ICG Navik GD common mistakes
ICG Navik GD · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Spending several minutes stuck on one General Knowledge question about a static fact (e.g., a river's source or a defence exercise name) instead of skipping it and returning later.
GK questions feel answerable 'if I just think a bit longer', and candidates fear losing an easy mark, so they sink time into recall they do not have.
What to do instead
Adopt a 20-second rule: if no fact surfaces within 20 seconds, mark it, pick the best available option, and move on. Practise with timed GK sets of 25 questions in 10 minutes.
Confusing similar-sounding GK facts, such as mixing up the headquarters of a defence command, the year of a major operation, or the rank order of naval officers.
These facts are learned as isolated items without a structure, so near-neighbours blur together under exam pressure.
What to do instead
Build small comparison tables (e.g., command vs. headquarters, rank vs. insignia, operation vs. year) and self-test by covering one column. Revise the same table on three separate days.
Guessing on current-affairs items from the last six months without any basis, because the candidate never tracked defence and maritime news.
Candidates assume current affairs means reading a daily newspaper cover to cover, so they avoid it entirely until the week before the exam.
What to do instead
Keep a one-page monthly log of defence exercises, new inductions, appointments, and maritime events. Review it weekly; in the exam, eliminate options that are clearly wrong before guessing.
Making arithmetic slips in simplification and percentage problems by working mentally and not writing intermediate steps.
Speed pressure encourages shortcutting, and small errors in fractions or decimal placement go unnoticed before the options are checked.
What to do instead
Write one line per operation, and after getting an answer, verify by estimating the result to the nearest whole number before matching an option.
Misreading the units or the question stem in time-and-work, speed-distance, or ratio problems (e.g., answering for metres when kilometres were asked).
Stems are read once at speed, and the final unit is treated as an afterthought rather than part of the question.
What to do instead
Underline the quantity asked for and its unit before starting the calculation, and end every solution by writing the unit next to the answer.
Leaving geometry and mensuration questions blank because formulas for area, volume, or surface area are only half-remembered.
Formulas were memorised once but never used in mixed practice, so recall fails when they appear without warning.
What to do instead
Maintain a single formula sheet and do ten mixed mensuration questions daily, writing the formula first and substituting second.
Applying a formula in physics without checking whether the situation matches its assumptions, such as using a constant-acceleration equation when acceleration changes.
Practice focuses on plugging numbers into memorised formulas rather than on identifying the physical situation first.
What to do instead
Before calculating, state in one sentence what kind of motion or circuit it is and which principle applies; only then choose the equation.
Getting numerical answers wrong in physics because units were not converted to SI before substitution (grams left as grams, km/h left as km/h).
The numbers look familiar and the candidate substitutes immediately, forgetting that the formula expects kilograms and metres per second.
What to do instead
Make unit conversion the first written step of every numerical answer, and keep a conversion reminder at the top of the rough sheet.
Choosing an English option that 'sounds right' for fill-in-the-blank and error-spotting questions without checking grammar rules such as subject-verb agreement, tense sequence, or preposition collocation.
Everyday spoken English differs from exam English, and candidates trust familiarity over rules under time pressure.
What to do instead
For each such question, identify the specific rule being tested and eliminate options that break it; practise 20 error-spotting sentences daily with the rule named for each.
Losing marks in English comprehension and cloze passages by answering from general knowledge or personal opinion rather than from the passage, and by not reading the questions first.
Candidates read the passage passively, then answer from memory of its gist, which is easily distorted by the options offered.
What to do instead
Read the questions first, then the passage, and for each answer point to the exact line in the passage that supports it before selecting.