“A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step”. Confucious
For a soldier, career in a military establishment begins with a single step when he/she first made their step to get enrolled for their dream service. This journey of a soldier is not like a straight path, it has many up and down, slopes and turns with number of opportunities to prove himself. One of such opportunity is Army Cadet College, where one gets opportunity to take a long jump in career by becoming commissioned officer and lead the warriors wherever ordered.
Army Cadet College (ACC) is an institution located in Indian Military Academy Campus, Dehradun which trains cadets those who have been already serving in Defence Forces (Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air force). Army Cadet College entry is the golden opportunity for serving soldiers to become a commissioned officer in the Indian Army and fulfill their dream of serving nation as an officer. The nature of training at ACC is almost similar that of National Defence Academy (NDA) as both run 3 years degree course in science and humanities. The added advantage that the ACC cadets bring to the Army as officers are a deep understanding of the soldier life and a consequently better appreciations of the tasking of the men. It has been rebranded as the Siachen Battalion at IMA.
The foundation of ACC can be traced to the Kitchner College founded in 1929 at Nowgong, Madhya Pradesh. The Kitchner College became Army Cadet College in 1960 and was relocated
to Ghorpuri, Mahasrashtra in 1964. The institute was moved again to form a wing of Indian Military Academy, Dehradun in 1977. From there onwards, ACC has been in operatio for more than 80 years and has graduated some notable alumni.
Selection Process
Soldiers who join Army Cadet College ACC wing will inculcate good ethics and will continue to better their management skills as commissioned officers. Thus ACC course of Indian Army is really a boon for all serving soldiers who could not complete their graduation due to hardships of their lives at Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy.
The selection for admission to ACC is based on a written test and subsequent selection via Services Selection Board. ACC. Here we will discuss on the written exam pattern and syllabus followed for ACC. The entire exam consist of four sections which are as follows:
1st Paper – GENERAL MENTAL ABILITY TEST:
General Mental Ability test (GMAT) paper will be aimed at testing the candidate’s intellectual ability. This paper have two types of questions – Argument and data Sufficiency. There will be 150 objective type questions of two marks each. The paper will consist of three sections:
- Reasoning Ability (Verbal): 75 questions: 150 Marks
- Non – Verbal Reasoning: 15 questions: 30 Marks
- Numerical Ability: 60 questions: 120 Marks
2nd Paper – CURRENT GENERAL AWARENESS:
Questions in this component will be aimed at testing the candidate’s General Awareness of the environment around him and its application to society. The syllabus designed to include test of mental ability, current general situational and military awareness. This will consists of 150 objective type questions of two marks each.
3rd Paper – INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH:
Questions in this component will be designed to test the candidate’s understanding and knowledge of English language in particular the communicative skill. There will be two papers for Interactive Communicative English. Part I will consists of 120 objective type questions of one mark each for duration of one hour. Part II will consist of descriptive type questions for 180 marks for a duration of two hours.
4th Paper – ACADEMIC CONTENT TEST:
There will be only one paper covering Mathematics, General Science and Humanities. There will be a total of 150 objective type questions of 3 marks each Topics to be included in each paper and the distribution of marks will be as under: 1. Section A: Mathematics: 50 Questions: 100 Marks 2. Section B: General Science: 50 Questions:100 Marks 3. Section C: Humanities: 50 Questions: 100 Marks Mental ability test is the easiest of all the topics which can be learned through some practice, Learning English is a long process. After going through the ACC exam syllabus you must have realize how vast the syllabus is, it is hard and hence device your plan accordingly, you need 3 to 4 months of constant practice. Daily one to one and a half hour of intense practice is more than enough to pass this exam.
The above mentioned syllabus is as per the latest information that we have received from our sources and former ACC aspirants. However this is a half part of entire journey. Candidates who successfully pass their written exam will have to appear for SSB which is equally important. For those who need more detail on SSB can read our blog “Guidance for SSB” in our website.
Good Luck