Staff Selection Commission Combined Higher Secondary Level Exam (SSC CHSL)

The Combined Higher Secondary Level (10+2) examination is conducted every year by Staff Selection Commission (SSC) for recruitment to the posts of Lower Divisional Clerk/ Junior Secretariat Assistant, Postal Assistant/ Sorting Assistant and Data Entry Operator in various Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations. The notification along with the application form of SSC CHSL is released by the Commission in last week of January. Candidates to be eligible for this exam should be between 18 to 27 years and have passed Class 12. SSC CHSL recruitment exam is conducted in three stages – Tier I, II and III. Final allocation of candidates to various departments is done based on candidate’s merit and option given by them in the application form.

The eligibility criteria of SSC CHSL has been prescribed by Staff Selection Commission (SSC). SSC CHSL eligibility criteria are the set of guidelines in terms of age, educational qualification and nationality which candidates have to fulfill to be eligible for the exam. The age of candidates as per SSC CHSL eligibility criteria should be 18 to 27 years. Relaxation in the upper age limit is provided to candidates belonging to SC, ST, OBC, PwD, Ex-Servicemen etc. According to SSC CHSL eligibility criteria, educational qualification required for the exam is Class 12/HSC. For the post of Data Entry Operator, candidates must have passed their Class 12/HSC from Science Stream with Mathematics.  

Mode of Application : Online and Offline

Mode of Payment : Net Banking | Credit Card | Debit Card | Bank Challan

The application form of SSC CHSL has been released in online mode on December 3, 2019. Candidates who wish to pay their application fees through SBI challan can make the payment through the challan before January 10, 2020. Application fees is Rs 100 for general and OBC category while women, SC, ST and PwD candidates are exempted from fee payment. The procedure to fill SSC CHSL application form  online is explained below. 

How to fill SSC CHSL application form?

    • Applicants need to first fill the registration form 

    • To register, candidates will have to enter their basic details. 

    • On submission of the registration form, candidate’s registration ID and password will be generated.

    • Applicants should proceed to upload their photograph and signature. The size of the photograph should be between 4 KB to 20 KB while signature should be 1 KB to 12KB. 

    • To fill other details in SSC CHSL application form, candidates have to login with their password and registration ID. 

    • After filling the application form, applicants have to pay their examination fees either online or offline.

    • On successful fee payment, the application process is complete and candidates should take printout of SSC CHSL application form. 

Application Fees

Lakhs of candidates appear for SSC CHSL every year. Although the competition is tough, however, anyone can crack this exam if they prepare sincerely. Below are few SSC CHSL Preparation Tips.

    • First, get familiar with SSC CHSL exam pattern and syllabus. Note down the topics that you need to study for this exam. 

    • After knowing the syllabus, make a plan for preparation according to the time you have till the exam. Complete the syllabus first and then go for mock tests. 

    • Do not jump straight into practicing. First, you need to get good at the basics. If you know the basics then you will be able to crack the exam. 

    • Quantitative Ability has a huge syllabus. Analyse the previous years’ papers and pick topics accordingly. Practice Ratio, Percentage, Averages, Time Speed Distance, Time and Work, Profit & Loss, Interest,Geometry and Trigonometry, Algebra as you will get maximum questions from these topics. 

    • To ace English language section, go through all the grammer rules like tenses, voices, articles, prepositions, subject verb agreement and punctuation. Practice active passive voice, direct indirect speech, cloze test, error spotting, sentence improvement and fill in the blanks. Focus on Antonyms, synonyms, Idioms, Phrases and Spellings. 

    • Reasoning requires lot of practice. Practice Analogies, Syllogisms, coding decoding, Odd one out, Alphabetical & Numerical Series, Missing terms, Blood Relations, Direction sense, Arrangements. 

    • General Awareness is dominated by static GK and current affairs. Candidates should revise Science, Indian Polity, Sports Geography, Economics, Books and authors, History and Computer Awareness. 

The examination of SSC CHSL consists of computer based examination (Tier I), Descriptive Paper (Tier II) and Typing/Skill Test (Tier III). Separate SSC CHSL exam pattern has been prescribed for different stages of exam. The exam pattern of SSC CHSL provide candidates details about total marks, marking scheme, sections, nature of questions and time duration.  

SSC CHSL Tier I Exam Pattern

    • The Tier I of SSC CHSL will be conducted in Computer Based Mode. 

    • Total duration of the exam is 60 minutes as per SSC CHSL exam pattern

    • The question paper will be divided into different parts – I, II, III and IV. 

    • All questions will be objective type.

    • The test carries total 100 questions from English Language, General Intelligence, Quantitative Aptitude (Basic Arithmetic Skill) and General Awareness. 

    • According to SSC CHSL exam pattern of Tier I, Total marks allotted for this Tier is 200. 

    • The questions will be set both in English and Hindi

    • 0.50 marks will be deducted for each wrong answer

SSC CHSL Tier II Exam Pattern

 • The Tier II of SSC CHSL is a descriptive paper conducted in Pen and Paper mode. 

    • This test carries 100 marks. 

    • The duration of the paper is 1 hour

    • Candidates are given to write an Essay of 200 to 250 words and Letter/Application of 120 to 200 words in Tier II. 

    • The paper will be either in Hindi or English as per SSC CHSL exam pattern 

SSC CHSL Tier III Exam Pattern

 • Tier III exam is Skill Test/Typing Test.

    • This stage is qualifying in nature. 

    • In Skill Test, candidates will have to enter data in the speed of 8000 key depressions per hour on computer. 

    • For Data Entry operator posts, the speed should not be less than 15000 key depressions per hour for data entry. 

    • The Skill test as per SSC CHSL exam pattern will be conducted online in English for Data Entry Operator 

• According to SSC CHSL exam pattern 2019 of Tier III, the Typing Test for LDC/ JSA and Postal Assistant/ Sorting Assistant will be held in English and Hindi

    • Candidates opting for English medium must have typing speed of 35 words per minute. While, those opting for Hindi medium must have typing speed of 30 words per minute.

Staff Selection Commission (SSC) will release SSC CHSL admit card separately for Tier I, Tier II and Tier III. SSC CHSL admit card will be issued online by Regional/Sub-Regional office of SSC two weeks before the examination. Candidates have to login with their registration number or roll number and date of birth to download SSC CHSL admit card. Information regarding the exam like time, date, city and centre of examination will be mentioned in the admit card. It is compulsory to carry one photo-identity proof like Voter’s ID, Driving License, ID cards issued by government or other offices to the examination centre along with SSC CHSL admit card.  

SSC CHSL Tier I Admit Card

The Tier I admit card of SSC CHSL will be issued to candidates whose applications have accepted for the recruitment exam.  Candidates have to download SSC CHSL admit card of Tier I online. The admit card will carry information regarding date, time and city of SSC CHSL Tier I exam.

SSC CHSL Tier II Admit Card

 SSC CHSL admit card for Tier II will be released after the declaration of Tier I result. The admit card for Tier II will be issued to those candidates who have cleared Tier I exam.

SSC CHSL Tier III Admit Card

SSC CHSL admit card for Tier III Skill Test or Typing test will be released for all only those candidates selected based on Tier I and II marks.

Staff Selection Commission (SSC) releases the answer key of SSC CHSL few days after the conduct of exam. SSC CHSL answer key will be released only for Tier I since Tier II is a descriptive test. SSC CHSL answer key will be available online for all sets of online test booklets. To download SSC CHSL answer key, candidates will have to enter their login credentials like user ID and password. Candidates can even challenge SSC CHSL answer key if they are not satisfied with the answers. Challenges will be accepted online only. To register challenges, candidates will have to pay Rs 100 per answer.