Pay Scale
| Post Name | Pay Scale |
| LDC/ JSA | Pay Band -1 (Rs. 5200-20200), Grade Pay: Rs.1900 (pre-revised) |
| PA/ SA | Pay Band -1 (Rs. 5200-20200), Grade Pay: Rs. 2400 (pre-revised) |
| DEO | Pay Band-1 (Rs. 5200-20200), Grade Pay: Rs. 2400 (pre-revised) |
| DEO Grade ‘A’ | Pay Band-1 (Rs. 5200-20200), Grade Pay: Rs. 2400 (pre-revised) |
SSC CHSL Salary after 7th pay commission
SSC has modified the SSC CHSL Salary Structure for all the Posts after the 7th Pay Commission. SSC CHSL Salary structure after the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission in 2017 is given below:
| Post Name | Basic Pay | HRA | TA | Gross Salary | In Hand | City |
| 25500 | 6120 | 3600 | 35220 | 31045 | X | |
| DEO | 25500 | 4080 | 1800 | 31380 | 27205 | Y |
| 25500 | 2040 | 1800 | 29340 | 25165 | Z | |
| LDC | 19900 | 4776 | 1350 | 26026 | 22411 | X |
| Court Clerk | 19900 | 3184 | 900 | 23984 | 20369 | X |
| PA/SA | 19900 | 1592 | 900 | 22392 | 18777 | X |
SSC CHSL Cut off 2020:
Following is the SSC CHSL Cut Off For the posts of LDC/JSA and PA/SA:
| Category | Cut-off Marks | Candidates Available |
| UR | 159.5244 | 8321* |
| SC | 136.10355 | 7566 |
| ST | 127.32836 | 3557 |
| OBC | 156.10198 | 12380 |
| EWS | 149.98152 | 7074 |
| ESM | 87.32036 | 3987 |
| OH | 124.36599 | 608 |
| HH | 81.0802 | 575 |
| VH | 123.78857 | 535 |
| Other PwD | 74.32943 | 253 |
| Total | 44856 |
Note: No vacancies have been reported for the posts of DEO and DEO Grade ‘A’. Therefore, only 01 cut-off has been fixed by the Commission i.e. for the post of LDC/JSA/PA/SA.
SSC CHSL Previous Year Cut Off Marks For Tier-I: 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018-19
So, one must be aware of the SSC CHSL Previous Years cut off and how it differs over the years in the past 4-5 years. Knowing the previous years’ cut off surely helps in determining the possibility in the future and the extra efforts one needs to put in the exam preparation in order to score well. Take a look at the category wise cut off for SSC CHSL Tier 1 written exam over the years from 2015 to 2019 for the post of LDC/PA etc. The table shows a comparison between SSC CHSL Cut-offs accurately:
Some important points to note down from the above table:
It can be seen that the competition in the CHSL examination is getting stronger year by year. The cut off in 2018 was 135.60 as compared to 159.52 in 2019-20. This shows an increase of 23.9%. The cut off varies according to the category one applied from.
SSC CHSL Tier-I Syllabus
SSC CHSL Tier-I Syllabus comprises of 4 subjects which are: English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, General Intelligence: & General Awareness. The subject wise topics for SSC CHSL 2021 Tier-I exam is given below:
| General Intelligence | Quantitative Aptitude (Basic Arithmetic Skill) | English Language (Basic Knowledge) | General Awareness |
| Logical Reasoning | Simplification | Reading Comprehension | History |
| Alphanumeric Series | Profit & Loss | Cloze Test | Culture |
| Ranking/Direction/Alphabet Test | Mixtures & Allegations | Para jumbles | Geography |
| Data Sufficiency | Simple Interest & Compound Interest & Surds & Indices | Miscellaneous | Economic Scene |
| Coded Inequalities | Work & Time | Fill in the blanks | General Policy |
| Seating Arrangement | Time & Distance | Multiple Meaning/Error Spotting | Scientific Research |
| Puzzle | Menstruation – Cylinder, Cone, Sphere | Paragraph Completion | Awards and Honours |
| Tabulation | Data Interpretation | One Word Substitution | Books and Authors |
| Syllogism | Ratio & Proportion, Percentage | Active/Passive Voice | |
| Blood Relations | Number Systems | ||
| Input Output | Sequence & Series | ||
| Coding Decoding | Permutation, Combination & Probability |
SSC CHSL Tier II Syllabus
| SSC CHSL Tier II Syllabus | |||
| Topics | Word Count | Maximum Marks | Duration |
| Essay Writing | 200-250 | 100 | 60 minutes |
| Letter/Application Writing | 150-200 | 60 minutes | |
As stated above, this paper calls for candidates to write an essay and Letter/Application that tests their writing skills of the candidates. The essay topics will be related to National Interest, Finance & Economy, Ecological Issues, Politics, Social Issues, Schemes & Governance, Sports, Technology, Geopolitics, Environmental Concerns etc. While, the type of letter/ application asked will be Application, Complaint, Suggestion, Official Appreciation, Follow up or Feedback etc.
Here’s all you needed to know about SSC CHSL Exam.
