The Tier-1 window opens on 30 September 2026, which leaves you about a fortnight. The most common mistake in these sixteen days is taking mocks like someone collecting scores. A mock in mid-September is not a measurement of how good you are; it is a rehearsal of one specific 60-minute performance under four 15-minute sectional locks, with +2 for a right answer and -0.5 for a wrong one. The number of mocks you sit matters far less than the hour you spend afterwards taking each one apart. Remember also that SSC has announced a window, not per-candidate dates - your own date and shift arrive on the admit card, so part of what you are rehearsing is composure under a schedule you do not yet know. This page covers how many to sit, at what time of day, when to stop, and exactly how to review one so that it changes something before the end of the month.
CGL Tier-1 2026 is a Computer-Based Exam: 100 questions, 200 marks, 60 minutes, with a 15-minute sectional timer on each of the four sections. Unused time in one section cannot be carried into the next. Marking is +2 for a correct answer and -0.50 for an incorrect one. A mock that does not enforce those locks is not rehearsing the paper you will actually sit.
SSCIntel's full mocks - three a week on the free plan - are built to the Tier-1 specification: 100 questions, four sections of 25, a hard 15-minute lock on each section, and +2/-0.5 marking. The point of practising under the lock is that it forces the one decision the real exam will force on you - when to abandon a question because the section is about to close. Practising untimed, or with a single 60-minute clock you can spend as you like, trains a habit the exam will punish.
After each mock, the AI sorts every mistake into conceptual, calculation, careless or time-pressure. That distinction matters more in September than at any other time, because with sixteen days left the careless and time-pressure errors are the ones actually worth chasing - they are habit problems, and habits move in a fortnight. A conceptual gap in a topic you have never studied is usually better left alone now.
A raw score of 130 means nothing on its own. The analysis estimates your All-India position against real 2020-24 cut-off data, so you can see roughly where you sit rather than inventing a number in your head at midnight. Treat it as context and nothing more - 2026 has 12,256 vacancies and over 28 lakh applicants, and this year's actual cut-off will be published only with the result.
Each analysis produces a 7-day plan, which in this fortnight means two plans and then the exam. On days you cannot sit a full mock, the Daily Practice Paper keeps the habit alive in about twenty minutes, with a streak and a daily leaderboard. The free tier gives you one AI analysis a week and eight tutor messages a day in Hindi or English; paid plans start at Rs 499 a month or Rs 2,999 a year if you want an analysis after every mock.
Six to ten is realistic for most candidates - roughly one every other day, with the days in between spent on review and targeted practice. Taking one every single day sounds disciplined but usually means you never review properly, and an unreviewed mock teaches you almost nothing. A simple test: if your post-mortem takes less time than the mock itself, you are collecting scores rather than improving. The review is the part that changes your marks.
SSC has announced a window from 30 September to 30 October 2026, not individual dates, so your shift is unknown until the admit card is released. Until then, rotate: do most mocks in the morning but sit two or three in an afternoon slot so an afternoon shift does not feel alien. Once your admit card names your actual reporting time, sit every remaining mock at that hour. Your body clock is a real variable in a paper this short.
It is very common in the final fortnight and it is rarely what it looks like. Scores move with fatigue, with the particular difficulty of one paper, and with the fact that you are probably attempting more aggressively than you were a month ago. Look at attempts and accuracy separately before you look at the total - a falling score with rising attempts means your selection has loosened, not that you have forgotten everything. One bad mock is noise; three in a row is a pattern, and even then the fix is usually sleep and sectional discipline rather than new material.
Take your last full mock about 48 hours before the date on your admit card, and keep the final day for light revision, your formula sheet and sleep. A mock on the evening before does little except manufacture anxiety, because there is no time left to act on what it tells you. The last two days should feel deliberately under-loaded. Ending on a mock you did reasonably well in is also worth engineering.
Both, with full mocks as the spine. A full mock rehearses the one thing nothing else can - surviving four consecutive 15-minute locks without losing your composure somewhere in the third section. Sectionals are for the gap the last mock exposed, and they are cheaper in time and energy. One full mock every other day with sectionals on the off days works for most candidates in this particular fortnight.
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