SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 16 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

The marks of 6 students are given. All the marks are out of 100. Student → English | Hindi | Maths | Physics | Chemistry | Biology A — 70 | 60 | 99 | 80 | 80 | 75 B — 75 | 65 | 85 | 75 | 75 | 70 C — 80 | 80 | 70 | 60 | 70 | 60 D — 72 | 63 | 65 | 70 | 60 | 60 E — 70 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 55 | 55 F — 60 | 60 | 70 | 70 | 60 | 50 Find the percentage scored by C.

(a)70%
(b)68%
(c)75%
(d)65%

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Read row C only, add its six marks, and divide by the six papers' combined maximum.

Row C: English 80, Hindi 80, Maths 70
80 + 80 + 70 = 230

Physics 60, Chemistry 70, Biology 60
60 + 70 + 60 = 190

C's total = 230 + 190 = 420
Maximum = 6 × 100 = 600

Percentage = 420 ⁄ 600 × 100 = 70% → option (a)

Why the others are wrong

(b)
68% — 68% means a total of 408 out of 600. Row C's entries — 80, 80, 70, 60, 70, 60 — add to 420, so 408 comes from a slip in the addition.
(c)
75% — 75% means a total of 450, thirty above C's 420. Row B is the row that comes near it, at 445, so this is a row-reading error rather than an arithmetic one.
(d)
65% — 65% means a total of 390, thirty below C's 420. Since every paper is out of 100, C's percentage equals C's average mark, and 420 ⁄ 6 = 70.

Concept

Aggregate percentage = (marks obtained ⁄ total maximum) × 100, where the maximum is counted across every paper the student sat.

C sat six papers of 100 each, so the denominator is 600 — not 100, and not the number of students in the table.

Because the maxima are all equal, C's percentage happens to equal C's average mark: 420 ⁄ 6 = 70 and 420 ⁄ 600 × 100 = 70. That coincidence disappears the moment the papers carry different maxima.

The whole item is an image: a table of six students A to F against six subjects, above the line 'Find the percentage scored by C.'

Row C reads 80, 80, 70, 60, 70, 60. Mark the row with a finger before adding — the neighbouring rows exist to punish a slip.

Key facts

Row C reads English 80, Hindi 80, Maths 70, Physics 60, Chemistry 70, Biology 60.
C's aggregate is 420 against a maximum of 600.
420 ⁄ 600 × 100 = 70%.

Study next

Aggregate percentage when subjects carry unequal maximum marksExtracting one row or one column from a dense table under time pressureAverage mark against percentage, and the condition under which they agree

Common traps

Adding a neighbouring row, most easily B or D, instead of C.
Dividing by 100, or by the number of students, rather than by 600.
Reporting the average when a percentage is asked, which agrees here but will not when the maxima differ.

SSC prints these grids as images and asks for one student, one subject or one aggregate, so the reading is the exam and the arithmetic is a formality.

A four-student table with papers of 175 marks each is set at Quant Q.23 of the same 19 Sep 2024, 09:00 sitting, where the percentage no longer collapses into the average.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.