SSC: CGL and CHSL
The Commission’s graduate-level and higher-secondary-level exams share one shape: computer-based tiers of choice-among-options questions, timed and penalised for a wrong pick, closing for some posts in a qualifying skill test that you only need to clear, not score well on. What changes between the two exams is your entry qualification and the posts on offer, not the shape. And the penalty itself is not one flat number within a sitting — later tiers commonly charge a different rate from the first tier, and their sections a different rate from each other, so work out your guess-or-skip arithmetic fresh each time, off the current notice, never off memory of an earlier attempt or a different tier.
Where a post needs typing or data-entry speed, that stage sits at the very end, qualifying only, and rewards your weeks of timed, checked practice — never a by-heart cram. Because the whole run stretches across several months, from the first tier to document verification, run it as a season: climb steadily through the objective tiers, and train the skill in parallel from early on, not at the close. CGL and CHSL share this shape; only the tier count, the posts and the section penalties differ — the box below has them.
Open the Commission’s current notice, for the exam you are sitting. Find the penalty stated for each section of every tier. Write down which sections share a rate and which do not. That table, not memory of an earlier attempt, is what you guess against on the day.
I already know the SSC penalty from a paper I sat before, so I can skip reading the new scheme.
Different sections of the later tier commonly carry different penalties from each other, and the Commission can change the scheme between cycles without telling anyone. Reading the current notice’s scheme paragraph takes minutes and fixes the guessing rule for every section. Skip it, and you guess against a rule that may no longer hold.
SSC CGL/CHSL: check the current notice
As read on 14 September 2026 in the Commission’s own notices. The Combined Graduate Level Examination 2026 notice, uploaded 21.05.2026, and the Combined Higher Secondary Level Examination 2026 notice, uploaded 07.09.2026, both on ssc.gov.in. The box holds the numbers; the Commission changes them, the shape does not. Confirm in the current notice: the vacancy count and post list, and the tier schedule and city allocation. Also confirm whether your target post carries the typing or data-entry stage, its speed requirement, and the qualifying cut-off for each tier and section.