What is National Defense Academy NDA Exam and how to prepare for it

What is National Defense Academy NDA Exam

National Defence Academy is a premier joint training institution and center of excellence for grooming junior leaders for the Indian armed forces and armed forces of Friendly Foreign Countries. The training entails equipping the cadets with mental, moral and physical attributes required to cope with the challenges of the future battle field with the aim of leading troops to victory in conventional, non-conventional and asymmetrical conflicts.

 

     The syllabi encompass science, technology, arts and military subjects. The three-year course is split into six terms. A cadet is awarded a Bachelor's Degree from the Jawaharlal Nehru University. The regimen consists of physical conditioning which includes drill, swimming, horse riding, full gamut of games and adventure activities. In three years at the Academy, he is transformed from a Cadet into a potential Officer and a gentleman.

 

HOW TO APPLY

Candidates are required to apply online by using the website upsconline.nic.in. Detailed instructions are available on the above mentioned website.

Candidate should also have details of one photo ID viz. Aadhar Card/ Voter Card/ PAN Card/ Passport/ Driving License/ School Photo ID/Any other photo ID Card issued by the State/Central Government. The details of this photo ID will have to be provided by the candidate while filling up the online application form. The same photo ID card will also have to be uploaded with the Online Application Form. This photo ID will be used for all future referencing and the candidate is advised to carry this ID while appearing for examination/SSB.

CENTRES OF EXAMINATION:

The Examination will be held at the following Centres : Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Bengaluru, Bareilly, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cuttack, Dehradun, Delhi, 4 Dharwad, Dispur, Gangtok, Hyderabad, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jammu, Jorhat, Kochi, Kohima, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Panaji (Goa), Patna, Port Blair, Raipur, Ranchi, Sambalpur, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Udaipur and Vishakhapatnam. Applicants should note that there will be a ceiling on the number of candidates allotted to each of the centres except Chennai, Dispur, Kolkata and Nagpur. Allotment of Centres will be on the first-apply-first-allot basis and once the capacity of a particular centre is attained, the same will be frozen.

Applicants, who cannot get a centre of their choice due to ceiling, will be required to choose a Centre from the remaining ones. Applicants are, thus, advised that they may apply early so that they could get a Centre of their choice.

 

CONDITIONS OF ELIGIBILITY:

(a) Nationality :

A candidate must be unmarried male and must be : (i) a citizen of India, or (ii) a subject of Bhutan, or (iii) a subject of Nepal, or (iv) a Tibetan refugee who came over to India before the 1st January, 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India, or (v) a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka and East African Countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire and Ethiopia or Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India. Provided that a candidate belonging to categories (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v) above shall be a person in whose favour a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India. Certificate of eligibility will not, however, be necessary in the case of candidates who are Gorkha subjects of Nepal.

 

(b) Age Limits, Sex and Marital Status :

Age limit is 18 to 21 years Max .

The date of birth accepted by the Commission is that entered in the Matriculation or Secondary School Leaving Certificate or in a certificate recognised by an Indian University as equivalent to Matriculation or in an extract from a Register of Matriculates maintained by a University which must be certified by the proper authority of the University or in the Secondary School Examination or an equivalent examination certificates. These certificates are required to be submitted only after the declaration of the result of the written part of the examination. No other document relating to age like horoscopes, affidavits, birth extracts from Municipal Corporation, service records and the like will be accepted. The expression Matriculation/ Secondary School Examination Certificate in this part of the instruction includes the alternative certificates mentioned above.

 

(c) Educational Qualifications:

(i) For Army Wing of National Defence Academy :—12th Class pass of the 10+2 pattern of School Education or equivalent examination conducted by a State Education Board or a University.

(ii) For Air Force and Naval Wings of National Defence Academy and for the 10+2 Cadet Entry Scheme at the Indian 6 Naval Academy :

12th Class pass of the 10+2 pattern of School Education or equivalent with Physics and Mathematics conducted by a State Education Board or a University.

Candidates who are appearing in the 12th Class under the 10+2 pattern of School Education or equivalent examination can also apply for this examination.

 

NOTE 1 : Candidates appearing in the 11th class exam are not eligible for this examination.

NOTE 2 : Those candidates who have yet to qualify in the 12th class or equivalent examination and are allowed to appear in the UPSC Examination should note that this is only a special concession given to them. They are required to submit proof of passing the 12th class or equivalent examination by the prescribed date (i.e. 24th December, 2020) and no request for extending this date will be entertained on the grounds of late conduct of Board/University Examination, delay in declaration of results or any other ground whatsoever.

NOTE 3 : Candidates who are debarred by the Ministry of Defence from holding any type of Commission in the Defence Services shall not be eligible for admission to the examination and if admitted, their candidature will be cancelled.

NOTE 4 : Those candidates, who have failed CPSS/PABT earlier, are now eligible for Air Force in Ground Duty branches if they fill 7 their willingness in the Online Application Form available at the Commission’s website.

 

(d) Physical Standards:

Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (I), 2020 as per guidelines given in Appendix-IV. (e) A candidate who has resigned or withdrawn on disciplinary grounds from any of the training academies of Armed Forces is not eligible to apply.

 

A. SCHEME OF EXAMINATION 1.

The subjects of the written examination, the time allowed and the maximum marks allotted to each subject will be as follows:—

Mathematics 

Duration : 2½ Hours

Marks :300

General Ability Test 

Duration : 2½ Hours

Marks : 600

SSB Test/Interview: 900

 

2. THE PAPERS IN ALL THE SUBJECTS WILL CONSIST OF OBJECTIVE TYPE QUESTIONS ONLY. THE QUESTION PAPERS (TEST BOOKLETS) OF MATHEMATICS AND PART “B” OF GENERAL ABILITY TEST WILL BE SET BILINGUALLY IN HINDI AS WELL AS ENGLISH.

3. In the question papers, wherever necessary, questions involving the metric system of Weights and Measures only will be set.

4. Candidates must write the papers in their own hand. In no circumstances will they be allowed the help of a scribe to write answers for them.

5. The Commission have discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all the subjects at the examination.

6. The candidates are not permitted to use calculator or Mathematical or logarithmic table for answering objective type papers (Test Booklets). They should not therefore, bring the same inside the Examination Hall.

 

SYLLABUS OF THE EXAMINATION

Paper I - MATHEMATICS

(Code No. 01)

(Maximum Marks-300)

1. ALGEBRA

Concept of set, operations on sets, Venn diagrams. De Morgan laws, Cartesian product, relation, equivalence relation. Representation of real numbers on a line. Complex numbers—basic properties, modulus, argument, cube roots of unity. Binary system of numbers. Conversion of a number in decimal system to binary system and vice-versa. Arithmetic, 19 Geometric and Harmonic progressions. Quadratic equations with real coefficients. Solution of linear inequations of two variables by graphs. Permutation and Combination. Binomial theorem and its applications. Logarithms and their applications.

2. MATRICES AND DETERMINANTS : Types of matrices, operations on matrices. Determinant of a matrix, basic properties of determinants. Adjoint and inverse of a square matrix, Applications-Solution of a system of linear equations in two or three unknowns by Cramer’s rule and by Matrix Method.

3. TRIGONOMETRY : Angles and their measures in degrees and in radians. Trigonometrical ratios. Trigonometric identities Sum and difference formulae. Multiple and Sub-multiple angles. Inverse trigonometric functions. Applications-Height and distance, properties of triangles.

4. ANALYTICAL GEOMETRY OF TWO AND THREE DIMENSIONS: Rectangular Cartesian Coordinate system. Distance formula. Equation of a line in various forms. Angle between two lines. Distance of a point from a line. Equation of a circle in standard and in general form. Standard forms of parabola, ellipse and hyperbola. Eccentricity and axis of a conic. Point in a three dimensional space, distance between two points. Direction Cosines and direction ratios. Equation two points. Direction Cosines and direction ratios. Equation of a plane and a line in various forms. Angle between two lines and angle between two planes. Equation of a sphere.

5. DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS : Concept of a real valued function–domain, range and graph of a function. Composite functions, one to one, onto and inverse functions. Notion of limit, Standard limits—examples. Continuity of functions—examples, algebraic operations on continuous functions. Derivative of function at a point, geometrical and physical interpretation of a derivative—applications. Derivatives of sum, product and quotient of functions, derivative of a function with respect to another function, derivative of a composite function. Second order derivatives. Increasing and decreasing functions. Application of derivatives in problems of maxima and minima.

6. INTEGRAL CALCULUS AND DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS : Integration as inverse of differentiation, integration by substitution and by parts, standard integrals involving algebraic expressions, trigonometric, exponential and hyperbolic functions. 20 Evaluation of definite integrals—determination of areas of plane regions bounded by curves—applications. Definition of order and degree of a differential equation, formation of a differential equation by examples. General and particular solution of a differential equations, solution of first order and first degree differential equations of various types—examples. Application in problems of growth and decay.

7. VECTOR ALGEBRA : Vectors in two and three dimensions, magnitude and direction of a vector. Unit and null vectors, addition of vectors, scalar multiplication of a vector, scalar product or dot product of two vectors. Vector product or cross product of two vectors. Applications—work done by a force and moment of a force and in geometrical problems.

8. STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY : Statistics : Classification of data, Frequency distribution, cumulative frequency distribution—examples. Graphical representation—Histogram, Pie Chart, frequency polygon— examples. Measures of Central tendency—Mean, median and mode. Variance and standard deviation—determination and comparison. Correlation and regression. Probability : Random experiment, outcomes and associated sample space, events, mutually exclusive and exhaustive events, impossible and certain events. Union and Intersection of events. Complementary, elementary and composite events. Definition of probability—classical and statistical—examples. Elementary theorems on probability—simple problems. Conditional probability, Bayes’ theorem—simple problems. Random variable as function on a sample space. Binomial distribution, examples of random experiments giving rise to Binominal distribution.

 

Paper II - GENERAL ABILITY TEST

(Code No. 02) (Maximum Marks—600)

Part ‘A’

ENGLISH (Maximum Marks—200)

The question paper in English will be designed to test the candidate’s understanding of English and workman like use of words. The syllabus covers various aspects like : Grammar and usage, vocabulary, comprehension and cohesion in extended text to test the candidate’s proficiency in English. 

Part ‘B’

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (Maximum Marks—400)

The question paper on General Knowledge will broadly cover the subjects : Physics, Chemistry, General Science, Social Studies, Geography and Current Events. - The syllabus given below is designed to indicate the scope of these subjects included in this paper. The topics mentioned are not to be regarded as exhaustive and questions on topics of similar nature not specifically mentioned in the syllabus may also be asked. Candidate’s answers are expected to show their knowledge and intelligent understanding of the subject.

Section ‘A’ (Physics)  

Physical Properties and States of Matter, Mass, Weight, Volume, Density and Specific Gravity, Principle of Archimedes, Pressure Barometer. Motion of objects, Velocity and Acceleration, Newton’s Laws of Motion, Force and Momentum, Parallelogram of Forces, Stability and Equilibrium of bodies, Gravitation, elementary ideas of work, Power and Energy. Effects of Heat, Measurement of Temperature and Heat, change of State and Latent Heat, Modes of transference of Heat. Sound waves and their properties, Simple musical instruments. Rectilinear propagation of Light, Reflection and refraction. Spherical mirrors and Lenses, Human Eye. Natural and Artificial Magnets, Properties of a Magnet, Earth as a Magnet. Static and Current Electricity, conductors and Nonconductors, Ohm’s Law, Simple Electrical Circuits, Heating, Lighting and Magnetic effects of Current, Measurement of Electrical Power, Primary and Secondary Cells, Use of X-Rays. General Principles in the working of the following: Simple Pendulum, Simple Pulleys, Siphon, Levers, Balloon, Pumps, Hydrometer, Pressure Cooker, Thermos Flask, Gramophone, Telegraphs, Telephone, Periscope, Telescope, Microscope, Mariner’s Compass; Lightening Conductors, Safety Fuses.

Section ‘B’ (Chemistry)

Physical and Chemical changes. Elements, Mixtures and Compounds, Symbols, Formulae and simple Chemical Equations, Law of Chemical Combination (excluding problems). Properties of Air and Water. Preparation and Properties of Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbondioxide, Oxidation and Reduction. Acids, bases and salts. Carbon—different forms. Fertilizers—Natural and Artificial. Material used in the preparation of substances like Soap, Glass, Ink, Paper, Cement, Paints, Safety Matches and GunPowder. Elementary ideas about the structure of Atom, Atomic Equivalent and Molecular Weights, Valency.

Section ‘C’ (General Science)

Difference between the living and non-living. Basis of Life—Cells, Protoplasms and Tissues. Growth and Reproduction in Plants and Animals. Elementary knowledge of Human Body and its important organs. Common Epidemics, their causes and prevention. Food—Source of Energy for man. Constituents of food, Balanced Diet. The Solar System—Meteors and Comets, Eclipses. Achievements of Eminent Scientists.

Section ‘D’ (History, Freedom Movement etc.)

A broad survey of Indian History, with emphasis on Culture and Civilisation. Freedom Movement in India. Elementary study of Indian Constitution and Administration. Elementary knowledge of Five Year Plans of India. Panchayati Raj, Co-operatives and Community Development. Bhoodan, Sarvodaya, National Integration and Welfare State, Basic Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Forces shaping the modern world; Renaissance, Exploration and Discovery; War of American Independence. French Revolution, Industrial Revolution and Russian Revolution. Impact of Science and Technology on Society. Concept of one World, United Nations, Panchsheel, Democracy, Socialism and Communism. Role of India in the present world.

Section ‘E’ (Geography)

The Earth, its shape and size. Lattitudes and Longitudes, Concept of time. International Date Line. Movements of Earth and their effects. Origin of Earth. Rocks and their classification; Weathering—Mechanical and Chemical, Earthquakes and Volcanoes. Ocean Currents and Tides Atmosphere and its composition; Temperature and Atmospheric Pressure, Planetary Winds, Cyclones and Anti-cyclones; Humidity; Condensation and Precipitation; Types of Climate, Major Natural regions of the World. Regional Geography of India—Climate, Natural vegetation. Mineral and Power resources; location and distribution of agricultural and Industrial activities. Important Sea ports and main sea, land and air routes of India. Main items of Imports and Exports of India.

Section ‘F’ (Current Events)

Knowledge of Important events that have happened in India in the recent years. Current important world events. Prominent personalities—both Indian and International including those connected with cultural activities and sports

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