A general knowledge plan for CDS

The General Knowledge paper is the one paper every CDS candidate sits, whether you apply for IMA, INA, AFA or OTA. It has 120 questions for 100 marks in 2 hours, with one-third negative marking. For OTA-only candidates it is half of the written score, because OTA has no maths paper.

The difficulty is breadth, not depth. A single paper can move from the Harappan dockyard to the Coriolis force to Article 32 to a joint military exercise in four consecutive questions. You cannot master all of that in a month, but you can cover it well in three if you rotate subjects and revise on a schedule.

What the paper covers

UPSC's syllabus line is short: general knowledge "including knowledge of current events and of such matters of everyday observation and experience in their scientific aspects as may be expected of an educated person". In practice, the questions fall into these blocks.

How UPSC frames questions

Three styles cover most of the paper.

• Direct recall: "Who among the following founded the Arya Samaj?" You either know it or you don't.
• Statements: two to four statements, then "Which of the statements given above is/are correct?" These punish half-knowledge, because one wrong statement changes the answer.
• Matching: List I against List II, with coded answers. You rarely need all four pairs; two sure pairs often eliminate three options.

Occasionally you will also see assertion–reason pairs. Treat them as two statements plus a question of causation: is the reason true, and does it explain the assertion?

Sources: fewer, revised more

The commonest error is buying four GK books and finishing none. One source per block, read twice, beats five read once.

• NCERTs first. They give the explanations that make facts stick: why a cold current makes a coastal desert, why the 44th Amendment exists.
• One standard reference per heavy block (polity, modern history) once NCERTs are done.
• An atlas. Geography questions on straits, rivers and passes are map questions in disguise.
• Current affairs: a daily newspaper for 20 minutes and one monthly compilation. Cover roughly the last 10–12 months before the exam.
• Previous CDS papers. Download them from upsc.gov.in. They show depth and style better than any guidebook.

A 12-week plan

This plan assumes about 90 minutes of GK a day, plus 20 minutes of news. Adjust the weeks if your exam is closer.

Within each week, keep a rotation so that no block goes cold.

Notes that you will actually revise

Write one page per chapter, in your own words. Tables beat paragraphs: a table of Buddhist councils or ocean currents can be revised in 90 seconds. Keep a separate confusion list for pairs you mix up (Fa-Hien and Hiuen Tsang, 42nd and 44th Amendments, hygrometer and hydrometer). That list becomes your last-week revision.

Revise on a spacing rhythm: the same day, after a week, after a month. The Sunday slot in the rotation does the one-week pass; week 11 does the one-month pass.

Guessing under negative marking

Each GK question carries 100/120 ≈ 0.83 marks, and a wrong answer costs one-third of that, about 0.28.

Worked example. Suppose you guess blindly among four options. Expected gain = (1/4 × 0.83) − (3/4 × 0.28) = 0.21 − 0.21 = 0. On average, a blind guess neither helps nor hurts.

Now suppose you can eliminate two options and guess between the last two. Expected gain = (1/2 × 0.83) − (1/2 × 0.28) = 0.42 − 0.14 = +0.28. That is a positive bet. Guess only after eliminating at least one option, and preferably two. The guide on negative marking in CDS goes deeper.

Practice: a sample of question styles

1. Which of the following was the port city of the Harappan civilisation with a dockyard? (a) Kalibangan (b) Lothal (c) Banawali (d) Ropar
2. Consider the statements: (1) The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas. (2) The Sama Veda consists of spells and charms. Which is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both (d) Neither
3. The Permanent Settlement of 1793 was introduced by (a) Warren Hastings (b) Lord Cornwallis (c) Lord Wellesley (d) Lord Dalhousie
4. Which ocean current is cold? (a) Gulf Stream (b) Kuroshio (c) Benguela (d) Agulhas
5. Which Article of the Constitution deals with the procedure for amendment? (a) 352 (b) 356 (c) 360 (d) 368
6. Match: Zoji La, Nathu La, Shipki La with Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir–Ladakh route. Which is correct? (a) Zoji La–Sikkim (b) Nathu La–Sikkim (c) Shipki La–Sikkim (d) Nathu La–Himachal Pradesh
7. The Home Rule Leagues were started in 1916 by (a) Gandhi and Nehru (b) Tilak and Annie Besant (c) Gokhale and Naoroji (d) Bose and Nehru
8. A candidate can eliminate two of four options in a CDS GK question. Guessing between the remaining two has an expected value that is (a) negative (b) zero (c) positive (d) cannot be known

Answers:

1. (b) Lothal in Gujarat had a dockyard.
2. (a) The Atharva Veda has spells and charms; the Sama Veda is melodies for chanting.
3. (b) Cornwallis introduced it in Bengal.
4. (c) The Benguela flows north along south-west Africa and is cold; the others are warm.
5. (d) Article 368; the other three are emergency provisions.
6. (b) Nathu La links Sikkim with Tibet; Shipki La is in Himachal; Zoji La is on the Srinagar–Leh road.
7. (b) Tilak's league began at Belgaum and Besant's at Madras, both in 1916.
8. (c) (1/2 × 0.83) − (1/2 × 0.28) is about +0.28.

What to do next

Start with the subject guides in this series, one block at a time: ancient India, physical geography and the Constitution. In the final fortnight, switch to the GK revision sheet.

• Download the last three CDS GK papers and read them before starting.
• Fix one source per block and write it on the first page of your notebook.
• Set the weekly rotation and the Sunday 60-question quiz.
• Start a confusion list today.
• Read the news for 20 minutes daily and make monthly current-affairs notes.
• From week 11, take full timed GK mocks and log every error.