Combined Defence Services (CDS) 2015 Exam Analysis
UPSC conducted Combined Defense Service Exam (CDS), for recruitment to office cadre of the Army, Navy and Air Force, on February 15, 2015. The paper was conducted in three parts. Each subject i.e. English, General Knowledge and Elementary Mathematics, was tested in a separate paper and the duration of each of these was two hours. All three papers comprised multiple choice questions.The papers on English and General Knowledge had 120 questions each while the paper onElementary Mathematics comprised 100 questions.
The detailed analysis is as below:
English
Grammar and Vocabulary dominated the section. The section also saw questions from 5 short passages. Apart from fact based questions, the passages had a few inference based questions too, which were a little tricky in nature. Some of the questions on Para-Jumble and Sentence Arrangement had close options and hence required some amount of deliberation.
The detailed break-down is as below:
Topic |
Number of Questions |
Level of Difficulty |
Sentence Improvement |
20 |
Easy |
Reading Comprehension |
23 (5 passages) |
Easy - Moderate |
Synonyms |
8 |
Moderate |
Antonyms |
7 |
Easy |
One Word Substitution |
5 |
Moderate |
Para-Jumble |
10 |
Easy-Moderate |
Sentence-Jumble |
7 |
Moderate |
Spot the Error |
20 |
Easy |
Cloze Test |
20 |
Easy |
General Knowledge
Questions from Static GK dominated the section. While the science based questions were NCERT level, questions from history revolved mainly around art and culture of 18th century. The overall level of difficulty of this section was moderate.
The detailed break-down is as below:
Topic |
Number of Questions |
Level of Difficulty |
History |
19 |
Difficult |
Science |
27 |
Easy(Concept based) |
Geography |
22 |
Moderate(Analytical) |
Ecology |
06 |
Moderate(Fact Based) |
Polity |
20 |
Easy to Moderate |
Economy/ Trade |
11 |
Moderate(Fact based) |
Misc. /Armed Forces |
15 |
Moderate(Fact) |
ElementaryMathematics
This section comprised questions from a variety of areas. A major part of the section was based on Arithmetic, Trigonometry, Mensuration and Geometry. Some questions from Trigonometry, Number system and Geometry were of good difficulty level.
The detailed break-down is as below:
Topic |
Number of Questions |
Level of Difficulty |
Number System |
20 |
Easy-Moderate |
Simple interest/Compound interest |
5 |
Easy |
Percentage |
2 |
Easy |
Profit/Loss |
1 |
Easy |
Mixture |
1 |
Easy |
Time and Work |
3 |
Easy |
Time speed and Distance |
6 |
Easy |
Clock |
2 |
Easy |
Trigonometry |
14 |
Moderate-tough |
Set Theory |
1 |
Easy |
Geometry |
20 |
Easy-Moderate |
Mensuration |
14 |
Easy |
Algebra |
7 |
Easy-Moderate |
Mean-Median-Mode (Frequency Distribution Table) |
4 |
Easy |
The Expected cut off is as below:
Academy |
Cut off marks |
IMA |
97-102 |
INA |
97-102 |
AFA |
127-132 |
OTA (Men) |
76-81 |
OTA(Women) |
76-81 |
*A minimum score of 20 marks, in each paper, is required to clear the cut-off.
Disclaimer: All information on cut-offs, analysis, answer key and scores are based on independent analysis and evaluation made by Career Launcher. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.
All the best!
Team CL