Source – indianexpress.com
UPSC NDA 2020: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) will conduct NDA 2020 on April 19, when young defence force aspirants across the country will battle it out in the two-paper exam to qualify for the SSB. This will take candidates to the next step of joining the National Defence Academy’s Army, Navy and Air Force wings for 145th Course, and 107th Indian Naval Academy Course (INAC). Registrations for the exam ended on January 28. Next, the NDA admit card for the UPSC NDA and NA (I) 2020 will be released in online mode, three weeks prior to the exam.
Understanding the exam pattern and knowing the NDA syllabus will open doors to success in this exam. For selection, candidates will be judged out of 1800 marks, where 900 marks are assigned to the written test and 900 marks to SSB.
Written exam of NDA consists of two papers. Paper 1 is of Mathematics, with 120 questions of 300 marks, and Paper 2 the General Ability Test (GAT), which contains 150 questions of 600 marks. The duration of each paper is two-and-a-half hours. It is recommended to go through previous years’ NDA question papers to get a good idea of the type of questions that are asked.
Multiple choice questions are asked in the written test and candidates can choose the mode of answering either in Hindi or English. There is a provision of negative marking in NDA; for every wrong answer, one-third of the marks allotted to that question are deducted. No marks are deducted for the questions left unanswered.
Thus, GAT questions fetch 4 marks for correct answers, and 4/3 is deducted for incorrect answers. And in Math paper, candidates get 2.5 for correct answers, and 2.5/ 3 is deducted for incorrect answers. This marking scheme will be useful to calculate marks after the exam, while going through the NDA answer key.
GAT comprises of English and General Knowledge that includes physics, chemistry, history, geography, current events. Candidates who are able to clear the written exam, on the basis of NDA result of the written exam, will be called for SSB.
Now, let’s have a look at some of the important preparation tips for NDA 2020. It is important that candidates start preparing for the exam as soon as possible, without waiting for the exam date to come any closer.
Whatever sources candidates are referring to, or whatever mode they are opting, everything should revolve around the topics given in the syllabus, which should remain the central point for NDA 2020 preparation.
Maths needs practice and good understanding of the basics. It is recommended that the preparation of Mathematics as well as English and science portions of GAT should be done through NCERT books of class VI to class XII. Candidates should also focus on learning tips and tricks to answer questions in Mathematics, asked in objective form.
To prepare for English, candidates should read newspapers and magazines daily, and also focus on achieving clarity in basic grammar rules. While reading, if they are unable to understand the meaning of certain words, then they should create a separate list of these. Once they are done with the reading, they should try to understand the meaning as well as the usage of these words.
Candidates should be able to identify their command over a particular topic and the number of questions asked from it. Accordingly, they should move forward with their preparation. It is not necessary to learn and practice each and every topic.