My Ssc Cgl 2018 Journey...

As they say , you sometimes face situations which you didn’t anticipate. True maybe.

Also, they say, everything happens for good. I would like to add here that “Good” is not in literal terms here. It means that your current situation will “affect” your future outcomes.

3rd year college

One of my friends was focussed in SSC. He used to share his friend’s struggle in cracking the exam. He knew that he will not be sitting for placements in 4th year and will only deal with this. I admired him for this because rest of us were putting our foot in different boats altogether.

We wanted to crack best of companies that would visit the campus and also crack other government exams preferably UPSC CSE or UPPCS or RBI or ESE or GATE.

I was inclined towards ESE since 1st year because I had the dream of making it to the top of Railways Board. I rejected UPSC CSE because I couldn’t tolerate History again.

At the end of 2nd year , I joined UPSC CSE coaching because I wanted to have a taste of it. I was not much into the preparation because of Major Projects in college. Actually, I was never that serious.

Then came the end of 3rd year and Ericsson visited the campus. Selected me for its talent program. I left my coaching classes for 5 months which affected my overall preparation. Then I never looked back to it.

Sat for some top companies which offered very high pay. Got rejected in them but got accepted in one off campus placement to which I showed my back. I was now firm with my decision to take the drop and prepare for Group A services.

Again , SSC was never in my “to-do list”.

I glanced at the SSC previous year papers with my friends in 4th year (up to 2017). We all realized that it is a good backup option given the kind of questions it asks. So I kept it for some other day.

Graduated from the college in May 2018. My friends settled for whatever jobs they got. I took the drop (2018). 

SSC CGL 2018 got scheduled to take place in August. I planned to give that exam without preparation to see where I stand and then to forge my strategy. This way I planned my complete year till June 2019. (Destiny again had other plans).

SSC CGL 2017 results got delayed because of some serious corruption matters. This affected 2018’s exam and it got stretched to some other date. My plans came down falling. 

Came 2019. 

I had some serious negative arguments with some people. It affected my confidence to the core. I was not getting positive vibes in preparing for UPSC. This was the time when I filled the form and was thinking to give the exam in June 2019.(Destiny had other plans).

Took advice from parents and some relatives. All of them suggested me to drop plan of UPSC if I was not confident about it and prepare for other short processed exams, which I was confident about (SSC , Banks, etc.). Cracking relatively easier exams could build the confidence and take me out of the “deprived” zone. I did not want to waste even a single attempt in UPSC just for the sake of experience. Every attempt matters.

SSC CGL 2018 was now scheduled to happen in June 2019. I appeared for other exams before that like SBI PO , LIC , IDBI only to get my hands on online computer exams and get prepared for SSC. I attempted these as “Mock Tests”. 

Again, had arguments with people and everyone (except family, relatives and 1 or 2 friends) was only looking at how unemployed I was. No one wanted to know the back of story. 

D-Day (12th June, 2019).

Gave SSC Tier-1 finally. Was happy with my attempt. Although did some silly mistakes out of pressure. But finally got selected in Tier-1. 

Score came and it was NOT good to fetch a decent post later. 

I lost hope again and started preparing for other top govt. posts. 

Then came the phase when people suggested me to appear for Tier-2 with full preparation and so did I.

D-Day (13th Sept, 2019).

SSC CGL Tier-2 . I was happy looking at the previous 2 shifts (11th, 12th Sept) as they seemed very easy and so I thought I would be able to get a good score now to compensate for my low score earlier. (Destiny had other plans). We had the hardest shift of all and this time I was shattered. 

Normalization did not do good to me here. It did not compensate for the hard questions which it did for the people in Tier-1 hard shifts.

I scored 120/200 in Maths and 176/200 in English. Although, I was hoping for around 170-180 in Maths. 

I knew, this time , I will not be able to make it to Tier-3. (Destiny had other plans).

I cracked Tier-2.

But with a little hope of getting any post even if I do good in Tier-3 (on 29th Dec 2019).

Fast forward Dec,2019. I was able to do good in the exam hall because of my previous preparation on General Topics. Although, my mind was somewhere else. Thinking about something which wasn’t in my control.

Given the scenario that I faced , I am sure many top scorers who have summed up their journey since 2017 have seen worse than me. (I read stories of most aspirants on Quora). I used to think how difficult it could be for the toppers who write about their stories on Quora. Now, I know it is tough. Every mark counts here. Every second matters. One mark less and you are far behind many. 

This is what I realized which, I believe, could differ in opinions.

I can say that sitting for private companies is a piece of cake if one does HARD work for just 1-2 months. But sitting for government exams requires patience. Once the exam date is gone ,wait for the next year only. 

For the people reading this (if any) , do not look at the outcome (or results) . Also, try looking at the process which a person goes through.

I am not sure of my results but I know , I have learnt to have atleast a bit of patience. I have learnt to tackle the bad mouthing of people. I might vent out my anger on people(because of the frustration of my failed plans) for 1-2 days but I try to find solution the 3rd day. I will try to reduce this time period soon.

Finally, I know I can get the easy posts this year or may be next. But now my focus is towards a bigger goal. (Wait for the next wrytup).

Cheers.