Tips to Crack Indian Armed Forces Exams

05-March 2021...........

Nowadays, many young defence aspirants wish to join the Indian Armed Forces to serve the Nation and lead a prestigious life enriched with challenges, adventures and pride. To crack the defence exams successfully, the candidates should prepare themselves thoroughly for both academics as well as physical fitness. Every year lakhs of defence aspirants appear in NDA, CDS, AFCAT, INET, Air Force X and Y Group, and MNS like exams but only a few of them realize their dreams of joining the defence forces. Along with stiff competition among defence aspirants, another major cause for failure is the lack of quality guidance and preparation strategy to clear these exams. Therefore, to help defence aspirants prepare well for the upcoming exams, we are sharing a few important tips to crack the defence exams with flying colors.

Important Tips to Crack Defence Exams

The key components of getting success in the exam are a positive attitude and consistent efforts ,learning attitude along with making the fundamental concepts clear , knowing syllabus well and solving previous year’s papers. As by practicing it not only helps you to understand the level of questions asked in the exam but also helps to get an idea of the recent exam trends. Along with these points, the aspirants should practice as many mock tests as they can to boost their confidence in the exam and to develop effective the time-management skills. Defence aspirants who are preparing for AFCAT, NDA, CDS, INET and other Defence-oriented exams like MNS, and Air Force X and Y Group should read this article thoroughly to get all the points clearly as mentioned below:

- Knowledge of the Complete Syllabus
- Knowledge of the Exam Pattern
- Making Notes of Important Topics
- Solving the Previous Year Papers
- Consistent Revision of the Learned Topics
- Attempting Regular Mock Tests
- Recognizing the Strengths and Weaknesses
- Following Efficient Time-Management
- Understanding the Fundamentals Concepts Clearly
- Self Awareness & Dedication
- Knowledge of Defence Sector
- Preparation of Sectional Topics
- Reading Newspapers & Current Affairs
- Staying Positive & Perseverance
- Attempting the Easier Questions First
- Concentrating on Conceptualized Learning
- Maintaining the Physical & Mental Health

To enhance productivity and score adequate marks in the exam, the candidates should strictly follow the prescribed syllabus and exam pattern of the respective exams. One should also note that almost every defence exam has a negative marking scheme barring few. Therefore, strategic preparation to qualify for the exam is a must for the aspirants.

Tips for Preparation of the Sectional Topics

Most of the defence exams have sectional cut-off marks that need to be cleared by the aspirants to qualify for the written exam. The major sections covered in most of the defence exams are English, General Knowledge, Mathematics, Reasoning Ability, and Military Aptitude. The candidates should focus on each topic carefully to score adequate marks in every important section included in the prescribed syllabus. Let’s have a look at important sections covered in most of the defence exams.

Knowledge of English Language:

To score well in the English section of the exam, the aspirants must go through the basics of English like parts of speech and rules of grammar, reading comprehension, vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms, Para jumbles, spotting the errors, and idioms & phrases.

Preparation of General Knowledge:

To score adequate marks in General Knowledge, the candidates should highly emphasize on reading on daily basis and revising the current affairs of national & international importance. Along with this, identifying the high weightage topics through solving the previous years' question papers is also very helpful. One should also go through the topics which are important from exam point of view covered in subjects for instance: History, Geography, Political Science, Sports & Awards, Economics, Environmental Studies, and General Science.

Preparation of Mathematics:

While preparing for the mathematics section, the aspirants should follow the principle of “Practice makes the man perfect.” to boost their proficiency in the exam. Along with practice of maximum questions, the candidates should also focus on revision of Elementary maths, important formulae and their application methods for next level maths depending on type of exam and its syllabus. For example : Arithmetic, Algebra, Trigonometry, Mensuration, Geometry, and Statistics & Probability etc. Solving previous year papers is of utmost advantage for candidates to score maximum marks in the mathematics section as per type of exam the student is appearing in whether Officer cadre level or Non Officer cadre level.

Tips to Prepare for SSB Interview

In most of the Defence exams like NDA, CDS, and AFCAT, the shortlisted candidates appear for an Interview after qualifying for the written exam. For NDA & CDS-like exams, the Interview is conducted by the Services Selection Board (SSB), while for AFCAT, the interview is conducted by the Air Force Selection Board (AFSB). The whole interview process consists of testing the intelligence and personality of the candidates along with finding the officers like traits in them. The physical as well as mental fitness of the candidates play a crucial role to excel in the SSB/ AFSB. The candidates can follow the below-mentioned tips to prepare for the SSB Interview.

- Developing a clear insight of perception and understanding for PP&DT and by practicing verbal and non verbal reasoning questions ( Stage 1- Test)
- Self analysis of oneself for better performance in psychological tests
- Improving personality traits for preparation of the Interview
- GTO Preparation to excel in the group testing
- Practicing Lecturette & Story Narration
- Develop essential habits for ground tasks
- Comprehensive understanding of prevalent topics
- Complete knowledge of native place
- Developing the confidence and oratory skills
- Reading newspapers for Current Affairs