CDSE or Combined Defence Service Exam is one of the biggest exams for inducting officers into the Indian Military i.e. Army, Navy and Airforce. Males are eligible to join Army (IMA), Navy and Airforce while for Army (OTA, SSC) male and females both are eligible. CDSE comprises of written test followed by Personality Tests (SSB Interview).
CDSE Written Test
CDSE is an objective paper. It has three papers in all English, General Awareness and Mathematics. All the three papers are of 100 marks each, which make the CDSE of total 300 marks. Total number of questions is 120 in each paper and each paper is of 2 hour duration followed by a break of 1 hour before next paper. There is 1/3rd mark deduction for every wrong answer. Hence for every correct answer a candidate gets approximately 0.8 marks and for each wrong answer 0.33 marks are deducted.
Apply Now:Â CDS 1 2014 Notification by UPSC
Candidates who are applying for only OTA i.e. Army SSC Non-Tech entry have to give only two papers i.e. English and General Awareness, while those applying for IMA, Naval Academy or AFA have to give three papers i.e. English, General Awareness and Mathematics. Here is the pattern for both:
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Written Pattern for IMA, Naval academy and AFA
|
Paper
|
Subject
|
Duration
|
Maximum Marks
|
|
I
|
English
|
2 hours
|
100
|
|
II
|
General Knowledge
|
2 hours
|
100
|
|
III
|
Elementary Mathematics
|
2 hours
|
100
|
|
Total
|
300
|
||
Written Pattern for OTA
|
Paper
|
Subject
|
Duration
|
Maximum Marks
|
|
I
|
English
|
2 hours
|
100
|
|
II
|
General Knowledge
|
2 hours
|
100
|
|
Total
|
200
|
||
UPSC is the body which conducts this written exam. The board reserves the right to fix the cutoff for each i.e. Army, navy, Airforce. The board also reserves the right to fix sectional cutoffs.
Personality Tests: The successful candidates of written exam are called for personality Tests or SSB. Each candidate has to go through SSB, irrespective of the service applied for. SSB consists of two stage procedure, Stage I comprising of PPDT and OIR Tests and Stage II of Psychological Tests, GT series and Personal Interview. The candidates who clear the SSB are sent for medical examination. Final Merit list if made according to the marks in Written and SSB and successful candidates who appear in the merit according to the capacity of intake are inducted as officers.
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 Tashi Mishra, Editorial TeamShe is a defense aspirant from Varanasi completed her BCA. She has attended SSB Interview at 1 AFSB Dehradoon and has more SSB coming up. She is confident about joining Defence Forces one day. Here, she is sharing her views and experience. Mail us to join our editorial team now.
