CDS-II: 2020

CDS 2 exam will be held on November 8, 2020, CDS or Combined Defence Services examination is a national-level entrance test conducted by UPSC twice a year, first in February and the second one in November. It is conducted for the recruitment of candidates for the following defence academies.

Indian Military Academy (IMA)
Indian Naval Academy (INA)
Air Force Academy (AFA)
Officers Training Academy (OTA)

For women/girls who are applying for CDS can only apply for the posts of OTA. The Syllabus of IMA, INA, AFA and OTA is the same.

MODE OF EXAM	OFFLINE
NUMBER OF SECTIONS	IMA, INA,AFA – 3 OTA – 2
TOTAL MARKS	IMA, INA,AFA – 300 OTA – 2000
QUESTIONS	OBJECTIVE TYPE in HINDI & ENGLISH
EXAM DURATION	2Hrs. for each section.

Some Guidelines

Refresh yourself with:

Famous Books and its Author (recent year),
National or Nobel Award Winners (recent year),
Theories or Experiments (recent in news or discovered),
States or Countries (recent in news).
In history try to do questions of all periods and dynasties in a categorised manner .
For Physics and Chemistry, NCERT books of Class 8, 9 and 10 and also, read Class 11 and 12 Physics and Chemistry from the handbook of the respective subjects.
Categorise Biology in three parts – Humans, Plants and Animals and try to cover basics and do questions on them.
In Polity Constitution, Our Preamble, Recent Schemes by Government, Changed Names of Places, Slogans and Taglines of Political Parties or Persons and Recent Historic Decisions or Bills (like CAA) are important.
For Maths, practise topics from NCERT books Class 7 to 10 and simultaneously maintain a separate copy for formulae and key points for last week revision.

SYLLABUS

SECTIONS	TOPICS
ENGLISH	Spotting Errors Questions Sentence Arrangement Questions Synonyms & Antonyms Selecting Words Ordering of Sentence Comprehension Questions Ordering of words in a sentence Fill in the blanks questions Idioms and Phrases
GENERAL AWARENESS	Economics Physics Current Affairs Politics Chemistry Sociology History Defence related Award Geography Environment Sport Biology Cultural Book Statement True-False
Algebra	Basic Operations simple factors Remainder Theorem H.C.F. L.C.M. Theory of polynomials solutions of quadratic equations relation between its roots and coefficients (Only real roots to be considered) Simultaneous linear equations in two unknowns—analytical and graphical solutions Simultaneous linear inequations in two variables and their solutions Practical problems leading to two simultaneous linear equations or inequations in two variables or quadratic equations in one variable & their solutions Set language and set notation Rational expressions and conditional identities Laws of indices
Trigonometric	Sine ×, cosine ×, Tangent × when 0° < × < 90° Values of sin ×, cos × and tan ×, for ×= 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° Simple trigonometric identities Use of trigonometric tables Simple cases of heights and distances
Geometry	Lines and angles Plane and plane figures Theorems on Properties of angles at a point Parallel lines Sides and angles of a triangle Congruency of triangles Similar triangles Concurrence of medians and altitudes Properties of angles sides and diagonals of a Parallelogram rectangle and square Circles and its properties including tangents and normals Loci
Mensuration	Areas of squares rectangles parallelograms triangle and circle Areas of figures which can be split up into these figures (Field Book) Surface area and volume of cuboids lateral surface and volume of right circular cones and cylinders surface area and volume of spheres
Statistics	Collection and tabulation of statistical data Graphical representation frequency polygons histograms bar charts pie charts etc Measures of central tendency

How to do preparation

Go through the syllabus: While studying according to the CDS syllabus, candidates should jot down all the topics they are confident about and those where they lack knowledge. Try to focus on weaker areas and cope up with them as soon as possible to avoid last-minute confusion.

Solve Previous Year Papers and Mocks: This helps candidates in gaining familiarity with the type of questions asked in the exam, distribution of questions, difficulty level and marking scheme. Besides, it helps to asses the level of preparation for the exam. In doing so, candidates can focus on the weaker areas.

Clear basics: It is important to clear your basic concepts rather than cramming the formulas. Since simple questions are asked in a tricky format, be thorough with your concepts in order to understand and solve the questions.

Focus on important topics: During preparations, lay emphasis on important topics, carry maximum marks and easier to score in.

Attempt easier questions first: Candidates should go through all questions and try solving those questions first, which they find easy and require less time to score qualifying marks. Beware of attempting questions that you are not confident of as there is negative marking too.

Preparation tips

English: To enhance the score in English paper, one must go through the rules of grammar and prepare idioms & phrases thoroughly.

General Knowledge: Identify the high weightage topics after analysing the previous years’ question papers. Revise important facts from those topics and current affairs of last 4-5 months properly.

Elementary Mathematics: Revise important formulas and their application methods for Algebra, Arithmetic, Trigonometry, Geometry, Mensuration and Statistics. Do not start with new topics rather revise those you have studied.

Recommended Books

High School English Grammar & Composition Edition by Wren and Martin

Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis