Selection of candidates to the medical stream of defense services is carried out through a written exam followed by a personality test. There will be two papers for the Combined Medical Defense Written Exam. Total marks for this selection test is 500, among which 250 marks is distributed among both the papers. Questions on General Ability, General Medicine, and Pediatrics are covered under paper I where as questions on Surgery, Gynaecology, Obstetrics, and Preventive & Social Medicine are covered under Paper II. The detailed syllabus of both these papers is explained in the article below.

Syllabus of Paper-I

• General Ability
• Basic concepts of Ecology and Environment and their impact on health and economy
• Food adulteration, Food processing, Food distribution, Food storage and their relevance to public health
• Impact of changing demographic trends on health, environment and society
• Indian Agriculture, Industry, Trade, Transportation and Service Sectors;
• Indian Society, Heritage & Culture, Polity, Economy, Human Development Indices and the Development Programmes
• Natural and man made disasters and their management
• Natural Resources, their distribution, exploitation, conservation and related issues;
• Recent trends in Science and Technology
• General Medicine
• Cardiology
• Respiratory diseases
• Gastro-intestinal
• Genito-Urinary
• Neurology
• Hematology
• Endocrinology
• Metabolic disorders
• Infections/Communicable Diseases
• Virus
• Rickets
• Bacterial
• Spirochetal
• Protozoan
• Metazoan
• Fungus
• Nutrition/Growth
• Diseases of the skin (Dermatology)
• Musculoskeletal System
• Psychiatry
• Pediatrics

Syllabus for Paper II

• Surgery
• General Surgery
• Wounds
• Infections
• Tumors
• Lymphatic
• Blood vessels
• Cysts/sinuses
• Head and neck
• Breast
• Alimentary tract
• Anus
• Oesophagus
• Intestines
• Stomach
• Liver, Bile, Pancreas
• Spleen
• Urological Surgery
• Abdominal wall
• Peritoneum
• Abdominal injuries
• Neuro Surgery
• Thoracic surgery
• Otorhinolaryngology E.N.T
• Ophthalmology
• Anesthesiology
• Orthopedic surgery
• Traumatology
• Gynecology and Obstetrics
• Obstetrics
• Ante-natal conditions
• Intra-natal conditions
• Post-natal conditions
• Gynecology
• Questions on applied physiology of menstruation and fertilization
• Questions on infections in genital tract
• Questions on neo plasma in the genital tract
• Questions on displacement of   the uterus
• Questions on applied anatomy
• Family Planning
• Conventional contraceptives
• U.D. and oral pills
• Medical Termination of Pregnancy
• Preventive social and community medicine
• Concept of Health, Disease, and Preventive Medicine
• Health Administration and Planning
• General Epidemiology
• Operative procedure, sterilization and organization of programmes in the urban and rural surroundings
• Demography and Health Statistics
• Communicable Diseases
• Environmental Health
• Nutrition and Health
• Non-communicable diseases
• Occupational Health
• Genetics and Health
• International Health
• Medical sociology and Health Education
• Maternal and Child Health
• National Programmes

Those who pass the written exam will be short listed for the personal interview stage. In this, primarily the personality of the candidate is evaluated.