SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 15 of 99

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: She is senior than me in college.

(a)is more senior than
(b)is senior from
(c)is elder than
(d)is senior to

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Senior belongs to the comparatives from Latin (senior, junior, superior, inferior, prior) that take to, not than.

So the sentence must read:
She is senior to me in college.

Because to is a preposition, the object pronoun me after it is correct as printed. That is option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
is more senior than — more senior than keeps than and adds more. The textbook rule treats senior as a comparative already, so it takes to and needs no more.
(b)
is senior from — senior from uses a preposition senior does not take in a comparison. When one person is ranked against another, senior is followed by to.
(c)
is elder than — elder than fails twice: elder is not followed by than (older than is the form), and elder compares ages within a family, not standing in college.

Concept

Comparatives from Latin take to, not than. Senior, junior, superior, inferior and prior already carry the idea of comparison, so the preposition to follows: He is junior to me. This plan is superior to that one.

Prefer and preferable work the same way: I prefer tea to coffee.

A pronoun after to takes the object form: senior to me.

More senior does appear in everyday English, as in a more senior colleague. In a direct comparison of two people, though, the form the key takes, and the one the grammar rule prescribes, is senior to.

Key facts

Senior, junior, superior, inferior and prior are followed by to, not than.
Elder is used of family members and is not followed by than: my elder brother, but older than me.
After the preposition to, a pronoun takes the object form: senior to me.

Study next

Prefer ... to and preferable to, compared with would rather ... thanElder and eldest versus older and oldestPronoun case after than and as: taller than I am

Common traps

Choosing more senior than because it sounds natural in speech.
Choosing elder than because elder and senior both suggest being older.

The same rule is keyed at 15 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.21, where He is senior than me in age is corrected to senior to me in age, with elder to me among the decoys.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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