Don’t Miss this for CDS Final Days Preparation?

In this blog we are only going to see the cds final days preparation strategy.

If you are new to CDS and wish to read a complete strategy then you can Refer this Guide for a Complete CDS Preparation. Working candidates & those preparing for CDS OTA can refer this for OTA

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) holds the Combined Defence Services entrance examination twice a year in the months of April and September. Conducted by UPSC this test provides opportunity for graduates and final year graduating candidates to become officer in the Indian Armed Forces.

Following is the Combined Defence Examination Structure

Those here only for the cds final days preparation strategy and are following along – Stop whatever you’re doing and Sit comfortably while we dive into this! This will take about 5 minutes of yours but could be the potential deciding factor.

I know you already are aware that how many marks do you need for the cut off. If not, don’t worry this table below will make it clear. You must score 20% minimum marks in each paper to clear individual cut off for each subject. The example below illustrates the marks scored and the result.

Now, let me tell you that no matter how good the preparation is, there are two big factors that effect the end result :

First one is anxiety – The fear and nervousness of sitting in such a situation for the first time, where the invigilator hands you the paper, and everyone around you is unfamiliar, unlike in your school or college. The paper Booklet, limited time, OMR sheet, no electronic devices will all be new to you. The environment is completely new to you and the added pressure of clearing it in this very attempt, since many other things are going in your life and you don’t want to repeat the cycle. Now some will explicitly show this anxiety through their personality while some are nervous from inside but can manage to hide it

Second one is Time – Your preparation has not taken the exact time into consideration and there is high possibility that paper can be lengthy and you can run out of time. You did not consider reading the question number, matching it against same row in OMR Sheet and dotting the answer in OMR Sheet. Did you? You may think how much time will identifying and dotting the row take, probably 10 seconds? Okay! but there are 120 questions that means you’re taking 1200 seconds or 20 minutes just for marking answers! You certainly did not take this into consideration and this factor mixed with the anxiety can undermine your effort

So, What not to do during CDS final days preparation?

If you have completed the Syllabus it is best advised to not touch Book of previous year solved papers or practice paper Book now! You may go through them during your general preparation but not for the final days preparation. Reason is that it can be chapter wise, section wise and still not necessarily one proper paper. Further, there are 20-25 questions in every page as opposed to 5-8 questions per page in UPSC Booklet. In reality it takes significant time to turn the sheets to reach 25th question. In certain books, answers are provided right next to the questions, or keys are mentioned, making it easy to accidentally see them while turning the pages. All this doesn’t prepare you under the exam like condition, nor does it give you a feel of actual UPSC paper while practicing.

After feedback from large number of such aspirants and to overcome this we decided to take this up and after a year of constant effort we have come up with “CDS Countdown“

This is a set of separate booklets of UPSC Style question papers along with OMR Sheets. Not only this, answer to each paper is available in the form of QR so there’s no way you’ll come across answers or answer key unless you specifically decide to scan and open the URL

How to go about with CDS Countdown?

Start this only when you have completed entire preparation and revision but atleast 1-2 months before exam

1. Read the instructions. keep timer and go exactly according to that
2. Obtain an OMR sheet, fill it out, and have it signed by someone at home acting as an invigilator. This will serve as a validation of someone supervising your attempt. If you have friends who are preparing with you then you all can sit together under supervision of an invigilator. They will also have access to your timer so that there’s no tampering and you can be reminded, if required
3. Start with one paper at a time. Follow a 30 day plan to achieve complete confidence for CDS Examination

On Day 24, Check score of each paper and compare each paper result one after the other and write it down so you have understanding of your performance. Now look for those weak areas where you lost marks in each paper. You will be noting down these highlighted topics so that you revise them. Next seven days are only for you to revise overall syllabus and specially those areas you were weak at!

I can tell you that your approach and confidence to paper 10 will be completely different from that of the 1st paper that you attempted. Not only you will overcome any anxiety or nervousness but you’ll also understand your actual speed has matched to that of actual UPSC exam like condition. Further, we’ve gone a step ahead and carefully chosen each and every question as per the importance of topic and weightage of CDS Exam. Solution for these questions are not just answer keys but detailed explanatory notes.

As you remember there was no CDS OTA Book or SSB OIR Book that existed until we bridged the gap knowing the requirement of candidates in 2018. Since then many publishers have followed the path. Again, This is something that candidates wanted and no one understood earlier but we went a step further to bring this to you. This is in every sense the actual definition of Mock Test.

How is OMR different from previous year papers of the book?

• There is actual marking in OMR sheet giving exact condition and environment to practice unlike ticking answers and moving ahead in the previous year books
• There are limited questions per page giving exact UPSC feel so that you don’t get a wrong impression during the actual exam where a sheet will only contain 5-8 questions
• There is separate question paper sheet for every paper unlike previous year papers book
• There are no answers given next to the question or keys behind making no possibility of you accidentally checking the answer while folding Booklet sheets
• Solved explanatory notes for each paper is available only through QR code so that you don’t check answers unless you have decided to scan for solution
• While previous year papers have questions from current affairs and outdated topics which makes no sense to practice, CDS Countdown has carefully picked questions from all topics keeping the UPSC weightage in mind

CDS Countdown and CDS OTA Countdown are now available on Amazon and Flipkart. Order now and achieve the ultimate confidence to appear for CDS!