How To Score 450+ In NDA Written Exam?

NDA is perhaps the best entry for any defence aspirant to join Army, Navy, and Airforce. The training, education and facilities it provides are incomparable to any other defence academy. 3 years at NDA completely transforms a person regarding his professional, personal, and educational parameters. Totally NDA makes men out of boys.

About The NDA Exam

UPSC conducts NDA written exams twice a year in the months of April and September. Those candidates who qualified for the written exam undergo their interviews at SSB, NSB, and AFSB for entry into Army, Navy, and Airforce respectively.

Scheme Of NDA Written Exam

The NDA written exam consists of 2 papers :-

• Mathematics
  • 120 MCQ Questions for total 300 marks
  • Each Question carry 2.5 marks
  • Our target is to score 150+ marks in mathematics
• General Ability Test
  • 150 MCQ Questions for total 600 marks
  • Each Question carry 4 marks
  • Our target is to score 300+ marks in General Ability Test

Also read: Explained: Arunachal Pradesh and Chinese Obsession

Why To Score Good Marks In NDA Written?

The final merit list is made on the basis of your written + SSB/NSB/AFSB marks. Scoring good marks in an interview is not in your hand, but scoring good marks in written is totally in your approach.

The cutoff of NDA written generally ranges between 320-350. Scoring good marks more than cut off will increase your chances of getting into the academy.

Many candidates qualify for both written and SSB/NSB/AFSB interviews, but due to their low written marks they are not able to join the academy, that is they got merit out. Even if they got into the merit but are at the last rank, then again they got merit out.

Thus, scoring good marks in written matters a lot and 450+, is best possible and realistic marks to score.

How To Score 450+ Marks?

Note: I have cleared NDA written exam 5 consecutive times, right from my first attempt by going through these strategies. So, you can follow my strategies for your exam preparation.

Before coming to strategy, you have to keep following things in your mind :-

• The reference book to use for your preparation is NDA Pathfinder by Arihant.
• This strategy will work best if you have at least 3 months to prepare for your exam.
• You have to devote at least 3-4 hours per day for those 3 months.
• This strategy is for students of PCM and English medium background
• You have to stick to the strategy right from the first day to the date of your exam.
• You have to limit your sources and ensure maximum revision of all available resources.
• You have to maintain a positive and optimistic mindset during your preparation journey.

Preparation Of Mathematics

Our target is to score 150+ marks in mathematics i.e. you have to correct atleast 60 questions.

The syllabus of mathematics is the same as your class 11th and 12th. The NDA mathematics papers consist of questions from the following topics:-

• Algebra ( Around 30 questions), Matrices and Determinants ( Around 10 questions), Trigonometry (Around 15 questions), 2D and 3D geometry ( Around 15 questions), Vector algebra (Around 12 questions), Calculus ( Around 25 questions), Statistics and Probability ( Around 15 questions).

Now let’s discuss about each topic in detail and how to prepare for each topic :-

Algebra

It consists of following chapters :-

• Set Theory, Complex number, Binary number, Arithmetic and Geometric Progression, Quadratic and linear equation, Permutation and combination, Binomial Theorem and Logarithms.

This section consists of around 30 questions. By preparing each chapter thoroughly, you can easily attempt around 20 questions correctly. It means preparing Algebra thoroughly will fetch you around 50 marks easily.

Source – Practice all previous year’s questions given in Pathfinder. Revise your school books of class 11th and 12th at least 2 times.

Matrices and Determinants

It is the most scoring section. It consists of around 10 questions which you can solve easily with just some practice. It will easily fetch you around 25 marks.

Source – Practice all previous year’s questions given in Pathfinder. Revise your school books of class 11th and 12th at least 2 times.

Trigonometry

This section consists of around 15 questions. By preparing you can easily solve around 10 questions. It means you can score 25 marks.

Source – Practice all previous year’s questions given in Pathfinder. Revise your school books of class 11th and 12th at least 2 times.

2D and 3D Geometry

It consists of following chapters :-

• Straight lines, Circle, Parabola, Ellipse, Hyperbola, Straight lines in 3D and 3D Planes

This section by far is the most easiest and scoring one. It consists of around 15 questions, by practice you can easily attempt 10 questions out of it. It will easily fetch you around 25 marks.

Source – Practice all previous year’s questions given in Pathfinder. Revise your school books of class 11th and 12th at least 2 times.

Vector algebra

It consists of around 12 questions, based mostly on scalar and vector product of vectors. It will take some time, but once you prepared it thoroughly you can easily attempt around 10 questions. It will fetch you around 25 marks.

Source – Practice all previous year’s questions given in Pathfinder. Revise your school books of class 11th and 12th at least 2 times.

Calculus

It is by far the most lengthy topic to prepare. Calculus has a weightage of 25 questions in the NDA exam. Most of the questions coming from calculus are easy but solving those questions takes much time unless your basics are clear.

I will suggest you prepare only two topics which are Functions and Limits, Continuity and Differentiability. These two topics are easy to prepare. By preparing these two topics you can easily attempt around 10 questions. It will fetch you around 25 marks.

Source – Practice all previous year’s questions given in Pathfinder. Revise your school books of class 11th and 12th at least 2 times.

Statistics and Probability

It is difficult topic to prepare. It consists of around 15 questions.

I will suggest you focus on preparing those topics which I have discussed. You can completely be left preparing the statistics and probability chapter.

After discussing all my strategy you can clearly observe that you are actually targetting for around 175 marks. Taking a realistic approach and case of negative marking, you can easily score around 150+ marks.

Preparation Of General Ability Test

Our target is to score 300+ in General Ability Test i.e. you have to correct atleast 75+ questions.

It has vast syllabus. It consists of following topics :-

• Part – A
  • English: 50 questions
• Part – B
  • General Science: 50 questions
    • Physics ( around 25 questions), Chemistry (around 15 questions), Biology (around 10 questions)
  • General Studies: 50 questions
    • History (around 10 questions), Geography (around 15 questions), Polity (around 10 questions), Economics (around 5 questions), Current affairs (around 10 questions)

Let’s now discuss about strategy to prepare each part and different topics :-

Part – A

English

English is most scoring part in GAT paper. It consists of 50 questions.

The paper contain questions from Antonyms and Synonyms, Comprehension, Spotting error, Jumbled sentences etc.

Our target is to score 120+ marks i.e. you have to correct atleast 30+ questions.

English section is comparatively easy. Most candidates mark all 50 questions in exam due to overconfidence, which decreases their overall marks due to negative marking. I will suggest you to mark only those questions about which you are confident.

You can prepare English completely from Pathfinder. Only practicing the past 10 years’ question paper of English will give you an edge.

For more practice you can also refer RS Aggarwal English Objective book.

Part – B

General Science

It consist of questions from Physics, Chemistry and Biology. It contain 50 questions.

Our target is to score 120+ marks i.e. you have to correct atleast 30 questions.

By preparing Physics and Chemistry you can easily attempt 30 questions. It will fetch you around 120 marks.

Source – You can completely prepare for theory and practice questions from Pathfinder. Focus on previous year’s questions. No need to refer to other sources.

General Studies

This section is very vast and contain 50 questions. But with guided preparation you can easily score good marks.

History

You should only focus on modern history. Leave ancient and mediaeval history completely.

Prepare modern history from Pathfinder. For getting extra edge you can also refer Lucent Gk.

After preparing modern history you can easily mark around 7-8 questions correctly. It will fetch you around 25 marks.

Polity

You can completely rely on Pathfinder for preparing Polity. You can easily mark around 5 questions correctly. It will fetch you around 20 marks. No need to refer to any other books.

Current affairs

Follow any newspaper. You can also refer to The Hindu news analysis on YouTube by Study IQ. Also, follow some current affairs magazines.

By doing this you can easily mark around 5-6 questions of current affairs correctly. It will fetch you around 20 marks.

By going through my strategy you can observe that you can easily complete the target of getting 300+ marks by attempting 75+ questions correctly.

If you have time and you want, you can also touch the section Geography from Pathfinder by completing theory and previous year questions.

Conclusion

The strategy which I have discussed is trying and tested. You can rely on it and can start your preparation by following a given strategy of mine. Work hard on your dream, achieve it and enjoy it.

GOOD LUCK