Important Mathematics Topics and Tips for NDA Written Exam

The NDA exam is very important for you if you aspire to serve your nation from the very early phase of your life, by pursuing a career in defence after you graduate from high school.

Candidates must clear a written exam, following which, qualified candidates must pass an SSB interview. Candidates who clear both the written exam and the interview will be eligible to enroll in the National Defence Academy.

The NDA exam has become even more competitive as a result of the welcome decision to allow female candidates to sit for it. Furthermore, because the NDA exam is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), a thorough preparation strategy is required. 

If you want to crack the exam for admission to the Army, Navy, and Air Force wings of the NDA and the Indian Naval Academy program, You must also have a clear understanding of the NDA syllabus and identify the important topics after examining previous years' question papers

The Mathematics section is the most important factor or you can say is the deciding area for a candidate in clearing the NDA written exam. 

On that note, let’s discuss a few important topics with tips to master that will help you properly utilise your time and yield a better result in Mathematics section of the NDA exam.

Matrices and Determinants

There are not many sub-topics under this one, such as types of matrices, matrices operations, symmetric and skew-symmetric matrices, Conjugate of a matrix, Determinant of a matrix, and so on, making preparation easier. Even if you don't receive many questions from matrices, because the topic isn't very broad, it's much easier to cover in a short amount of time. On this topic, 8-10 questions are asked.

Talking about the different operations that can be performed on a matrix, you should master matrix multiplication, addition, subtraction, and transposition. 

Trigonometry

There are various sub-topics in trigonometry, and it also had a significant weighting in the exam. The most significant topics are trigonometric ratio and height and distance, which each have at least 10-12 questions.

Trigonometry is related to differential calculus, and if you understand inverse trigonometry, you'll have no trouble solving the problems in the differential calculus section of the paper. You can safely skip the part on triangle properties, as there will be few questions on it.

Algebra

The most important topic of all as you can expect a majority question from this topic in the exam. These questions revolve around Sets, Relation Venn diagrams, real numbers, Complex numbers, De Morgan laws, Cartesian product, Arithmetic, Geometric and Harmonic progressions, Conversion of a number in decimal system to binary system and vice-versa.

Though aforementioned can be divided into most important, moderately important and less important as per their weightage and should be prepared accordingly.

Differential and Integral Calculus

These sections, when taken together, account for a significant portion of the questions (20-25) you'll be asked, so they can't be skipped.

Certain sub-topics, such as area confined by region and differential equations, take a long time to prepare, although these parts do not receive many queries. As a result, they can be safely set aside for later.

The combined indefinite and definite integration contains 3-4 questions in the paper and should be given additional time and attention during preparation.

Probability and Statistics

The probability and statistics chapter commonly contribute approximately 16-20 questions. To ace these parts, you must have a solid understanding of both areas. Aside from the numerical issues, pay special attention to theoretical topics connected to statistics.

Regularly practise the numerical and memorise the concepts and formulae related to the issue.