UPSC conducts the Combined Defence Services Examination for recruiting new candidates every year for the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. To improve your overall score in CDS (I) Exam, a detailed study on UPSC CDS Exam Analysis 2015 has been provided below. This analysis will specify the number of questions from each topic alongwith a few pointers on the level of difficulty of specific topics in CDS 2015 Exam.
We hope this UPSC CDS Exam Analysis of previous years’ paper will help increase your overall score in actual CDS 2016 Examination.
UPSC CDS Exam Analysis 2015 (Topic-Wise)
We hope everyone is familiar with the current exam pattern of Combined Defence Services Exam. If not, we’ll briefly inform you right away.
UPSC CDS Exam Syllabus Pattern: Defence Recruitment Examinations are quite brutal when it comes to selection process.
Refer to the following table to understand UPSC Exam Pattern for candidates preparing for training in Indian Military Academy, Naval Academy and Air Force Academy.
Section
Number of Questions
Marks
English
120
100
General Knowledge
120
100
Elementary Mathematics
100
100
Total
340
300
The UPSC CDS (I) Written Exam is divided into 3 sections, namely English, General Knowledge and Elementary Mathematics. The time limit for each section is set for 2 hours. Hence, the Combined Defence Services Examination is a 6-Hour Ordeal.
In case of Officers’ Training Academy, the exam has 2 sections, English and General Knowledge.
We begin our detailed paper analysis of Combined Defence Services Exam 2015 by discussing about the English Section first.
UPSC CDS Exam Analysis 2015: English Language
The Difficulty Level of CDS (l) 2015 English Paper was pretty moderate as compared to the previous years CDS papers. Some of the questions could be said as marginally tough to solve but some were pretty straight forward.
Reading Comprehension was time consuming as reported by a few candidates whereas Cloze Test, Sentence Improvement, Synonyms and Antonyms were easy to attempt. We expect the pattern to be similar this year too.
The table below tells about the number of questions from each topic in CDS (I) English Exam 2015.
S. No. | Topic | No. of Questions |
1. | Antonyms and Synonyms | 15 |
2. | Spot the Error | 20 |
3. | Sentence Improvement | 20 |
4. | Word Substitution/ Selection | 25 |
5. | Reading Comprehension | 23 |
6. | Parajumble Words | 17 |
Clearly Reading Comprehension, Spot the Error and Para Jumble Words played a major role in the CDS (I) English Paper. Hence, it goes without saying that UPSC CDS English Paper is all about testing your knowledge of the Language.
“Not so hardcore yet not very subtle at the same time”
UPSC CDS Exam Analysis 2015: General Knowledge
As expected by study matter experts, the difficulty level of questions in CDS (l) 2015 General knowledge paper was up a notch when compared to CDS 2015 Exam. Some even went as far as considering CDS (I) GK Paper to be one of the toughest recruitment exam sectional test. Here are the number of questions asked from each section.
S. No. | Topic | No. of Questions |
1. | Physics | 14 |
2. | Chemistry | 10 |
3. | Biology | 8 |
4. | Geography | 13 |
5. | Polity | 18 |
6. | History | 9 |
7. | Current Affairs | 7 |
8. | Sociology and Environment | 13 |
9. | Economics Concepts | 9 |
10. | Cultural Awareness | 4 |
11. | True/false | 4 |
12. | General Knowledge (Defence) | 11 |
Polity, History, Sociology, Physics and Chemistry comprised of more than 55% of the total weightage of the section. History, Geography and Economy based questions were tough. You might consider Polity to be main scoring topic here.
UPSC CDS Exam Analysis 2015: Elementary Mathematics
Arithmetic Ability was the clear winner here. A mixed bag set of questions with variable difficulty level was asked in CDS (I) Exam 2015. But when we talk about overall level of difficulty, mathematics questions were quite easy. Just a few roadblocks, but otherwise a smooth ride.
S. No. | Topic | No. of Questions |
1. | Arithmetic Ability | 35 |
2. | Algebraic Expressions | 12 |
3. | Trigonometry | 15 |
4. | Geometry | 14 |
5. | Mensuration | 18 |
6. | Statistics | 6 |
We hope our analysis will benefit you towards getting a better score in the upcoming UPSC CDS 2016 Examination. We will be providing an in-depth analysis of this year’s Combined Defence Services Exam as soon as the paper is held i.e. 14 February 2016.
All the Best to all CDS Aspirants!
This is very useful..please give detail about officer training academy,syllabus and how to prepare.