A preparation plan should follow the exam as SSC has actually defined it. This page works from the official scheme of the Stenographer Grade 'C' & 'D' Examination, 2026 (the newest notified cycle as of 13 November 2026) and the results of the 2025 cycle, and it ends in a routine you can run weekly. Where something is our advice and not SSC's, we say so.
If you sat the September 2026 CBE and are waiting for the result, section 5 is the one for you now.
1. Know where the marks are
There is one written paper, and it decides merit. From the notice:
| Part | Questions | Marks | Share of the 200 |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Intelligence and Reasoning | 50 | 50 | 25% |
| General Awareness | 50 | 50 | 25% |
| English Language and Comprehension | 100 | 100 | 50% |
(Shares are our arithmetic.) Three consequences:
- English is half the exam and the first tie-break. The other two parts together are only as large as English alone.
- There is no Quantitative Aptitude part. Arithmetic appears only as "arithmetical reasoning", "arithmetical number series" and "arithmetical computation" inside reasoning.
- General Awareness is the second tie-break and a quarter of the marks.
The skill test adds no marks. The notice calls it mandatory but qualifying: you either clear it or you are out.
2. Know your time per question
Each part has its own timer. You cannot move spare time between parts.
| Part | Questions | Timer | Seconds per question |
|---|---|---|---|
| I General Intelligence and Reasoning | 50 | 30 minutes | 36 |
| II General Awareness | 50 | 30 minutes | 36 |
| III English Language and Comprehension | 100 | 60 minutes | 36 |
Every part works out to 36 seconds a question (arithmetic). That number means different things in each part:
- In General Awareness you either know the answer or you do not, so 36 seconds is generous.
- In Reasoning, 36 seconds is tight for multi-step puzzles and figure questions. Take a fast first pass, mark the long ones, and come back.
- In English, the 60-minute block has to absorb reading passages. Short vocabulary and grammar questions must be done in well under 36 seconds to pay for comprehension.
3. Decide when to guess
The marking scheme sets a break-even point: +1 for a right answer, -0.25 for a wrong one. Attempting pays if your chance of being right is above 20%, that is 1 in 5.
This is arithmetic from the scheme, not a rule from SSC. A pure blind guess among four options has a 25% chance, so it is slightly positive on average but adds noise; a guess after eliminating two options is clearly positive. Track "guess accuracy" in your mock log (section 7) and adjust from your own data.
4. A four-phase plan for the CBE
Move between phases on mock results, not on calendar dates. The notice of a cycle gives only a broad window for the CBE (for 2026 it said July to August, and the exam was finally held in September), so do not plan to a single date.
Phase 1: Foundation. Go through the syllabus part by part. In English, build grammar rules and vocabulary alongside daily reading. In reasoning, cover the named areas: analogies, classification, series, relationship concepts, arithmetical reasoning and the figure-based topics. In General Awareness, start a daily current-affairs habit and begin static subjects with polity and the Constitution, which the notice names.
Phase 2: Topic practice. Do untimed sets by topic, then lightly timed ones. Accuracy comes 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: 50 questions in 30 minutes for reasoning and for General Awareness, 100 questions in 60 minutes for English. Practise one part at a time against its own timer.
Phase 4: Full papers and analysis. Sit full 200-question papers in two hours, then spend as long analysing each one as you spent sitting it.
5. Shorthand: the stage that actually filters
The numbers from the 2025 cycle make the case better than any advice. SSC shortlisted 8,624 candidates for the Grade C skill test and 22,456 for Grade D. Only 4,907 and 12,564 appeared. The final result recommended 232 and 1,483. The error limits SSC fixed were up to 5% mistakes for UR and 7% for reserved categories in Grade C, and up to 7% and 10% in Grade D.
What the notice requires:
- One dictation of 10 minutes, at 100 words per minute for Grade C and 80 for Grade D.
- Transcription on a computer: 40 minutes (Grade C English), 55 (Grade C Hindi), 50 (Grade D English) or 65 (Grade D Hindi).
- Hindi in Mangal font only; a script in another font is not evaluated.
Arithmetic, not an SSC statement: the passage is about 1,000 words at 100 wpm and about 800 words at 80 wpm. If the 2025 limits were applied to passages of that size, 5% of 1,000 would be about 50 mistakes and 7% of 800 about 56. How SSC counts a mistake is set out in its own evaluation instructions, which we have not reproduced, so read those figures only as a sense of scale.
Our advice, not SSC's:
- Start shorthand on day one. The notice says only candidates who have skills in stenography are eligible to apply. Speed in shorthand comes from daily practice over months. It cannot be added in the gap between the CBE result and the skill test.
- Train above the test speed. A dictation taken comfortably at a slightly higher speed leaves room for nerves, an unfamiliar voice and unfamiliar vocabulary on the day.
- Practise the whole chain, not just the dictation. Take a full 10-minute dictation, then transcribe it on a computer within the notice's time for your post and language.
- Count your mistakes as a percentage. After each transcription, compare it with the original and work out mistakes divided by words dictated. Keep a log. The 2025 limits give you a line to measure against, though SSC may fix different limits for 2026.
- Type on a real keyboard in the right layout. Transcription time is fixed, so plain typing accuracy matters. Hindi candidates should practise in Mangal font from the start. Our typing test can be used for plain typing practice; it is not a dictation test.
- Choose the medium once, carefully. It is fixed in the application form. Hindi gets 15 more minutes of transcription time than English for both posts, but the dictation speed is the same, so do not read that as an easier test.
- Decide Grade C, Grade D or both with your speed in mind. You can apply for both. The Grade C dictation is 20 words per minute faster and its error limit was tighter in 2025, while its CBE shortlisting cut-off was about 10 marks higher for UR candidates (arithmetic from the 2025 write-up).
6. Subject tactics from the syllabus
- English: the notice names vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, synonyms, antonyms and correct usage, and says writing ability is tested. Work daily on three things: a grammar rule set you revise on a schedule, a vocabulary list built from your own reading and errors, and timed comprehension passages.
- Reasoning: separate verbal topics (analogy, classification, series, relationship concepts) from figure-based ones (space visualisation, figure classification, non-verbal series). Figure-based topics improve with volume.
- General Awareness: the notice names sports, history, culture, geography, the economic scene, general polity including the Indian Constitution, and scientific research, with India and its neighbours emphasised, plus current events and everyday science. Read current affairs in short daily sessions and revise weekly.
7. A weekly mock-analysis routine
After each mock, write each wrong or skipped question into a log with one of these tags:
- Concept gap: I did not know the idea. Fix: study it, then do 10 questions on it.
- Fact or rule slip: I knew it but misremembered. Fix: put it on the revision sheet.
- Time: I ran out of time in a part. Fix: practise that part against its own timer.
- Careless: I misread the question or 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. Keep the shorthand log (speed, words dictated, mistakes, percentage) next to it, and look at both every week.
Compare your percentile, not just your marks. On Pareeksha every candidate in a cohort sits the same fixed paper, so your percentile shows where you stand against others on identical questions. See how it works.
8. 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.
Pareeksha does not offer dictation audio or shorthand evaluation; for that stage you need a dictation source and your own checking routine.
What this page does not have
- A number of months or hours "needed". It depends on your starting point in English and in shorthand, so we do not give one.
- A target score. The 2026 cut-offs are not out, and we do not estimate them.
- SSC's rules on how mistakes in a transcription are counted. The notice points to instructions on ssc.gov.in that we did not open, so the mistake counts in section 5 are scale only.
Related: Syllabus · Exam pattern · Cut-offs