NDA is just around the block and it must be giving nerves to many of you who want to clear it anyhow. But when it comes to mathematics, many of us have nightmares about it since it is not our strongest point. Brushing up the basics of NDA Exam, test will be of 900 marks divided into Mathematics (300 marks) and General Ability Test (600 marks). The candidates will be given a time of two and a half hours to finish the examination as the questions will be of objective types. The test have two papers: Paper 1 will have Mathematics: Algebra, Matrices and Determinants, Trigonometry, Analytical Geometry of two and three dimensions, Differential Calculus, Integral Calculus and Differential Equations, Vector Algebra, Statistics and Probability; while Paper 2 will test your General Ability and English.
So, if you are all done with the preparations for the big day, here are some tips to keep in consideration before going to the exam:
- Don’t panic, as it will make the situation worse. Revise your notes on the night before the exam and in the morning.
- Don’t try to fill your mind with the points from book. Take rest – it will make your body energetic and ever ready for all the upcoming tasks.
- Eat a healthy. Healthy food will give you the required energy to prepare for your exams.
- Have a good night’s sleep and go by the tips to remember formulae in my article on A Good Night’s Sleep and SSB Interview.
- Solve previous year exam papers. Even if you are left with a bit a preparation to do, leave it and start solving previous year’s papers.
- Be cool and do not take stress or pressurise yourself. What you have done till now is enough. Do not start new topic; just revise what you’ve prepared.
- During the exam, avoid leaving anything blank. There may only be 1 in 4 marks to lose if you got it wrong. But considering you got at least one correct in 4 guesses, you are neutral and if you got more than 1 correct, it’s in your favour. Try as hard as you can to make an intelligent guess. For more on this, check my article on Making Educated Guesses in Objective Tests Part-1 for GAT and Part-2 for Maths.
- Be calm and execute each task in an organised manner.
- Make arrangements for the big day – keep an extra pen with you, a hall ticket and loads of blessings.
Starting preparations for the NDA exam now is a real worse idea. The best thing to do now is to solve previous year’s papers as much as you can. And if you start today, you can easily solve enough papers to tackle the exam.
Preparation for NDA need a strategy and some basic point to remember and follow. NDA is one of the competitive exams that a candidate faces after 12th. Being a fresher in facing the competitive exam, we are here to ease all NDA candidates in making a strategy for NDA written exam.
- English is not a serious problem – All English medium candidates will find the English section easily coverable. But to increase your performance in English, start reading newspaper and solving previous year papers.
- Attempt questions of your native subject – Your knowledge in your stream subjects (history, geography – arts; physics, chemistry – science; economics – commerce) will help you in increasing your score. Your subjective knowledge is sufficient to attempt those questions.
- Have a deep look over current affairs – Current affair questions in NDA are asked in either statement type questions or directly asked questions. Having deep knowledge of current affairs will maintain your score.
- Prepare for other subjects also – To score more in G.S., the candidates should have knowledge of other subjects also. Like science student should have some knowledge of basics of geography and history. It will increase your marks and your chances of selection.
- Sample papers and previous year papers – To get the idea of your performance and hint of exam pattern, the candidate must go through previous year papers and sample papers of NDA. It will boost your knowledge and will also give you an idea of attempting paper in time.
- Memorize the tips and tricks / formulas for Maths section: The first exam is of maths. For that you must remember all the mostly appearing formulas. With that you will not only enable quick resoling of the questions, but also help you in completing with exam with remarkable accuracy.
- Rest your mind: Don’t try to cram all the points from study material or other resources. Your mind is a good storage machine, but only when it’s handled correctly. Schedule your time and take rest accordingly. It will make your body energetic and ever ready for all the upcoming tasks.
- Done hurry yourself: Don’t confuse yourself in preparations. Be calm and execute each task in a monetized manner. Make every arrangement (whether it is about pen, watch or you’re travelling schedule) and work accordingly.
Some other basic instructions for all NDA aspirants before appearing in the exam are:-
- Use a black ball pen
- Don’t take any electronic device, except wrist watches, in the examination hall
- Reach the examination hall before 9:30 A.M.
So, with these points, you can make yourself fully ready to crack the exam and initiate your preparation for the next level (SSB).
