A preparation plan should follow the exam as SSC has defined it. The Sub-Inspector in Delhi Police and CAPFs Examination, 2026, was notified on 10 September 2026 with a scheme that differs from the 2025 one, so advice written for earlier cycles needs checking against it. This page works from the official scheme and ends in a routine you can run weekly. Where something is our advice and not SSC's, we say so. Where a number is our arithmetic, we say that too.
1. Know where the marks are
Paper-I shortlists you for the physical tests. Para 16.8 of the notice says final selection and allocation are made on performance in Paper-II and your preferences. So the paper that decides selection looks like this:
| Part of Paper-II | Questions | Marks | Share of the paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Intelligence and Reasoning | 20 | 40 | 12.5% |
| General Knowledge and General Awareness | 20 | 40 | 12.5% |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 20 | 40 | 12.5% |
| English Comprehension | 100 | 200 | 62.5% |
(The 320-mark total and the shares are our arithmetic from the notice's table.)
Three consequences follow.
- English is the exam. Five of every eight Paper-II marks are English, and English marks in Paper-II are the second tie-break after the Paper-II total. A candidate who is average in English cannot make it up elsewhere, because the other three parts together are 120 marks.
- Paper-I is a different shape. There, the four subjects are equal: 25 questions and 25 marks each. You need all four to get through the first gate.
- The same syllabus serves both papers. The notice gives one topic list and says Paper-II will be harder. Prepare each topic once, to the harder level.
2. Know your time per question
| Section | Questions | Timer | Seconds per question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper-I, each part | 25 | 15 minutes | 36 |
| Paper-II, Reasoning | 20 | 20 minutes | 60 |
| Paper-II, General Awareness | 20 | 20 minutes | 60 |
| Paper-II, Quantitative Aptitude | 20 | 20 minutes | 60 |
| Paper-II, English Comprehension | 100 | 60 minutes | 36 |
(Seconds per question are arithmetic.) Sectional timers mean you cannot move spare minutes from one part to another in Paper-I or in Parts I to III of Paper-II.
Two things stand out. Paper-I is fast everywhere: 36 seconds is tight for multi-step Quantitative Aptitude, so the first pass should take what can be finished in about half a minute. And the English part of Paper-II is a stamina test: 100 questions in one sitting at 36 seconds each, with comprehension passages inside that budget. Practise English in 100-question sets, not in sets of 25.
3. Decide when to guess
- Paper-I: +1 right, -0.25 wrong. Attempting pays if your chance of being right is above 20% (1 in 5).
- Paper-II: +2 right (arithmetic from 40 marks for 20 questions and 200 for 100), -0.50 wrong. The break-even is the same 20%.
This is arithmetic from the marking scheme, not a rule from SSC. A blind guess among four options is slightly positive on average; a guess after ruling out two options is clearly positive. Track your guess accuracy in your mock log and adjust from your own data. Remember the floor as well: 30% for UR, 25% for OBC and EWS and 20% for others in each paper, and SSC may fix cut-offs in each part of Paper-I.
4. Treat fitness as a subject
This is where this exam differs most from other SSC exams. PST/PET sits between the two papers and carries no marks, but it eliminates. In the 2025 cycle, SSC's write-up of 29 October 2026 shows 48,387 candidates qualifying Paper-I, of whom 26,949 were absent for PST/PET, 10,622 did not qualify and 10,676 qualified.
The official PET standards:
| Event | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| 100 metres | 16 seconds | 18 seconds |
| Long race | 1.6 km in 6.5 minutes | 800 metres in 4 minutes |
| Long jump | 3.65 metres (3 chances) | 2.7 metres (3 chances) |
| High jump | 1.2 metres (3 chances) | 0.9 metres (3 chances) |
| Shot put, 16 lbs | 4.5 metres (3 chances) | not listed |
Our advice, not SSC's:
- Check the fixed standards first. Height, chest and uncorrected eyesight (6/6 and 6/9 distant, N6 and N9 near) cannot be trained. Measure them before you commit months to the written papers. Male candidates who want Delhi Police also need a valid licence for motorcycle and car by the date of the physical test.
- Start running now. The 1.6 km in 6.5 minutes works out to about 4 minutes 4 seconds per kilometre (arithmetic). For most people who do not already run, that takes steady work over months, not a few weeks after a result.
- Practise every event, not only the run. The jumps and the shot put give three chances each, and technique decides them. Find a ground with a pit and a 16-pound shot at least a few times before the test.
- Keep it small and regular. Short sessions on most days fit beside study better than occasional long ones. If you have any medical condition, ask a doctor before you begin hard training.
- Ex-servicemen are exempt from PET under the notice, but their physical standards are still measured.
5. A four-phase plan
Move between phases on results, not on calendar dates. SSC's notice of 1 October 2026 proposes the computer-based examination for 20 to 28 November 2026; dates for PST/PET and Paper-II of this cycle are not announced. If you are starting now for a later cycle, the same phases apply.
Phase 1: Foundation. Go through the syllabus subject by subject. In English, build grammar rules and vocabulary alongside daily reading. In Quantitative Aptitude, do arithmetic first (percentage, ratio, profit and loss, time and work, averages), then algebra, geometry, mensuration and trigonometry. Start a daily current-affairs habit and keep it. Begin running.
Phase 2: Topic practice. Untimed sets by topic, then lightly timed. Accuracy first. Use Pareeksha's topic-wise practice (Pro) or any set that tags questions by topic, so you can see which topic leaks marks.
Phase 3: Sectional timing. Switch to the real clocks: 15 minutes for 25 questions (Paper-I), 20 minutes for 20 questions and 60 minutes for 100 English questions (Paper-II). Practise one section at a time against its own timer.
Phase 4: Full papers and analysis. Sit full papers in the real format and spend as long analysing each as you spent sitting it. After Paper-I, do not stop: move straight to Paper-II-level English and to the PET events, because the physical test and Paper-II follow without a fresh preparation window.
6. Subject tactics from the syllabus
- English Comprehension: the notice names error recognition, fill in the blanks (verbs, prepositions, articles), vocabulary, spellings, grammar, sentence structure, synonyms, antonyms, sentence completion, phrases and idioms, and comprehension. Our advice: give English a fixed daily slot from day one, keep a personal list of errors you actually make, and read English prose every day so that passages do not eat your 36 seconds.
- Quantitative Aptitude: the list runs from arithmetic to geometry, mensuration, trigonometry (including degree and radian measures) and statistical charts. Keep a one-page formula sheet and revise it on a schedule.
- Reasoning: verbal topics (analogy, series, coding, syllogism) and figural ones (folding, embedded figures, orientation). Figural topics improve with volume. The list also names indexing, address matching and date and city matching, which are accuracy drills.
- General Knowledge and General Awareness: the notice names History, Culture, Geography, Economic Scene, General Polity, Indian Constitution and Scientific Research, with India and its neighbours emphasised, plus current events. Read daily in short sessions and revise weekly.
7. Think about preferences early
After the Paper-II result, SSC takes your order of preference among Delhi Police, BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB and SI (Fire) in CISF. The choice is final, and a candidate who does not submit preferences is not considered for any post. In the revised final result of the 2024 examination, the last selected UR male candidate for Delhi Police was about 50 marks above the one for CRPF (see cut-offs). That is history on an older scheme, not a target, but it shows that the post you list first changes the marks you need. All posts except SI in Delhi Police carry all-India service liability, so read about each force before the option form opens.
8. A weekly mock-analysis routine
After each mock, write every wrong or skipped question into a log with one tag:
- Concept gap: I did not know the idea. Fix: study it, then do 10 questions on it.
- Formula, rule or fact slip: I knew it but misremembered. Fix: add it to the revision sheet.
- Time: I ran out of time in a section. Fix: practise that section against its own timer.
- Careless: I misread the question or an option. Fix: slow the first read, not the whole paper.
- Bad guess: I guessed and lost marks. Fix: guess only after elimination (section 3).
Count the tags weekly. The largest tag is next week's work. Add one line for fitness: your timed run and your best jump that week. Compare your percentile, not just your marks: on Pareeksha every candidate in a cohort sits the same fixed paper, so the percentile shows where you stand on identical questions. See how it works.
9. Free and paid practice on Pareeksha
- Free: a 10-question mini-mock to try the format, and the Daily Dangal quiz.
- Pro: full CBT-pattern mocks, previous-year papers and topic-wise practice.
You can also see previous-year papers for SSC CPO (Pro). Papers from 2025 and earlier follow the older scheme, so use them for topic depth and question style, and use the timers on the exam pattern page for pacing.
What this page does not have
- A target score or a "safe score" for 2026. No cut-off exists on the new scale, and we do not estimate one.
- A number of months or hours. It depends on where you start.
- A medical or training prescription. The fitness notes are general advice; the standards are SSC's.
- Dates for PST/PET and Paper-II of the 2026 cycle. SSC has not announced them in the notices we opened.
Related: Syllabus · Exam pattern · Cut-offs