SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 7 of 100

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 11 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.

If × stands for addition, ÷ stands for subtraction, + stands for multiplication, and − stands for division, then 7 × 3 ÷ 6 − 4 + 2 = ?

(a)7
(b)9
(c)10
(d)8

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: swap each sign for its meaning first, then apply BODMAS.

Substitute: 7 × 3 ÷ 6 − 4 + 2 becomes 7 + 3 − 6 ÷ 4 × 2
Divide: 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5
Multiply: 1.5 × 2 = 3
Add and subtract: 7 + 3 − 3 = 7 → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
9 — 9 would need 6 ÷ 4 × 2 to equal 1, since 7 + 3 − 1 = 9. Worked left to right it is 1.5 × 2 = 3, not 1.
(c)
10 — 10 is just 7 + 3. It drops the term 6 ÷ 4 × 2 = 3, which still has to be subtracted.
(d)
8 — 8 would need the division-and-multiplication term to be 2. It is 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5, then 1.5 × 2 = 3, so the result is 10 − 3 = 7.

Concept

Symbol substitution has two stages. First rewrite the expression with the real operations, sign by sign, before any arithmetic. Then evaluate with BODMAS: division and multiplication before addition and subtraction, each pair left to right.

Here × becomes +, ÷ becomes −, + becomes × and − becomes ÷. The division 6 ÷ 4 gives a decimal, 1.5, and the multiplication by 2 brings it back to a whole number.

Write the substituted expression out in full before solving, so you never do arithmetic on the old signs.

Key facts

BODMAS: brackets, orders, division and multiplication, then addition and subtraction.
Division and multiplication have equal priority and are done left to right.
6 ÷ 4 × 2 = 3 when worked left to right.

Study next

Letter-coded operations, such as P for addition and D for subtractionInterchanging two signs to make an equation correctSymbol substitution with brackets

Common traps

Doing the arithmetic on the original signs before substituting
Working the substituted expression strictly left to right instead of doing division and multiplication first

19 Sep 2025, 09:00, Reasoning Q.9 swaps all four signs with a different key: 16 ÷ 2 − 4 + 3 × 5 becomes 16 × 2 ÷ 4 − 3 + 5 = 10, keyed b.

19 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.9 uses the same two stages with another sign key, and Q.8 with letters for the operations.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.