How to calculate your SSC CGL score from the answer key

A few weeks after each tier of SSC CGL, the Commission publishes a provisional answer key along with each candidate's response sheet. Working out your own score from it takes ten minutes, and tells you, well before the result, roughly where you stand. This article shows how.

Step 1: Get your response sheet

When the answer key is released, SSC lets candidates log in on its website and see their own response sheet: each question as it appeared to you, the option you chose and the option SSC's key marks as correct. Read SSC's notice for the exact link and the deadline for raising objections.

Step 2: Count right, wrong and unattempted

Go through the sheet section by section and count three numbers:

R: questions where your option matches the key;
W: questions where you chose a different option;
U: questions you did not answer.

An option you clicked but did not save is not on the sheet as an answer. On the SSC screen an answer counts only after "Save & Next" or "Mark for Review & Next".

Step 3: Apply the marking

Tier-I (100 questions, +2 for a right answer, −0.5 for a wrong one):

Score = 2 × R − 0.5 × W

For example, 68 right and 20 wrong, with 12 left, gives 136 − 10 = 126 out of 200.

Tier-II Paper I (+3 for a right answer, −1 for a wrong one, Computer Knowledge qualifying only):

Score = 3 × R − 1 × W, counting only the sections that are added to the total

Work out Computer Knowledge separately and check that it clears the qualifying mark in your year's notice; its marks are not added.

Step 4: Check the questions you think the key got wrong

The key is provisional. If you are sure a key answer is wrong, SSC allows objections for a short period, for a fee per question. Object only with a clear reason and a source, since a wrong objection costs the fee and changes nothing. After the objections, SSC publishes a final key, and your result is based on that.

Step 5: Understand normalisation

SSC CGL is held in many shifts, and no two shifts get exactly the same paper. To be fair across shifts, SSC normalises raw marks: a raw score from a harder shift is adjusted up, one from an easier shift down. Your normalised score can therefore be a few marks above or below the raw score you calculate.

You cannot calculate the normalisation yourself, because it depends on the scores of everyone in every shift. Treat your raw score as an estimate, with a margin of a few marks either way.

Step 6: Compare with past cut-offs, carefully

Cut-offs vary from year to year with the number of vacancies, the number of candidates and the difficulty of the paper. Comparing your score with the last few years' cut-offs for your category gives a rough sense of your chances, but not a guarantee. Use the official cut-offs SSC publishes with each result.

Step 7: Do not wait for the result

If your Tier-I score looks reasonable, start Tier-II preparation the same week. The gap between the Tier-I result and Tier-II is short, and Tier-II carries the final merit, with heavier +3 / −1 marking and timed parts. Our SSC CGL Tier-II page explains its pattern.

If your score looks short, use the response sheet as a free mock analysis: which sections and topics lost the most marks? Our guide on how to analyse a mock test applies to the real paper just as well.

Practise with the same scoring

Every SSC CGL Tier-I mock on Mockrooms is scored exactly this way, and the result compares your score with the cut-offs of recent years for your category, so you know where you stand long before the real answer key. The same applies to SSC CHSL, which uses the same +2 / −0.5 marking in Tier-I.