Aspirants who are willing to join the Indian defence forces have to appear in various exams so as to achieve their goals. One of the exams is CDSE which is the Combined Defence Services Exam.
Prepare for the CDS Exam 2024:
According to the schedule of the Union Public Service Commission, the notification for the Combined Defence Services Examination (1) 2024 will be released on December 20, 2023. The test is a national-level exam used to select students for admission to the Indian Military Academy, Officers’ Training Academy, Indian Naval Academy, and Indian Air Force Academy. The exam is offered in Hindi and English and is given twice a year. The test is a written, offline assessment.
15 Killer Tips To Crack CDS 1 2024 Written Exam
Combined Defence Sevices Exam is a written exam conducted by UPSC twice every year. Through CDSE, a candidate can join the institution of his dream which is the Indian Military Academy, Airforce Academy, Indian Naval Academy and Officers Training Academy. Candidates having any graduate degree can apply for IMA and OTA and candidates with any degree along with Physics and Maths in 12th standard can apply for AFA.
The Age Limit for applying for the CDSE exam are as follows:
- Airforce Academy – 19-24 years
- Indian Military Academy – 19-24 years
- Officers Training Academy – 19-25 years
- Indian Naval Academy – 19-25 years
The pattern of the paper is as follows
| Subject | Total Questions | Max Marks | Total Time |
| English | 120 | 100 | 2 Hours |
| GS | 120 | 100 | 2 Hours |
| Maths | 120 | 100 | 2 Hours |
Nowadays due to the increasing number of applicants and greater competition, it is seen that various students are unable to crack the exam.
Today we will be sharing 15 killer tips which will help you to crack the exams and not only you’ll crack, you may be able to achieve a good score on the paper.
1. Analyse the Paper.
It is very important for an aspirant to know that which is the most scoring part of the paper whether it is English, GS or Maths. An aspirant should have a proper blueprint of the paper so that he/she may know from which part of the syllabus a maximum number of questions are being asked.
2. Previous Year Questions
These are also known as the ‘Brahmastra’ for any paper. If you analyse the previous year’s questions you’ll know what type of questions are being asked in the examination. Whether they are too easy or too hard or they are moderate. Analysing them will also let you know what is the track of your preparation.
Check Out: CDS Exam Previous Year Question Papers & Answer Keys from 2010 – 2023
3. Only choose specific subjects and not every subject. CDSE gives you a variety of questions and if you analyse you will come to know that half of the questions in the GS paper are from Science+Polity+Current affairs combined. That is approximately 60 questions from just 3 parts. You really don’t have to read economics which may be very troublesome for a science student. A commerce student or an art student, he/she may focus on any 2 portions of science along with Polity and Current affairs and make one of the other subjects strong.
4. Practice Mocks.
Taking Mocks will not only increase your speed in attending questions but also will tell you where do you stand in the real competition. You will get to know how to attempt the questions in the real examination and with effectiveness and attempt CDS Mock Test Series
5. Follow religiously a particular source.
Most of the students do the mistake of seeking study materials from various sources and websites which not only wastes their time but also makes the students confused about which material to use. You can refer to various courses provided by SSBCRACKEXAMS and Join CDS Exam Online Coaching.
6. Revision
Once you are done with your syllabus, now is the time to spend your time on revision.
7. Speed is the key. Don’t waste your time solving a question which you are not able to solve. At maximum just give a min or two to the question. If you are able to solve it, good, or else move to the next question.
8. Don’t study something in the last days of the exam. Just focus on revising on what you’ve read till yet and just solve more and more questions regarding the topics you’ve read. This will help you to hold a grip on the topics you have read.
9. Many of the websites will try to make statements like just to pass gk and focus more on English and Maths, but this is not the case nowadays, if you want to fetch a really good score you should focus more on English paper and maths paper and similarly your focus in the GS paper should be particularly on the topic mentioned above.
10. For maths, questions are very easy and are required to solve with basic understanding, but due to the time pressure such questions come upon as tough, so practice hard and practice more and more questions to increase your speed and ability to solve.
11. Almost 40% of Math paper is summoned up in geometry and mensuration which makes out 40 questions out of 100. Try to focus more on these and later complete others.
12. Your strength in the English paper is the paper itself. Questions are very basic and candidates in the attempt of scoring well, get into the trap of negative marking. Avoid finding the error questions as they contribute a lot to negative marking and focus particularly on sentence rearrangement.
13. Practice more and more numerical for physics and chemistry as these days CDSE is Asking a good number of numerical questions.
14. Learn Geography through maps and practice it through maps, don’t focus much on world geography and focus especially on Indian rivers and soils.
15. Always believe in your hard work and never let your morale down during the preparation. Get proper rest before the exam.
For your benefit, we are stating some important topics for the examination
English Paper
- Comprehension
- Antonyms and Synonyms
- Sentence errors
- Rearrangement of words
- Rearranging sentences
General Knowledge Paper
- Indian Parliament, President, Vice President(Executive and judicial power) Constitutional Bodies, Schedules, statutory bodies, CAG, AGI, SGI, Committees, Panchayats, Municipalities, Supreme Court, High Court, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Election of President, VP, Removal of President, VP.
- Physical Geography (Indian rivers, Indian forest, Soils, ores and minerals, oil mills, islands of India, Clouds)
- Modern History
- Physics + Chemistry + Biology (It is a very vast topic and approximately 25-30 questions are asked from here.)
- Macroeconomics
- Defence (Ranks, Insignia, Commands, Awards, Military Exercises, deals, Chiefs)
- Current Affairs
Maths Paper
- Trigonometry (Formulae, Quantities and applications, heights and distances).
- Algebra (Linear equations, Quadratic Equations, Polynomials)
- Arithmetic (Number System, Divisibility, Roots and square, Time and distance, Time and work, SI&CI, Percentage, Profit and loss)
- Geometry (Triangle, Circle)
- Mensuration (Area, volume, Surface area and volume, Area and Perimeter)
CDS 1 2024 Important Dates: UPSC will publish the CDS 1 2024 notification and important dates. Let’s have a look at the tentative schedule for CDS 1 2024 exam.
| CDS 1 2024 EVENTS | DATES |
| CDS 1 2024 Application Start Date | 20 December 2023 |
| CDS 1 2024 Application Last Date | 09 January 2024 |
| CDS 1 2024 Exam Date | 21 April 2024 (SUNDAY) |
| CDS 1 2024 Admit Card Download Date | 3 weeks before the exam |
| CDS 1 2024 Result Date (Expected) | May – June 2024 |
| CDS 1 2024 Official Notification | TO BE UPDATED |
