AFCAT Exam Pattern 2025: Negative Marking & Total Marks

AFCAT exam comprises sections such as General Awareness, Verbal Ability in English Numerical Ability, Military Reasoning, and Aptitude test. Total marks allotted to the test are 300.

AFCAT exam or Air Force Common Admission Test is conducted by Indian Air Force to select candidates as Class 1 gazetted officers in the Flying and Ground Duty (Technical and Non-Technical) branches. EKT or Engineering Knowledge Test is conducted for the candidates who apply for the technical branches. AFCAT exam carries a total of 100 questions from General Awareness, Verbal Ability in English Numerical Ability, Military Reasoning, and Aptitude test. The total marks allotted to the AFCAT exam are 300. The duration of the test is two hours. EKT carries 50 questions that are Engineering subject-specific. Questions are asked from Mechanical, Computer Science, and Electrical & Electronics. The total marks allotted to the test are 150 and is held for 45 minutes.

There are only four papers in the AFCAT exam-General Awareness, Verbal Ability in English Numerical Ability and Reasoning, and Military Aptitude Test. AFCAT technical syllabus comprises topics from Mechanical, Computer Science, and Electrical & Electronics. Engineering Mathematics, Engineering Drawing & Physics are some of the common topics which are covered in AFCAT EKT syllabus. The standard of Numerical Ability questions is of Matriculation level. The standard of questions in other subjects is of graduation level (Indian University). The exam paper is in English only. The test paper carries a total of 100 questions whereas EKT carries a total of 50 questions. All the questions asked in the exam are objective-type. Total marks allotted to the AFCAT test are 300 whereas EKT carries a total of 150 marks.

There are very lesser chances of questions getting repeated from the AFCAT previous years' paper. However, candidates must practice the previous years' question papers to know the type of questions asked in the exam. Solving the question papers will help candidates to improve their question solving ability. AFCAT syllabus outlines the topics and sub-topics which candidates need to prepare for the exam. AFCAT syllabus carries questions from the topics- General Awareness, Verbal Ability in English Numerical Ability and Reasoning, and Military Aptitude Test. English section carries questions from Antonyms and Synonyms, English Grammar, Idioms and phrases, Comprehension, etc. Reasoning and Military Aptitude carries questions from Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Maths section carries questions from Decimals, Fractions, Profit & Loss, Average, Percentage, Ratio and Proportion, Speed, Time and Distance, etc.

AFCAT full form is Air Force Common Admission Test. The exam is conducted twice a year to pick up Class-1 Officers in Flying and Ground Duty (Technical and Non-Technical) branches. Career in Air Force is loaded with opportunities. Candidates starting their career as Flying Officer can reach to the position of Air Marshal/Chief of Air Staff based on their experience and performance.

AFCAT is a competitive exam that assesses the knowledge and abilities of candidates who are interested in joining the Indian Air Force. To prepare for the exam, candidates should start by familiarising themselves with the exam pattern and syllabus. Here are some tips to help you prepare for the AFCAT exam: Understand the exam pattern and syllabus: The first step in preparing for the AFCAT exam is to understand the exam pattern and syllabus. Practice with sample papers and mock tests that will help candidates get familiar with the question types and the level of difficulty of the exam. This will also help you identify areas where you need to improve. Focus on your weak areas: Once you have identified your weak areas, focus on improving them. You can do this by reading more about these topics, solving related problems, and taking online quizzes. Stay updated with Current Affairs The GA section of the AFCAT exam assesses your knowledge of Current Affairs.

AFSB or Air Force Selection Board is held for candidates qualifying the online test of AFCAT. The AFSB interview is conducted in three stages at different centres-Dehradun, Varanasi, Gandhinagar and Mysuru. At AFSB, candidates need to undergo the following tests: Stage-I: This stage comprises Officer Intelligence Rating Test along with Picture Perception and discussion test on the first day. This is the screening stage and qualifying the test are called for subsequent rounds of AFSB. In the first stage, the documents of candidates are verified to ascertain their eligibility for the branch they have applied for. Stage 2: This stage is conducted for five days. The tests that are conducted in this stage are Psychological Tests, Group Tests, Interview and Computerised Pilot Selection System (CPSS). The CPSS is conducted for Flying Branch and it is a once in a lifetime test.

AFCAT exam is conducted to get into the Indian Air Force. To adjust the level of difficulty, normalisation of marks are done in AFCAT. It is the process to mark and rank candidates based on the difficulty level of the shifts. It is a process to equalize scores of students appearing for the same exam but in different shifts having different Sets of question papers. Candidates are marked based on the difficulty level of the shifts. Each shift has a different difficulty level. The normalisation process is introduced to adjust the difficulty level of each set and is used to fill the gap of disparity.

Reasoning and Military Aptitude Test is one of the important sections of AFCAT exam. This section assess a candidate's ability to apply logic and military skills in practical situations. The important topics for this section are:

Verbal Reasoning: The Verbal Reasoning section comprises the following topics:

• Series Completion
• Coding-Decoding
• Analogy, Classification
• Blood Relations
• Puzzle Test
• Logical Venn Diagrams
• Alphabet Test
• Ranking
• Time Sequence Test.

Non-Verbal Reasoning: This section comprises the following topics:

• Series
• Analogy
• Classification
• Mirror Images
• Water Images
• Embedded Figures
• Completion of Incomplete Pattern
• Figure Matrix
• Paper Folding

The full form of AFCAT is Air Force Common Admission Test whereas the full form of NDA is National Defence Academy. Both exams are the sought-after defence entrance exams in the country. NDA exam is conducted by Union Public Service Commission to select candidates for admission to the Army, Navy and Air wings of NDA and Indian Naval Academy Courses. AFCAT exam is conducted to select candidates as Class 1 gazetted Officers in the flying branch and ground duty (Technical and Non-Technical) branches. NDA exam is conducted after Class 12 whereas AFCAT is conducted after graduation. The selection process of AFCAT comprises online test and AFSB interview. NDA selection process comprises written exam and SSB interview. Candidates after clearing NDA exam are required to first undergo training at the National Defence Academy after which they are sent to the respective defence academies as per their preferences for further training. Through AFCAT exam candidates are directly inducted into the Indian Air Force. There is also a difference in the exam pattern and syllabus of NDA and AFCAT. NDA exam pattern is such that it is divided into two papers-Maths and GAT. NDA exam is conducted offline and carries 900 marks. AFCAT exam pattern is such that it comprises several sections such as General Awareness, Verbal Ability in English Numerical Ability, Military Reasoning, and Aptitude test. Additionally, candidates who opt for the technical branch in AFCAT are required to appear for Engineering Knowledge Test (EKT). The total marks allotted to the AFCAT test are 300 whereas EKT 150 marks.

The important topics for the English Language section of the AFCAT exam are Comprehension, Error, Sentence Completion, Synonyms, Antonyms and Vocabulary, Idioms, and Phrases. 

Questions in the General Awareness section in the AFCAT exam are asked from History, Geography, Civics, Politics, Current Affairs Environment, Basic Science, Defence, Art, Culture, Sports, etc. Candidates must keep an watch on the latest national and international news for the Current Affairs. They must prepare the Current Affairs of last one year to six months. The tips and tricks to ace the General Awareness section are given below:

• Candidates must read newspapers, magazines, current affairs regularly inorder to get updated with the recent happenings
• Candidates must focus on important topics such as Indian History, Geography, Indian Polity, Economy, Sports, Science and Technology, Awards and Honors, etc.
• Candidates must take online quizzes and mock tests to check their knowledge and identify weak areas
• Candidates must make notes of important facts and figures for quick revision

The important topics for the AFCAT Numerical Ability section are Decimal Fraction, Time and Work, Average, Profit & Loss, Percentage, Ratio & Proportion and Simple Interest, Time and Distance (Trains/Boats & Streams). Candidates can prepare for the Numerical Ability section only through practice. They should also learn the shortcut tricks of solving questions in this section. Solving questions with the shortcut tricks will help candidates to attempt more questions in less possible time. The tips and tricks to prepare the Maths section of AFCAT are given below: Review the math concepts that will be covered on the test. This includes topics such as Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry Make sure to understand the formulas and concepts Practice Maths as much as possible Make sure to practice Maths questions in the time allotted for the test Take online mock tests