NDA 2018 2 EXAM CUTOFF ANALYSIS

NDA is one of the premier defence institutes of the world. And this examination is also considered to be one of the world’s toughest exam to crack. To tell you the sheer percentage of success, let me tell you the math. Every year around 4 lack candidates write the written exam and around 10 thousand candidates get selected in first round. That is almost equal to 2.5% selection ratio. Then around 500 candidates are finally recommended. So the selection ratio churns down to 0.125%. So this exam is no less than other national level exams conducted in India.

I will give my intro in short. I’m from a Sainik school, have written the exam four times, cleared all four. Attempted 2 NDA SSB’s and recommended with in AIR of 4 in one and conferenced out in other. I couldn’t join due to some medical reasons. So my wish was that what if I can’t join NDA.If I am able to help and make others join then at least it would give me satisfaction and happiness. So here I’m trying to do something that I can. And presently I’m pursuing engineering.

Before we get into cutoff…many of the students have this confusion about sectional cutoff. Let me clear it to you guys. If the subject wise cutoff is mentioned as 25% in each subject that means that at least 25% in Maths paper and 25% in GAT paper. And not 25% each in English, science, social science. So keep it in your mind that its paper wise and not the other way.  

Let us first discuss about the maths paper. I feel that the maths paper this time is balanced one. According to me there were around 40 questions which were easy. I mean they could be solved with little effort by remembering the formulas or substituting mere values. There were around 50 medium level questions. By medium level I mean that these questions need some application of formula and are a bit tedious and time consuming ones. The rest 30 were the difficult ones. The questions that are par with JEE Mains. So this is my overview of the maths paper.

When it comes to the second paper I believe that English part wasn’t that difficult or there were questions which you could easily solve if you speak proper English. According to me anyone could be easily able to solve 30+ questions. In Physics there were more numerical problems as compared to the previous papers. The level of the chemistry paper was also slightly higher than before. I think biology was bit easier this time compared to the previous ones. I was very disappointed with the civics and the constitution of India part because there are only 5 questions from that part. Though those five questions are easy but still the number of questions asked is comparatively less compared to previous years. The number of GK questions asked has shot up this year and their level is in par with the civil services prelims questions. Infect I have seen some times that same questions appear in both the papers. Such has become the level of NDA paper. In total there were 12 GK questions asked. Less of world history has been asked and more of the modern Indian freedom struggle questions have been asked.0ne or two questions have been asked from the medieval period. The geography portions are a bit advanced level. They need a vast knowledge and very few question was easy for me when I solved the paper. So overall the level of difficulty of the second paper is slightly more than the previous one according to me.

Now let us look at the trends of the previous years. Here is a graph that I have compiled from the previous question paper’s cutoffs.

I have attempted 4 NDA papers and according to my experience I have rated the papers on a scale of 1 to 10 with respect to their difficulty.

So finally according to me the cutoff will be around 280-300 marks. It will surely be somewhere around these numbers. The results will be coming mostly within 50 days of the exam. So probably it will be by the end of the next month. Last time the number of candidates selected in the first phase was I think more than ten thousand so I think the same thing might be happening even this time too as there is already shortage of officers in the armed forces. My advice to all those who have written the exam now is don’t worry about the results. Even if you can’t make it there are plenty of chances through which you can attend SSB.Be it through 12^th marks for the army or through JEE Mains for the Navy. Simply do not waste your time repenting and brooding over the cutoffs and the results. Concentrate and focus on your class 12^th now. And whether you clear or no keep in touch with the newspapers. It will surely help you. May be next time if not now. With this I wish you all the best.