NDA in 30 Days: A Chapter Priority Plan for Maths and the GAT

With NDA II 2026 scheduled for September 13th, most candidates reading this have about a month left to prepare. A month is enough, but only if you stop trying to cover everything and start covering the right things first. The syllabus does not reward equal effort. A handful of chapters in each paper produce most of the marks, and the last thirty days are won by the candidate who pours time into those chapters and refuses to be dragged into the rest.

This is a chapter priority plan for both papers, Mathematics and the General Ability Test. It tells you what to revise first, what to revise if there is time, and what to leave alone. Follow the order, not your comfort zone.

A note on the weightage below. These shares are based on the pattern of recent NDA papers, not official figures, since UPSC never publishes a topic wise breakdown. They are stable enough to plan a month around, but treat them as priorities, not promises.

The Principle for the Final Month

Three rules shape everything that follows.

First, revise by marks, not by syllabus order. The chapters that appear most often are where your hours belong, no matter where they sit in the book.

Second, in thirty days you consolidate, you do not discover. This is not the time to open a brand new topic you have never studied. It is the time to make the topics you half know fully reliable.

Third, remember that the GAT is worth twice as much as Mathematics, 600 marks against 300. If your time is tight, the GAT deserves the larger share of it, and its English half is the fastest part of the whole exam to improve. Every hour this month should end with questions solved, because NDA repeats its question types relentlessly. You can practise every NDA paper chapter by chapter on Padhify while you work through this plan.

The 30 Days at a Glance

Now the chapter priority inside each paper.

Mathematics: Priority Order

Maths is the paper where a plan pays off most, because the weightage is the most predictable and the questions are pure practice. The marks spread across four big blocks, so the goal in a month is to make the biggest blocks reliable and the mechanical chapters automatic.

Revise first (highest return, roughly 40% of the paper)

Start with Probability. At around 11% of the paper it is the single largest chapter by a clear margin, and together with Statistics and Permutations and Combinations it forms a fifth of the paper that is heavily formula driven and endlessly repeated. This is the highest return block in NDA Mathematics, so it comes first no matter how comfortable you feel elsewhere.

Revise second (formula driven, fast to fix)

Both are method chapters. Once the standard techniques are in place, the questions are predictable, which makes them ideal to consolidate in the middle of the month.

Revise if time allows, but do not skip entirely

Matrices, Determinants and Vector Algebra are mechanical. Once you know the procedure, the questions are close to automatic, so leave them for the last week and treat them as cheap, guaranteed marks.

Solve NDA Mathematics past papers chapter by chapter here, starting with Probability and Statistics, then Calculus and Algebra.

General Ability Test, Part B: General Knowledge

Part B is 100 questions and 400 marks, the largest single block of marks in the whole exam, so this is where the plan matters most. The internal split is far more lopsided than most candidates expect, and knowing it stops you spreading yourself thin.

Revise first (nearly half of Part B)

Physics alone is a quarter of Part B, about 100 marks, and it tracks the NCERT Class 9 to 12 syllabus closely. If you revise one subject in the GAT, make it Physics. Geography is the second pillar and rewards map work and a fixed set of concepts.

Revise second (static and heavily repeated)

Both are static and repeat openly across years, which makes them well suited to a month long revision from NCERT.

Revise alongside, daily and light

Give current affairs fifteen minutes a day of the last few months' events, no more. Prepare the GAT as a science paper first, because Physics, Chemistry and Biology together are about half of Part B, not as a general knowledge digest.

Practice the NDA General Ability Test past papers chapter by chapter here and lock down Physics, Geography and Chemistry before you touch anything else.

General Ability Test, Part A: English

Part A is 50 questions and 200 marks, and it is the most learnable part of the exam because it tests a closed set of question types. In a month you can move it from a weak section to a strong one, and it is the single fastest way to raise your GAT score.

Revise first (more than half of Part A)

Synonyms and antonyms are the largest type by far, and they are vocabulary, which means a list to build rather than a concept to learn. Spotting errors and ordering reward pattern recognition, built only by doing them in bulk.

Revise second

Build vocabulary as a daily background habit from day one. Twenty new words and a few idioms a day across the month cover most of the vocabulary block, and vocabulary types are close to half of Part A.

The English section shares its page with the GK half in the bank, so you can work through the full NDA GAT here and filter to the English chapters as you practice.

The Week by Week Schedule

Week 1: the heavy blocks. Maths algebra, probability and statistics. GAT physics and geography. English vocabulary and error spotting. End every session with past questions on that day's topic, and do not move on from a chapter until you can solve its questions without hesitating.

Week 2: the second tier. Maths calculus and trigonometry. GAT chemistry and history. English ordering and fill in the blanks. Keep a daily fifteen minute current affairs habit running in the background from now to the exam.

Week 3: finish and test. Cover the remaining chapters, analytical geometry, matrices, determinants and vectors in Maths, and biology, polity and economics in the GAT. Then take your first full, timed paper for each. The point is not the score. The point is to find where you lose time and where you lose marks.

Week 4: mocks and review only. No new material. Take full NDA mock tests under real conditions, both papers, then spend as long reviewing each mock as you spent taking it. Revisit only the highest yield chapters: probability and statistics, algebra, physics and geography, and English vocabulary. Trust that the groundwork of the first three weeks is done.

The Attempt Strategy That Protects Your Score

All the revision in the world can be undone in the hall by careless attempts. Both NDA papers carry negative marking of exactly one third of the correct value, so the candidates who clear it are disciplined, not reckless.

• Attempt a question only when you can eliminate at least two of the four options. A pure guess loses you more over a full paper than it gains.
• Do each paper in two passes. First pass, answer everything you know cold. Second pass, return to the ones worth a considered attempt.
• Bank the GAT. It carries twice the marks of Maths, so secure every easy Physics, Geography and English mark first, because those are the marks that carry you when Maths runs hard.

A Realistic Word Before You Start

One month is enough to clear NDA if you spend it on the right chapters, and not enough if you spread it thin across everything. The plan above is deliberately unequal because the papers are unequal. Give the heavy blocks the bulk of your hours, weight your time towards the GAT since it carries the larger marks, keep current affairs to a light daily habit, and let past papers, not fresh theory, carry the month.

You can practice every NDA past paper, chapter by chapter, on Padhify, across Mathematics and the General Ability Test, with a clear explanation for every answer. If you want the full weightage picture behind this plan, read our five year NDA papers analysis, and for dates and eligibility see the NDA 2026 exam guide.

Frequently Asked Questions