SSC CGL tier-1 exam starts today; 28 lakh to appear amid heightened security with CCTV, AI, biometric checks

More than 28 lakh candidates will appear for the SSC CGL 2025 exam from today. The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) will conduct the tier-1 of the Combined Graduate Level Examination (CGL 2025) from September 12 to 26 amid tight security following the protest over technical glitches.

A total of 28,14,604 candidates are expected to appear in 260 centres spread over 129 cities. The recruitment exam is held for 14,582 SSC CGL vacancies, of which 6,183 posts are reserved for general, 3,721 for OBC, 2,167 for SC, 1,088 for ST, and 1,423 for EWS. Candidates are required to carry their SSC CGL admit card to be allowed entry inside the exam centre.

The commission has issued stricter guidelines and tightened the security to prevent cheating and avoid errors in the exam.

It has also deployed advanced solutions to detect cases where any exam node is taken under remote control. Aadhaar verification, biometrics and facial recognition entry and exit, CCTV surveillance and AI analytics are also in place to flag such suspicious cases.

For the first time, the SSC will also be conducting the examination on laptops in select venues at Kolkata.

Extending best wishes to candidates, SSC chairman said: “Candidates are advised not to panic in case of any technical issue during the examination. In case of any snag, the system will be shifted promptly, and it will be ensured that there will be no loss of time. SSC representatives will be present at all centres, and in case of any concern, you can immediately report the matter to them.”

SSC CGL exam 2025: Normalisation method

After evaluating the impact of normalisation, the SSC has adopted a new procedure of normalisation based on the equipercentile method.

Under the equipercentile system, instead of adjusting scores using averages and variation (spread), the ranks or percentiles of the candidates in each shift are considered, the SSC said.

According to this system, the most important determinant of a candidate's performance is his ranking within his own shift, which is reflected by the percentile score.

For example, a candidate who scored better than 80 per cent of the examinees in one shift will be matched with a candidate who scored better than 80 per cent examinees in another shift, the commission said. By matching candidates based on their relative positions in their own shifts, this method creates a fair way to compare scores across different shifts, even if the difficulty varies, it added.

"Thus, the new method ensures that candidates who faced certain problems relating to content in one shift won't be unfairly ranked compared to candidates in other shifts who didn't face similar problems," the SSC said, adding that it will continue to work towards improving the systems so as ensure the sanctity of the examinations conducted by it.

SSC protest, exam timings

Candidates had been protesting, staging nationwide protests, demonstrations for more than a week against the postponement, technical glitches, paper leak, far-off exam centres, and mismanagement, candidates across the country demanded for SSC exam overhaul.

Following the protest, the SSC chairman S Gopalakrishnan assured that the technical and operational issues will be resolved before conducting the SSC CGL tier-1 computer-based test (CBT).

He also clarified that the previous exam conducting agency was TCS, which had many exam centres to accommodate students in one shift, but the new agency has started to ramp up centres in many places. Hence, students were allotted far-off exam centres.

The exam is usually conducted in four shifts – shift 1 from 9 am to 10 am, shift 2 from 11.45 am to 12.45 pm, shift 3 from 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm, and the fourth optional shift available for selected exam centres will be held from 5.15 pm to 6.15 pm.