SSC Stenographer: Exam Pattern and Indian History for General Awareness

The Examination and How Marks Are Distributed

The Staff Selection Commission recruits stenographers at two levels, Grade C and Grade D, through the same written paper. What separates them is the dictation speed in the skill test. Selection depends on the computer based test score, but the skill test is purely qualifying and must be passed, so a candidate who neglects shorthand practice can score well and still fail.

• Computer based test: 200 multiple choice questions, 200 marks, 120 minutes, one mark per question.
• General Awareness: 50 questions, 50 marks. General Intelligence and Reasoning: 50 questions, 50 marks. English Language and Comprehension: 100 questions, 100 marks.
• Negative marking: 0.25 marks are deducted for each wrong answer.
• English is half the paper. A candidate who is strong in English has already secured the larger part of the score, so the section deserves the largest share of preparation time.
• Skill test, dictation: ten minutes of dictation at 100 words per minute for Grade C and at 80 words per minute for Grade D.
• Skill test, transcription: Grade C is allowed 40 minutes in English and 55 minutes in Hindi; Grade D is allowed 50 minutes in English and 65 minutes in Hindi. Longer times are allowed for candidates using a scribe.
• After the skill test comes document verification. Confirm the exact schedule, vacancies and any change of pattern in the official notification on the Commission's website.

Indian History for General Awareness

History supplies more General Awareness questions than any other single subject in this paper, and the questions are almost always factual: a date, a founder, a battle, a treaty, a book and its author. Learn history here as a set of anchors rather than as narrative.

• Indus Valley Civilisation: Harappa was excavated by Daya Ram Sahni in 1921 and Mohenjo-daro by R. D. Banerji in 1922. The Great Bath is at Mohenjo-daro, the dockyard at Lothal, a ploughed field at Kalibangan, and Dholavira is known for its water management and its signboard. The civilisation was urban, used a standardised burnt brick, and its script remains undeciphered.
• Vedic period: the four Vedas are the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda, of which the Rigveda is the oldest. The Gayatri mantra is from the Rigveda. The national motto Satyameva Jayate is taken from the Mundaka Upanishad.
• Buddhism and Jainism: Gautama Buddha was born at Lumbini, attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, delivered his first sermon at Sarnath and died at Kushinagar. His teaching rests on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Mahavira was the twenty-fourth Tirthankara of Jainism, Rishabhadeva the first, and Mahavira attained nirvana at Pavapuri.
• Mauryan empire: Chandragupta Maurya founded it in about 322 BCE with the help of Chanakya, also called Kautilya, author of the Arthashastra. Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador at his court, wrote the Indica. Ashoka fought the Kalinga war in about 261 BCE and turned to Buddhism. His edicts were first deciphered by James Prinsep in 1837, and the Lion Capital from Sarnath is the state emblem of India.
• Gupta empire, often called the golden age: Samudragupta's achievements are recorded in the Prayag or Allahabad Prashasti composed by Harisena. Chandragupta II bore the title Vikramaditya, and the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hien travelled in India during his reign. Aryabhata and Kalidasa belong to this period.
• Harsha and after: Harshavardhana ruled from Kanauj, was visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang, and was the patron of Banabhatta, who wrote the Harshacharita.
• Delhi Sultanate: Qutbuddin Aibak founded the Slave dynasty in 1206. Iltutmish introduced the tanka and the jital, Razia Sultan was the only woman to rule from Delhi, Alauddin Khilji introduced market control regulations, Muhammad bin Tughlaq moved his capital to Daulatabad and issued token currency, and the Lodi dynasty was the last of the line.
• Mughal empire: Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526. Akbar came to the throne after the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556, fought Rana Pratap at Haldighati in 1576, proclaimed the Din-i-Ilahi in 1582, and used the revenue system organised by Todar Mal. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal, and Aurangzeb was the last of the great Mughals.
• Bhakti, Sufi and the Marathas: Kabir, Guru Nanak, Chaitanya, Mirabai and Tulsidas in the devotional movements. Shivaji was crowned at Raigad in 1674. The Third Battle of Panipat was fought in 1761 between the Marathas and Ahmad Shah Abdali.
• British expansion: the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah, and the Battle of Buxar in 1764, after which the Company obtained the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1765. The Regulating Act came in 1773 and the Permanent Settlement under Cornwallis in 1793. The Revolt of 1857 was followed by the Queen's Proclamation of 1858 transferring power to the Crown.
• The national movement: the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 by A. O. Hume, with W. C. Bonnerjee as its first president. Curzon partitioned Bengal in 1905, provoking the Swadeshi movement; the Congress split at Surat in 1907; the Lucknow Pact was signed in 1916. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April 1919, the Non-Cooperation movement ran from 1920 and was withdrawn after Chauri Chaura in February 1922, the Lahore session of 1929 adopted Purna Swaraj, and the Dandi March began on 12 March 1930. The Gandhi Irwin Pact came in 1931, the Poona Pact in 1932 and the Government of India Act in 1935. The Quit India movement began on 8 August 1942, and independence came on 15 August 1947.

The Rest of General Awareness

History is the largest block but not the only one. The other areas are smaller and can be covered quickly if you restrict yourself to the standard facts rather than trying to read them as subjects in their own right.

• Indian polity: the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950; the Constituent Assembly was chaired by Dr Rajendra Prasad and the drafting committee by Dr B. R. Ambedkar. Know the fundamental rights in Articles 12 to 35, the directive principles, the fundamental duties added by the 42nd Amendment, and the basic structure of Parliament, the judiciary and the states.
• Geography: the physical divisions of India, the major rivers and their tributaries, soil types, monsoon and climate, minerals and industries, and the states, their capitals and their boundaries.
• General science: basic physics such as units, motion, light and electricity; basic chemistry such as the periodic table, acids and bases, and common compounds; and biology such as the human body systems, vitamin deficiency diseases, and plant and animal classification.
• Static general knowledge: the national symbols, important days, awards including the Bharat Ratna and the Nobel prizes, dances and festivals of the states, sports and their terminology, books and their authors, and important organisations and their headquarters.
• Current affairs: the last six to nine months before the paper, with attention to appointments, schemes, summits, sports results and awards. Reading one newspaper daily and one monthly compilation is enough for this section.
• Economy: the basic vocabulary of budget, inflation, gross domestic product, the Reserve Bank and its instruments, and the major central government schemes.

English, Reasoning and the Skill Test

English carries 100 of the 200 marks, which is why candidates who prepare it as an afterthought rarely clear the cut off. Reasoning is the section where accuracy is easiest to raise quickly, since the question types repeat almost exactly from year to year.

• English topics: spotting errors, sentence improvement, fill in the blanks, synonyms and antonyms, spellings, idioms and phrases, one word substitution, active and passive voice, direct and indirect speech, cloze passage and reading comprehension.
• The most productive English preparation is a fixed daily routine: twenty error spotting questions, twenty vocabulary items and one cloze passage, every day, reviewed the next morning.
• Reasoning topics: analogies, classification, coding and decoding, series, blood relations, direction sense, ranking, syllogism, Venn diagrams, matrix and dice, mirror and water images, paper folding and cutting, and non-verbal series.
• In the hall, take Reasoning first, then General Awareness, and give the remaining time to English, because English contains the reading passages that cannot be rushed.
• With 0.25 negative marking, leave a question only when you cannot eliminate a single option. Eliminating two options makes the attempt clearly worthwhile.
• Shorthand practice must start early and run daily. Build speed in stages: reach comfortable accuracy at 60 words per minute before pushing towards 80, and towards 100 only when 80 is secure. Practise transcription on a computer under the exact time limit, since transcription errors, not the dictation itself, are what fail most candidates.

Key Terms

Diwani

The right to collect revenue and administer civil justice. The East India Company obtained the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from the Mughal emperor in 1765 after the Battle of Buxar, which made it the effective ruler of eastern India.

Purna Swaraj

Complete independence, adopted as the goal of the Indian National Congress at its Lahore session of December 1929, and first celebrated as Independence Day on 26 January 1930.

Prashasti

A eulogistic inscription praising a ruler. The Prayag Prashasti composed by Harisena on an Ashokan pillar is the main source for the reign and conquests of Samudragupta.

Skill test

The qualifying second stage of the SSC Stenographer examination, consisting of ten minutes of dictation at 100 words per minute for Grade C or 80 for Grade D, followed by transcription within a fixed time. It is pass or fail and its marks do not add to the merit list.

Practice Quiz — 20 Questions

1. How many questions and marks does the SSC Stenographer computer based test carry?

   • A.100 questions and 100 marks
   • B.150 questions and 150 marks
   • C.200 questions and 200 marks
   • D.200 questions and 400 marks
   C. 200 questions and 200 marks — The paper has 200 questions of one mark each, to be attempted in 120 minutes.

2. In the SSC Stenographer written paper, English Language and Comprehension carries:

   • A.50 marks
   • B.75 marks
   • C.100 marks
   • D.150 marks
   C. 100 marks — English carries 100 marks, while General Awareness and Reasoning carry 50 marks each.

3. The dictation speed in the skill test for Stenographer Grade C is:

   • A.60 words per minute
   • B.80 words per minute
   • C.100 words per minute
   • D.120 words per minute
   C. 100 words per minute — Grade C requires 100 words per minute and Grade D requires 80, in both cases for ten minutes.

4. The negative marking in the SSC Stenographer computer based test is:

   • A.No negative marking
   • B.0.25 marks
   • C.0.33 marks
   • D.0.50 marks
   B. 0.25 marks — A quarter of a mark is deducted for every wrong answer.

5. The Great Bath is a feature of which Harappan site?

   • A.Harappa
   • B.Lothal
   • C.Mohenjo-daro
   • D.Kalibangan
   C. Mohenjo-daro — The Great Bath was found at Mohenjo-daro. Lothal has the dockyard and Kalibangan the evidence of a ploughed field.

6. The Arthashastra was written by:

   • A.Megasthenes
   • B.Kautilya
   • C.Banabhatta
   • D.Harisena
   B. Kautilya — Kautilya, also called Chanakya, was the minister of Chandragupta Maurya. Megasthenes wrote the Indica.

7. Ashoka fought the Kalinga war in about:

   • A.322 BCE
   • B.273 BCE
   • C.261 BCE
   • D.185 BCE
   C. 261 BCE — The Kalinga war of about 261 BCE led to his adoption of Buddhism and of the policy of dhamma.

8. The Ashokan edicts were first deciphered in 1837 by:

   • A.William Jones
   • B.James Prinsep
   • C.Alexander Cunningham
   • D.John Marshall
   B. James Prinsep — James Prinsep deciphered the Brahmi script and so opened up Mauryan history.

9. The Prayag Prashasti, our chief source for Samudragupta, was composed by:

   • A.Kalidasa
   • B.Harisena
   • C.Vishakhadatta
   • D.Fa-Hien
   B. Harisena — Harisena, his court poet, inscribed the eulogy on an Ashokan pillar at Allahabad.

10. The Chinese pilgrim who visited India during the reign of Harshavardhana was:

    • A.Fa-Hien
    • B.Hiuen Tsang
    • C.I-Tsing
    • D.Megasthenes
    B. Hiuen Tsang — Hiuen Tsang, also written Xuanzang, visited in the seventh century. Fa-Hien came during the Gupta period.

11. The Delhi Sultanate was founded in 1206 by:

    • A.Iltutmish
    • B.Qutbuddin Aibak
    • C.Balban
    • D.Alauddin Khilji
    B. Qutbuddin Aibak — Qutbuddin Aibak founded the Slave or Mamluk dynasty at Delhi in 1206.

12. Which Sultan shifted his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and introduced token currency?

    • A.Alauddin Khilji
    • B.Firoz Shah Tughlaq
    • C.Muhammad bin Tughlaq
    • D.Sikandar Lodi
    C. Muhammad bin Tughlaq — Both experiments belong to Muhammad bin Tughlaq and both failed.

13. The First Battle of Panipat, fought in 1526, was between:

    • A.Babur and Ibrahim Lodi
    • B.Akbar and Hemu
    • C.Ahmad Shah Abdali and the Marathas
    • D.Humayun and Sher Shah Suri
    A. Babur and Ibrahim Lodi — Babur's victory over Ibrahim Lodi established Mughal rule in India.

14. Shivaji was formally crowned in 1674 at:

    • A.Pune
    • B.Raigad
    • C.Sinhagad
    • D.Panhala
    B. Raigad — The coronation at Raigad gave the Maratha state formal sovereign status.

15. After which battle did the East India Company obtain the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa?

    • A.The Battle of Plassey, 1757
    • B.The Battle of Buxar, 1764
    • C.The Third Battle of Panipat, 1761
    • D.The Battle of Wandiwash, 1760
    B. The Battle of Buxar, 1764 — The Diwani was granted in 1765, following the Company's victory at Buxar in 1764.

16. The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 by:

    • A.W. C. Bonnerjee
    • B.A. O. Hume
    • C.Dadabhai Naoroji
    • D.Surendranath Banerjee
    B. A. O. Hume — A. O. Hume founded it, and W. C. Bonnerjee presided over the first session at Bombay.

17. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on:

    • A.13 April 1919
    • B.6 April 1919
    • C.4 February 1922
    • D.12 March 1930
    A. 13 April 1919 — The firing at Amritsar on 13 April 1919 followed protests against the Rowlatt Act.

18. The Non-Cooperation movement was withdrawn by Gandhi after the violence at:

    • A.Chauri Chaura
    • B.Champaran
    • C.Kheda
    • D.Bardoli
    A. Chauri Chaura — The burning of a police station at Chauri Chaura in February 1922 led Gandhi to call off the movement.

19. The resolution of Purna Swaraj, or complete independence, was adopted at the Congress session of:

    • A.Surat, 1907
    • B.Lucknow, 1916
    • C.Lahore, 1929
    • D.Karachi, 1931
    C. Lahore, 1929 — The Lahore session of December 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, adopted Purna Swaraj as the goal.

20. The Quit India movement was launched on:

    • A.26 January 1930
    • B.12 March 1930
    • C.8 August 1942
    • D.15 August 1947
    C. 8 August 1942 — The All India Congress Committee passed the Quit India resolution in Bombay on 8 August 1942.

References

• Staff Selection Commission, official website and notifications — https://ssc.gov.in/
• SSC Stenographer syllabus and exam pattern for Grade C and D — https://www.careerpower.in/ssc-stenographer-syllabus.html
• SSC Stenographer syllabus 2026, complete exam pattern — https://www.pw.live/ssc/exams/ssc-stenographer-syllabus
• NCERT History textbooks for classes 6 to 12 — https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php
• Archaeological Survey of India, world heritage and excavated sites — https://asi.nic.in/