Candidates coming out of an exam centre in Chandigarh on Sunday. Tribune Photo: Pradeep Tewari

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 5

Over 19,000 candidates attempted the CDS-I (Combined Defence Services) examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Sunday at more than 30 centres in Chandigarh which is the only centre in Punjab and Haryana.The written exam consisted of three papers – English, General Knowledge, and Elementary Mathematics. The candidates who had applied for the Officers’ Training Academy (OTA) were required to take only first two papers, while all the other candidates had to appear for three papers. Each paper carried 100 marks and the candidates were given 2 hours for each paper.“The paper was not very difficult but candidates from science background certainly had an upper hand,” said Ruchir, candidate from Ambala.Another candidate Himanshu from Rewari said the paper was overall simple. “There was nothing unexpected. I think all candidates have a fair chance,” he said.Analysing the paper, city-based UPSC exam expert Kunal Singh said the mathematics paper was easy, English paper was conventional and general studies questions were repeated.“The exam was easy and scoring as compared to the last two years exam. Even as the paper was similar in terms of weightage assigned, there was a shift in the type of questions asked in science as well as economics which were different from conventional CDS papers,” he said. Singh said, “26 questions were repeated from the previous UPSC papers which will definitely raise the cut-off this time.”Notably, the UPSC had announced that the CDS-2017 exam date in November and accordingly the applications were invited. The CDS exam is the first part of the selection process – written exam. The Commission would recommend selected candidates to the Service Selection Board (SSB). The Board then would conduct intelligence and personality test for shortlisted candidates.The exam was held for around 463 seats in Defence Academies in Indian Military Academy, Dehradun; Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala; Air Force Academy, Hyderabad, and Officers’ Training Academy, Chennai, for the courses commencing in January 2018.