Cabinet Secretariat Exam Pattern, Papers & Books

Cabinet Secretariat Exam 2013 is likely to be conducted on 17th June, 2013 and this blog post has been made to provide you the prep materi...

Cabinet Secretariat Exam 2013 is likely to be conducted on 17th June, 2013 and this blog post has been made to provide you the prep materials for this written exam for the positions of Research Officer, Deputy Field Officer, Personal Assistant & Stenographer.

This blog article is a sequel to my previous post titled: Cabinet Secretariat Recruitment 2013: Notification, Form & Eligibility which tells you how to apply for this recruitment and in case you have not applied so far, may be you would find that article useful.

Let me tell you in the very outset that prep materials available on the net for exclusively Cabinet Secretariat Exam for these positions is non-existent and it would be un-wise to waste time searching for previous years Cabinet Secretariat Exam papers or for exclusive prep books. So you will have to prepare for this exam test-section wise by taking help of question papers & prep books for similar exams like SSC CGL (Combined Graduate Level) Exam and SSC CHSL (Combined Higher Secondary Level) Exam. 

Before going further, let us know what is pattern of Cabinet Secretariat Exam.

Cabinet Secretariat exam selection process:

As you might have come to know, SSC is conducting the selection process for Cabinet Secretariat Recruitment 2013 and the process is 3-Tiered for all the positions - Tier-I: Prelims, Tier-II: Mains/Skill test & Tier-III: Interview. 

Marks you score in Prelims (i.e. Tier-I) would be used only for screening purpose. For determining the final merit list, only the marks of Mains/Skill test & Interview would be used. There are two broad categories for which this selection process is held:

1.0 For Officer level: Research Officer, Deputy Field Officer (Tele) & Deputy Field Officer (GD).

Prelims exam pattern is same for all the above three positions. However Mains exam pattern is specific to each position.

2.0 For Staff level: Personal Assistant & Stenographer: 

Prelims exam pattern is same for the two positions. There is no Mains written exam - but Skill test (Dictation & Transcription) would be held instead.

After you qualify in the Mains exam/Skill test, you will have to appear in Interview. With this, selection process for this Cabinet Secretariat recruitment is as follows:

Cabinet Secretariat Prelims exam pattern:

You can find the Cabinet Secretariat Exam Pattern for Research Officer & Deputy Field Officers in the table at left. All the test sections of  Cabinet Secretariat Prelims exam paper for officers are of Objective type. This exam pattern is identical to the SSC CGL exam, details of which can be found in my blog article titled: SSC CGL Exam Pattern, Sample Papers & Prep Books. That is why you can use the prep materials (i.e. sample papers & prep books) of SSC CGL Tier-I exam as prep materials for Cabinet Secretariat Tier-I  Exam.

Exam Pattern for Cabinet Secretariat Exam for PA & Steno on the other hand is as given in the table at right. The Paper-I has two sections: English & GK which contains Objective type questions while Paper-II has English Essay as a Descriptive type paper. What is noteworthy is here English language has 200 marks (100 Objective type & 100 Descriptive type). Hence you know where the maximum emphasis should lie.

Cabinet Secretariat Mains exam pattern:

Exam pattern for Cabinet Secretariat Mains Exam on the other hand is specific to the post you are applying for. Also, there is no Mains exam for PA & Steno - Skill test would be held instead.

Cabinet Secretariat Mains Exam pattern for Research Officer (Economics):

Paper on Economic Theory and Important Economic Developments in the International Arena and Statistics.
Total Marks: 300; Duration: 3 Hours.

Cabinet Secretariat Mains Exam pattern for Deputy Field Officer (Tele):
There are two papers for DFO (Tele) Mains exam - while Paper-I is compulsory, Paper-II has three optional sectons, out of which you have to choose any one section. With this the exam pattern is given below:

Cabinet Secretariat Mains Exam pattern for Deputy Field Officer (Tele):

There are two papers for DFO (GD) Mains exam - while Paper-I is on English language including communication skills, Paper-II is an Aptitude test paper.

With this the exam pattern for DFO (GD) Mains exam is given as in the table at right.

Cabinet Secretariat Skill Test pattern for PA & Steno:
As said, there is no written mains exam for these two positions, but Skill test (Dictation & Transcription).
Skill Test for PA: (300 Marks) (on computer only)
Dictation: 10 minutes @ 100 w.p.m. Transcription: 45 minutes (English), 60 minutes (Hindi) 
Skill Test for Steno: (300 Marks) (on computer only)
Dictation: 10 minutes @ 80 w.p.m. Transcription: 50 minutes (English), 65 minutes (Hindi).

Cabinet Secretariat exam papers:

As said in the outset, there is dearth of previous years exam papers/sample papers exclusively for Cabinet Secretariat Exam. Therefore, I would like to point you to the sample papers as given in this article of mine for SSC CGL exam.  This gives just some ideas about the standard of question papers set by SSC for graduate exams. You have to depend on prep/guide books given below to prepare for Cabinet Secretariat Exam seriously.

Prep books/Guide Books Cabinet Secretariat exam 

As said, following prep books for SSC CGL exam would be useful to you in your preparation for Cabinet Secretariat Exam. The books have been selected on the basis of reader feedback.
These books are available in most of the bookstores, but you can also order them online by clicking the links below, from Flipkart.com which offers huge discounts upto 28%, apart from free home delivery if the order exceeds Rs. 500/=. You can choose to pay through Credit Card/Debit Card/Internet Banking. You can also choose to pay through “Cash-on-Delivery” i.e. you pay in cash only when the same is delivered at your doorstep:

Ultimate Guide to SSC Combined Graduate Level Exams: Theory Exercises 2012 Solved Paper (Tier - 1 & 2); Author: Disha Experts

List Price: Rs. 470; Offer Price: Rs. 338 Discount: Rs. 132 (28% Off).
SSC Combined Graduate Level Pre. Examination with Solved Paper 2012; Author: Arihant Experts
Publisher: Arihant (2013)
List Price: Rs. 325; Offer Price: Rs. 247 Discount: Rs. 78 (24% Off).
SSC Combined Graduate Level Tier-I Exam: Practice Work Book (60 Sets);  Author: Kiran Prakashan
List Price: Rs. 555; Offer Price: Rs. 440 Discount: Rs. 115 (21% Off).

You can buy any one of above guide book which includes all test sections of Cabinet Secretariat Exam.  But if you are weak in a certain specific test section, you can also buy following test specific books for Cabinet Secretariat Exam:
A Modern Approach To Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning by R. S. Aggarwal

List Price: Rs.725/=; Offer Price: Rs.464/=; Discount: Rs. 261/= (36%)

Text Book of Quickest Mathematics: Quantitative Aptitude & Numerical Ability Useful for all Competitive Exams by Kiran Prakashan
List Price: Rs.325/=; Offer Price: Rs.260/=; Discount: Rs. 65/= (20%)
Objective General Knowledge 6250+Q 2013 Edition (Paperback) by Manohar Pandey

List Price: Rs.235/=; Offer Price: Rs.169/=; Discount: Rs. 66/= (28%)
TMH Objective English For Competitive Examinations By Hari Prasad

List Price: Rs.410/=; Offer Price: Rs.246/=; Discount: Rs. 164 (40%)

For the English Essay (Descriptive) test section of Cabinet Secretariat Exam for PA & Steno, following popular books should be useful:
A Book of Essays Author: Kalpana Rajaram; Publisher: Spectrum.
List Price: Rs. 275; Offer Price: Rs. 239 Discount: Rs. 36 (13% Off).


Prep material for SSC Skill Test:

Once you clear the SSC written exam, you have to appear in the Skill test (Dictation & Transcription).  How do you test yourself for these typing/data entry skills ? How to improve upon your data entry skill?

To answer these questions, I had posted following two exclusive blog post for typing/data entry skill test:

Data Entry Operators Skill Test: It introduces you to the skill test.

Test Your Data Entry Skill Online/Download software: It points you to those resources which helps you test yourself.

Hope with above exam prep material you can appear confidently for the SSC Cabinet Secretariat Exam. My best wishes! I would look for more study materials - the same papers & books for this exam and post them here when I find them. So keep visiting this blog..