NDA English Guide
How NDA English actually works
A 900-question analysis of the English half of GAT from 2017 to 2026. We mapped the chapter playbooks, the vocabulary families, the year-on-year drift, and the distractor traps — so you can study what the exam actually tests.
- Past-year questions
- 900
- Papers (2017–2026)
- 18
- Chapters
- 8
- Playbooks
- 16
How the 900 questions break down
All 8 chapters tested in NDA English, sized by question count across the 2017–2026 bank. Sorted by share of bank.
| Chapter | Questions | Share | % HARD | Focus subtopics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | 316 | 35.1% | 2% | Synonyms (150), Antonyms (135), Confusable pairs (20), Word defn (11). The largest chapter — pure recall, EASY-heavy. |
| Spotting Errors | 115 | 12.8% | 3% | Word Choice/Prep/Punct (29), S-V Agreement (17), Tense (16), Articles/Pronouns/Mixed (43). Underline-the-error format. |
| Sentence Rearrangement | 114 | 12.7% | 22% | PQRS (92), S1–S6 paragraphs (22 — 36% HARD). The only chapter that carries real difficulty load. |
| Grammar | 108 | 12.0% | 4% | Sentence Completion (30), Connectors (20), PoS (15), S-V (10), Prep (10). Exploded from 0 to 40 q/yr after 2024. |
| Idioms and Phrases | 86 | 9.6% | 3% | Single subtopic — Idiom Meaning. 85 unique idioms in 10 years (only 'sit on the fence' repeats). |
| Reading Comprehension | 61 | 6.8% | 7% | Inferential (43), Literal (14), Vocab-in-context (4). Set-bound — passages have 4–8 q each. |
| Fill in the Blanks | 55 | 6.1% | 2% | Contextual (45), Phrasal/Collocation (10). Sentence-scoped (vs Cloze passages). |
| Cloze Test | 45 | 5.0% | 0% | Word Selection in Passage. Zero HARD across the bank — pure transition/connector reasoning. |
What’s inside
Five sections, each answering a different question a student walks in with. Read top-to-bottom or jump to what you need.
Strategy
Recall, Rule, Reason — the three skill buckets and how to allocate prep time.
Playbooks
16 playbooks — one per major subtopic. How each question type is asked, the rules, the traps.
Vocab Families
270 PYQ-tested words clustered into 13 themes. The patterns NDA reuses.
Trends
How NDA English shifted from 2017 to 2026 — Grammar exploded post-2024, Spotting Errors went quiet.
Traps
Distractor shapes NDA reuses — near-synonym, opposite-direction, literal-idiom, S-V proximity, PQRS opener mismatch.
Why we built this
English prep is usually one of two things: a vague “read newspapers and improve vocabulary” that doesn’t translate to marks, or a question-bank-grind without strategy. We’ve done the third thing: pull every question, tag every subtopic, look at the patterns.
Every claim on this site is verifiable. Click any “Drill these X questions →” link and you’ll see the exact set we’re talking about.
Data snapshot: 18 May 2026. Numbers refresh as new papers land.