SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 20 of 75

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence: He is good in mathematics.

(a)is better in
(b)is good at
(c)is good for
(d)is best at

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The highlighted part is is good in, and the fault is the preposition.

To say someone has skill in a subject or activity, good takes at: good at mathematics, good at chess.

Swap in at and keep the rest: 'He is good at mathematics' → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
is better in — Better makes a comparison the sentence never sets up: better than whom, or than when? It also keeps the faulty preposition in.
(c)
is good for — Good for means beneficial to, as in 'Exercise is good for you'. 'He is good for mathematics' says he benefits the subject, not that he is skilled at it.
(d)
is best at — Best turns plain praise into a ranking: maths is his strongest subject, or he beats everyone. The preposition at is right, but only the preposition needed fixing.

Concept

Adjectives of ability fix their own preposition. Skill in a subject or activity takes at: good at, bad at, better at.

Other prepositions change the meaning. Good for means beneficial ('Milk is good for health'), and good with means able to handle someone or something ('good with children').

In a replace-the-highlighted-part question, change only what is wrong. Here the adjective and its degree are fine, so only the preposition moves.

In does follow good in other senses: 'good in a crisis' describes how someone behaves in a situation. For skill at a subject, the pattern is good at.

Key facts

Skill in a subject or activity: good at, bad at, better at, as in 'good at mathematics'.
Good for means beneficial to: 'Exercise is good for you'.
Good with means able to handle people or things: 'good with children'.

Study next

Adjective + preposition pairs: afraid of, fond of, capable of, good atDegree words after good: better at, the best at

Common traps

Keeping in because a subject feels like something you are inside, as in 'a degree in mathematics'.
Choosing 'is best at' because its preposition is right, without noticing it changes the meaning.

The same preposition is tested as error-spotting at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.19, where the key marks 'good with running' as the error and leaves 'good at catching the ball' untouched.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Sentence improvement — all 133 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.