Hello,

First of all the eligibility criteria of various posts in Indian Defence Services is as follows-

Indian Military Academy :

• passed graduation in any discipline from a recognized university
• age limit to be between 19 to 24 years along with unmarried status

Air Force Academy :

• passed bachelor's degree in engineering  or bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognized university with physics and mathematics at 10+2 level
• age limit to be between 19 to 24 years along with unmarried status.

Indian Naval Academy :

• passed bachelor's degree in engineering from any recognized university
• age limit to be between 19 to 24 years along with unmarried status.

Officer's Training Academy(Men) :

• candidates need to pass graduation in any discipline from a recognized university,
• age limit to be between 19 to 25 years along with unmarried status.

Officer's Training Academy(Women):

• pass graduation in any discipline from a recognized university,
• age limit to be between 19 to 25 years along with unmarried/widow/divorcee status.

Candidates in final year of graduation too are eligible for all of the abovementioned posts provided there is no backlogs at the time of applying,

now, coming to your question, depending upon the stream you choose, there are still three to four years left to appear for CDS, and exam patterns differs in case of OTA and IMA/INA/AFA as mentioned below-

• In case of OTA, paper 1 is general knowledge and paper 2 is English, each consists of 100 marks for a duration of two hours,
• In case of AFA/IMA/INA, paper 1 is general knowledge, paper 2 is English, paper 3 is Mathematics, each consists of 100 marks for a duration of two hours,

You can check out the detailed syllabus at https://competition.careers360.com/articles/cds-syllabus,

In order to start your preparation, you need to be well acquainted with the exam pattern, and syllabus as the details provided above , now you have to make a proper time table, and accordingly assign number of hours to each subjects, and go through recommended books as follows-

• General Knowledge: Read newspapers on a daily basis such as The Hindu/The Indian Express to cover the dynamic portion, Pratiyogita Darpan is pretty good option regarding this, for static portion go through Lucent's GK/General Knowledge by Arihant Publications,
• English: Wren and Martin Grammar Book/Word Power Made Easy by Norwan Lewis/SP Bakshi's General Objective English
• Mathematics: Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Exams by RK Agarwal/Pathfinder book for CDS by Arihant Experts

Go through previous year papers at https://competition.careers360.com/articles/cds-question-papers to get acquainted with exam pattern. marking scheme, important topics etc, through regular practice you can analyze your level of preparation, and improve your speed, calculation, and time management skills.

Also, check out our page at https://competition.careers360.com/articles/how-to-prepare-for-cds to know more details regarding the preparation process.

Hi aspirant,

The Combined Defence Services Examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment of Commissioned Officers in the Indian Military Academy, Officers Training Academy, Indian Naval Academy and Indian Air Force Academy.

• FOR GENERAL STUDIES PAPER : refer Lakmikant book for polity and read it twice or thrice and solve as many paper as possible to get a good hold on this part.
• MODERN HISTORY PART:refer Spectrum only it is enough for this part make multiple revision
• ECONOMIC PART: CA of economic portion
• GEOGRAPHY PART : understand mapping of india and their neighbours areas, wildlife ,national parks etc .go for previous years paper and see the pattern .
• CURRENT AFFAIRS:  watch lok sabha and rajya sabha tv ,read the hindu ,read daily current affairs of the that day on google as many websites are available .
• For English part you can go for the basic one and solve sample and previous years paper to get the idea about it.

Also below Iam providing you the exam pattern which will help you understand things better and also enable better time management:

CDS Exam Pattern 2021 For INA, IMA & IFA

For more information about the same, visit https://competition.careers360.com/articles/how-to-prepare-for-cds

Hope it helps!!