SSC MTS EXAM STRATEGY

SCHEME OF EXAM

Multi Tasking Staff (MTS) exam is conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) every year. It consists of one objective written exam of 2 hours of 150 questions of 150 marks and the descriptive exam of 50 marks for 30 minutes.

i) OBJECTIVE PAPER (Online)

It consists of 150 questions of 150 marks to be attempted in 2 hours.

1.	Reasoning	25 questions
2.	General Knowledge	50 questions
3.	Mathematics	25 questions
4.	English	50 questions

ii) DESCRIPTIVE PAPER
Short Essay/Letter in English or any language included in the 8th schedule of the Constitution of 50 marks for 30 minutes. In this paper 5 essays and 5 letters are given, out of which one has to do either the essay or the letter.

 

HOW TO START

Do one question paper of the last year’s exam (not any model paper as exam paper is always a standard) at home in exam conditions. The reason is simple—-the best thing for an aspirant is to know his actual status of understanding of the various topics of each subject. By doing so he can easily find his weaker areas; and thus will have better chances to frame the best strategy to overcome them.

Now I come to the approximate time that one should spend on doing each subject component of the exam. Here it is:

1.	Reasoning	25 minutes
2.	General Knowledge	20 minutes
3.	Mathematics	40 minutes
4.	English	35 minutes

The practice of doing past/practice papers should be kept to follow all through. But if one wishes it could also be done once in two weeks in initial stages of preparation; say the first 1-2 months

 

ON REASONING & ANTONYMS/SYNONYMS/DESCRIPTIVE PAPER

1. On REASONING
For reasoning, practice of previous SSC papers and model/practice papers is sufficient in general. Also don’t forget to consult any good book if you don’t find a question under control. One should also take help of a book on reasoning for the type of questions which are not in practice sets while they fall into a topic of the syllabus provided.

But, no matter if you don’t find a topic or two of REASONING in any of the book/s you have; better to leave it cause dealing many a book at a time could really spoil the things. Whatever you do; do it with mastery. That way you could score better marks as I personally feel. Yes, if you happen to get time after; try to find a proper book for those left out topics.

2. On ANTONYMS/SYNONYMS
I’d advise you that you should not spend much time on antonyms and synonyms. The reason is that they are endless in number and therefore you can’t learn them much. Any word could be there in the question paper, so it will be better if you utilize that precious time in making your other areas of the paper stronger.

Dear friends, word power can’t be made strong just by cramming words for a few months; rather it’s a long term process that starts from one’s school days itself. I mean only to say if you are behind words more than the actual requirement, output won’t be that good.

The same thing applies to IDIOMS/PHRASES and ONE WORD SUBSTITUTION, but here you can spare some of your time for going through them from a good source/study material.

3. DESCRIPTIVE PAPER
Short Essay/Letter in English or any language included in the 8th schedule of the Constitution of 50 marks for 30 minutes

In this paper 5 essays and 5 letters are given, out of which one has to do either the essay or the letter. In MTS-13 some of the questions that were asked are given as below:

ESSAYS
1. My Favourite Game
2. Deepawali
3. Importance of Television

LETTERS
1. Letter to the authorities for nuisance caused by the loud-speaker

 

SUGGESTIVE TIMETABLE

As I think a person who is not in job should devote at least 7-8 hours time each day to his preparation according to the time shown against each component of the syllabus for the Multi Tasking Staff (MTS) exam though it’s purely suggestive.

1.	Reasoning	30 minutes
2.	General Knowledge	2 hours
3.	Mathematics	2 hours
4.	English	2 hours 30 minutes

In addition to this if an hour time or so is spent on some activities of sports and some time on programmes of entertainment on TV etc; will really be nice for maintaining mental state in good condition. But not more than that.

NOTE: A person already in job too should try to spare more and more time for the preparation; I think almost 4 hours a day in addition to the full day timetable for the days of holidays.

 

SSC MTS Exam: Books Vs INTERNET

It’s my sincere advice that you should prepare for the exam by books only. The net can’t ever compete with a real book. Several reasons are there! A book is always very convenient in use as compared to the net. You can take a book anywhere in the house or to any other location also whereas it’s not applicable to a computer. A laptop even can’t help all the time.

Sometimes one has to go to a certain page for referring to any other topic which can’t be so comfortable while using that book on the computer. Also books (specially those for SSC exams) not so expensive that a person can’t afford. Sitting on computer screen for long also is a big cause of one’s tiredness; the eyes especially. Many more reasons in addition.

Yes the net is important but mainly when a book is not easily available or when one wants to see some particular topic/s as to purchase so many books of a kind is certainly not advisable.

 

SSC MTS Exam BOOKS/STUDY MATERIAL

In my opinion the following books/study material should be right:

1. GK

i) Kiran’s General Knowlege

ENGLISH MEDIUM

HINDI MEDIUM

ii) NCERT books for Science from 6th to 10th (if time is available)
iii) Monthly Magazine ‘Pratiyogita Darpan
iv) Any good quality newspaper like ‘The Hindu’

2. REASONING
SSC previous years papers and Kiran’s practice work-book should be enough.

3. ENGLISH

1. Maha English Grammar for Competitive Exams (Written by Maha Gupta)
CLICK HERE TO BUY AND SEE SAMPLE PAGES

2. Maha English Practice Sets for Competitive Exams (Written by Maha Gupta)
CLICK HERE TO BUY AND SEE SAMPLE PAGES

4. MATHS
Quick Arithmetic of Ashish Aggarwal (The best book for MTS Exam, if you’ll read this book you won’t need another)

5. PRACTICE PAPERS (Both for objective and descriptive papers)

But never forget to practise previous papers & model papers to master it all. Kiran’s practice sets are best. These papers will help you immensely both for objective and the descriptive papers.

ENGLISH MEDIUM

HINDI MEDIUM

 

How to do Comprehension Passage & Cloze Test

For both comprehension passages and cloze tests your basic understanding of English language should be right. Without this, things are going to be really difficult. For comprehension you should have sharp and quick mind. If you want your comprehension of a passage improved you should read the passage very carefully once only, or at the most twice, and keep in mind the content of the passage so that while answering questions you do not need to go back to it time and again. In an objective exam the speed is very important. So read sufficient number of passages and cloze tests from a good source well in time.

Comprehension Passage

1. Read the passage first; not the questions. If we’ll read the questions first our whole concentration then will divert on finding the answers of those questions, and thus we’ll be unable to understand the passage, which is so important. Without understanding the passage well we can’t answer the questions well.

2. Students normally think that reading the passage 1-2 times is a sheer wastage of time and won’t fetch them desired results. But in my experience – and when I say experience it comes from thousands of students and a decade of time that I have been in this profession – reading the passage first is the best strategy as it not only will save your time but also will help you get more and more marks.

3. When you are through with the passage and its contents you are ready to read the questions and answer them without ambiguity and with complete clarity of what the examiner is asking. That read between the lines concept works very well in comprehension while answering the questions, and that can only be developed by investing a couple of extra minutes by going through the same passage at-least 1-2 times.

4. Read the passage 1-2 times to grasp it well; only then you’ll be able to answer the question comfortably.

5. Read the questions one at a time and answer it immediately after. If you are not getting the answer, leave it to attempt it at a later stage, and go on the next question. As you have read the passage already you will get some idea of the location of material in the passage that answers the questions.

6. After doing all the questions of a particular passage read the left out questions carefully, they might be analytical in nature which requires the analysis of a certain part of the passage, and you might need to use your logical mind.

 

How can we be fast in calculation?

REPLY: RONNIE BANSAL
Heena one has to learn quick Maths for increasing the speed. But every technique of doing questions fast is not given in a book; we too have to devise our own formulas of solving a question with speed. Learning tables of multiplication, squares, cubes help a lot. While solving a question one must keep his eyes on the answer options as sometimes this help in solving a question with speed (sometimes in seconds). There is actually many a thing which helps.

REPLY: MAHA GUPTA

1. Minimize the use of pen and paper while doing a sum.

2. Devise your own techniques as every quick trick isn’t there in a book.

3. Understand a question by its basics/concept-wise. If the concept is clear you can really do the sum in possible quickest time.

4. Some questions can be solved with answer options given in no time; so
always try to do this while practising, and always keep your eyes on them.

5. More and more sincere/dedicated practice from a good book/study material.