Exam analysis –All you need to know about CDS

By: T. Deepthi

Know the exam pattern before preparing for any competitive examination is crucial. This is the first step to prepare for competitive exams like CDS. Analyse previous year question papers and practise to clear the exam.

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts Combined Defence Service (CDS) examination twice a year across the country. CDS exam is a national –level examination conducted to recruit entry-level officers in the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and The Indian Air Force. To prepare for competitive examinations like CDS, candidates should have an analysis of previous year question papers. This analysis would help in preparing important topics and managing time while covering the entire syllabus.

Exam pattern

The pattern of the CDS examination was similar in both 2019 as well as 2020. The main purpose of this examination is to select the candidates for admission in The Indian Military Academy (IMA), The Indian Naval Academy (INA), Air Force Academy (AFA) and Officers Training Academy (OTA). The mode of examination is offline. OMR sheet is provided at the time of the examination to answer the questions. There are two phases in this examination. These phases are:

1. Written Examination
2. SSB Interview (Tests Intelligence & Personality)

The details of the exam are given below:

• There are two subjects for OTA. These subjects are as follows:
  • English
  • General Knowledge

The total time duration for this paper is four hours and the total number of questions is 240.

• English consists of 120 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs). The time duration for this section is two hours.
• GK also consists of 120 MCQs. The time duration for this section is two hours.
• One mark is given for every correct answer
• There is negative marking in this exam. Therefore, one-third mark will be deducted for every incorrect answer.

For IMA, INA and AFA there are three subjects. These subjects are as follows:

1. English
2. Elementary Mathematics
3. General Knowledge

• The time duration of this examination is around six hours.
• The total number of questions is 340 Multiple Choice Questions
• For each section, two hours duration of time is allotted
• English & GK subjects carry 240 MCQs with 200 maximum marks and Mathematics carries 100 MCQs with 100 maximum marks
• One mark is given for every correct answer
• There is negative marking in this exam. Therefore, the one-third mark will be deducted for every incorrect answer.

Type of questions asked and the difficulty level

The difficulty level of maximum questions in all the subjects ranges from moderate to difficult. The exam analysis UPSC CDS 2020 is given below:

Section-wise topics covered

The section-wise topics are mentioned below:

English: It consists of 120 questions

 General Knowledge:- It consists of 120 questions. 

Elementary Mathematics:  This section contains 100 questions.

The above shown is my analysis and it may or may not be correct. This analysis is given based on my personal experience.

About the Author:

T. Deepthi is a student at Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam pursuing Bachelor in Technology (B.Tech) with a specialisation in Electronics and Communication Engineering.