DSSSB TGT Section A Strategy: GA, Reasoning, Maths, Hindi, English

DSSSB TGT Section A is 100 marks of General Awareness, Reasoning, Arithmetic, Hindi and English — the same for every TGT subject. It has no minimum of its own, but it feeds the total that decides merit. This guide shows the question types that repeat most across 23 past TGT papers and how to secure 55–65 marks with daily practice.

Key takeaways

• Five sub-sections of 20 questions each; no separate minimum, but every mark counts in the total.
• Reasoning: series, non-verbal, odd one out, mathematical operations and syllogisms lead.
• Arithmetic: percentage, time-speed-distance, mensuration and number system lead.
• Hindi and English: comprehension passages and fill-ups give the most marks.
• Thirty to sixty minutes a day of rotation practice is enough; Section A rewards regularity.

The words you will meet

• Section A — the common general section, Q1–100 in the paper.
• Non-verbal reasoning — figure-based questions: mirror images, figure series, embedded figures, cubes.
• अपठित गद्यांश — an unseen Hindi passage with questions.

Reasoning (20 questions)

Most-repeated types across 23 papers: series (43), non-verbal (39), odd one out (33), mathematical operations (27), syllogism and statement–conclusion, ranking, coding–decoding.

Arithmetic (20 questions)

Most-repeated: percentage (41), time-speed-distance (30), mensuration (29), number system (29), then ratio, profit and loss, interest, time and work, average.

Remember: km/h to m/s, multiply by 5/18. Two successive discounts of x% and y% equal x + y − xy/100 per cent. These two shortcuts alone answer several questions per paper.

General Awareness (20 questions)

History, economy, science, geography, static GK and current affairs dominate, with polity and sports close behind and a few Delhi-specific questions in most papers. Static facts repeat; current affairs come mostly from the last six to eight months. Our Delhi GK guide covers the Delhi part.

Hindi (20 questions)

Most marks come from अपठित गद्यांश and वाक्य शुद्धि, then पर्यायवाची, विलोम, मुहावरे and तत्सम-तद्भव. Learn the common संधि and समास types with two examples each; passages are answered from the text alone.

English (20 questions)

Comprehension (41 across papers) and fill in the blanks (33) lead, followed by para jumbles, sentence improvement, error spotting, synonyms, antonyms and idioms.

Trap: in error spotting, "one of the + plural noun" takes a singular verb, and "senior/junior/prefer" take "to", not "than". These appear again and again.

A weekly rotation

Fit this into the 45-day plan. In the exam, start with your two strongest Section A sub-sections to bank quick marks, then move to Section B — and attempt only what you can answer with reasonable confidence, as the negative marking guide explains. The exam pattern guide shows why Section A still matters for merit.

A realistic Section A target

Common mistakes in Section A

The most common mistake is treating Section A as easy and leaving it unprepared. The questions are school-level, but the speed needed is not. Twenty arithmetic questions in about twenty minutes is comfortable only for someone who has practised the shortcuts recently. A candidate who has not touched percentages or time-and-work problems since school will lose both time and accuracy here.

The second mistake is spending too long on one hard question. In reasoning, a seating arrangement or a long puzzle can swallow five minutes. In arithmetic, a mixture or partnership question with awkward numbers can do the same. Mark such questions and come back only if time remains; the next three questions are usually quicker.

The third mistake is reading the Hindi or English passage before looking at the questions. Read the questions first, then the passage, and the answers stand out as you read. This simple change saves several minutes in each language section.

Using other TGT papers for practice

Because Section A is common to every TGT subject, papers of TGT Mathematics, Science, Social Science or Hindi from recent DSSSB exams are excellent practice for it. Use their first hundred questions as full Section A mocks. Over three or four such papers the repeated patterns become obvious, and your speed improves without any new study material.

A sample week for a working candidate

If you have only about thirty minutes a day for Section A, keep the same rotation but halve each set: ten reasoning questions on Monday and Thursday, ten arithmetic questions on Tuesday and Friday, ten English and ten Hindi on Wednesday and Saturday, and fifteen minutes of General Awareness on Sunday. Over six weeks that is still more than three hundred practice questions, which is enough to make the common types automatic. Add one full Section A practice set of a hundred questions in each of the last two weeks to check your speed under real timing.

Track two numbers from these sets: the time taken and the accuracy. When both are steady for two weeks, you can safely shift more of your time to Section B.

If you are unsure where to begin, start with the topic that gave the most questions in the past papers and work downwards. Write short notes as you go, revise them every few days, and test yourself with timed questions rather than only reading. Steady daily work over the remaining weeks is far more effective than long sessions in the final days, and it leaves you calm enough on the exam day to read every question carefully.

Quick revision

1. Section A: 5 × 20, no separate minimum, counts in the total.
2. Reasoning: series, non-verbal, odd one out, operations, syllogism.
3. Arithmetic: percentage, speed, mensuration, number system.
4. Hindi/English: passages and fill-ups give the most marks.
5. Practise 30–60 minutes daily; aim for 55–65 net.