• Short description:

The success rate in UPSC is very limited and hence it is essential that the candidates are aware of the Exam Pattern so they may prepare for it well. The UPSC Exam for NDA is conducted twice a year. The exam consists of two stages. The first stage is the written stage while the second is the Interview round.

• Table:

There are two papers in UPSC NDA and NA written Exam. The papers in all subjects consist of objective type questions only. The scheme of written exams is as under:

As we can see above, the written examination consists of two papers. The mathematics paper is for 300 marks and the General Ability Paper holds 600 marks. The paper of General Ability is conducted in two languages, Hindi and English. Each paper is for duration of 2 and  half hours.

The Papers will contain questions of metric system, weights and measures wherever necessary.

The answers shall be written by the candidates with their own hands and they cannot use a scribe for the same.

The candidates are disallowed from using calculator, logarithmic table for answering any type of questions.

The Candidates that qualify the written examination round then appear for the interview round which is the SSB round.

• SSB Round- Intelligence and Personality Test:

The SSB procedure has two stage selection process. Which is Stage I and Stage II. Only after the candidates clear the first stage, they can appear for the second stage.

The tests in Stage I are conducted first and a combined performance of the candidate in OIR, PP and DT tests shall determine whether the candidate will qualify for the Stage II Examination or not.

The subjects of the Stage II examination, namely, Interview, Group Testing Officer Task and Psychological Test and Conference are conducted by Interviewing Officer, Group Test Officer and Psychologist respectively. These examinations do not have an individual marks allocation. An overall assessment of the performance is made and then the marks are allotted. It helps to bring about the presence or absence of various qualities and abilities of the candidates.

• Preparation Tips:

• UPSC NDA and NA is not an easy examination. It requires the candidates
• The Examination consists of just two subjects, Mathematics and General Ability
• The candidates need to be upgraded with the recent on-goings through reading journals, newspapers and magazines.
• There are various books available for preparation for the paper of mathematics. The candidates must use that.
• There are a lot of solved papers of previous years available for practice of the candidates.
• Training sessions are also available to train the students for SSB Round.