CSAT (civil service aptitude test) was for the first time introduced by
UPSC in 2011 prelims exam. The syllabus of CSAT is following as per UPSC
notification:
·
Comprehension
·
Interpersonal
skills including communication skills;
·
Logical
reasoning and analytical ability
·
Decision-making
and problem solving
·
General
mental ability
·
Basic
numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X
level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. -
Class X level)
·
English
Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).
CSAT is one
area which has been deliberately introduced by the UPSC to serve the following
purpose:
ü To provide a level playing field to
all the candidates
ü To recruit the candidates with good
communication skills and analytical abilities
ü To recruit the candidate with
decision making skills
CSAT is the
need of the current civil service framework as a civil servant now a days has
to work in very challenging environment like dealing with MNCs, working on
complex projects, working in challenging economic conditions which require
special skills for a civil servant to handle. This justifies the introduction
of CSAT in civil service exams.
CSAT,
however, has raised many questions in the mind of aspiring candidates like it
will benefit engineering and science students, rural Vs urban student debate,
English Vs Hindi medium students debate etc. Although i believe some of the
above apprehensions are true to some extent but not completely. Internet and
medium of information has to a large extent has bridge this gap of rural Vs
urban student, English medium Vs Hindi medium student, still a rural and Hindi
medium candidate needs to work a little harder than other candidate.
Let me now
tell you the strategy to crack CSAT. Before starting, I would like to assure
all the candidates that a candidate irrespective of his or her background
should prepare without bothering about these apprehensions as civil service is
the most prestigious service of our country and this small apprehension should
not become hindrance in someone’s dream of becoming civil servant.
Although
syllabus of CSAT is very wide and anything relating to English & Math can
be asked, still we will divide the syllabus into following categories:
ü Reading Comprehension
ü Other English Language Skills
ü Data Interpretation
ü Logical Reasoning & Analytical
Ability
ü General Mental Ability & Basic
Numeracy
ü Decision Making & Problem
Solving
1. Reading Comprehension (RC)
RCs have been playing a major role
in CSAT paper from the very beginning. From the analysis of past year papers,
it is very much clear that both easy & relatively tough RCs are asked by
the UPSC. RCs number has also increased in the 2012 pre exam as compared with
the 2011 paper and due to this, students find CSAT paper lengthy.
How to tackle??
It is necessary to increase speed
as well as accuracy for getting more marks in RC & other CSAT paper. A
candidate should have good reading habit and it can be developed by reading
editorial page of newspaper as well. There are a lot of good books available
for RCs like Career Launcher material, Vajiram material, RS Aggarwal book or
any other good CAT or CSAT book for RC. Important point to note here is to
increase the speed and to answer the question accurately, only more practice is the solution to the problem of RC. Some RCs
also have Hindi translation as well, so if some candidate find difficulty in
answering question from English paragraph, he/she should read it from Hindi
also. Ultimately, it’s the number of question attempted matters rather than how
they have been attempted.
2. Other English Language Skills
Other area in English includes
following illustrative area:
ü Syllogism
ü Synonyms & Antonyms
ü Critical Reasoning
ü Para Jumbles
ü Implicit Assumptions
ü Part Error
ü Analogies
ü Sentence Completion
ü Word Usage Matching Home
A candidate should prepare the
above areas to cover as much syllabus as possible. For English portion, I find
Vajiram notes very helpful, however a lot of material is also available for the
same from other publishers like Career Launcher Notes, Time Institute notes,
Arun Sharma book etc. A candidate can choose anyone for good preparation and
for practice can refer to Chronicle special editions on CSAT.
For English
medium students who find difficulty in basic grammar can refer Wren & Martin book & for Hindi
medium students, JPH English Grammar
guide is very easy and good source of English grammar book. A candidate
should devote atleast 2-3 hours on English section daily to cover all the above
areas. Vocabulary helps in understanding RCs & other area and hence should
be prepared accordingly. A candidate should learn alteast 2500-3000 new words
to improve his/her vocabulary and newspaper is a very good source for the same.
3. Data Interpretation (DI)
DI deals with reading &
understanding a large amount of information that may be provided in a certain
format like graphs, bar diagrams, charts, pie diagram, table format etc. The
purpose of DI is to judge the analytical ability of a candidate and with the
use of power point presentations; its importance has increased considerably.
To deal with the DI part, a
candidate should first go for good material as specified above for English as
well and practice a lot from it. Percentage & Ratio analysis chapters are
very useful in DI part and a candidate should improve his/her calculations
skill to deal with it effectively. A DI question should be attempted as a whole
as it carries always 4-5 questions with it.
A candidate should also use his/her
DI skills into day to day affairs as well like while understanding the Eco
survey, India Year book or while watching the cricket match as well. A
candidate should try to do as many as calculations in his daily life without
calculator so it will improve his calculation skills as well.
4. Logical Reasoning & Analytical Ability
Following areas are covered in the
logical reasoning & analytical ability:
ü Directions & Arrangements
ü Relationships
ü Series, Analogies & Codes
ü Logical Puzzles
ü Venn Diagram
ü Fact, Inference & Judgment
ü Probably/Definitely True or False
ü Strong & Weak Arguments
ü Cause & Effect
ü Course of Action
A candidate should read a good material
and some magazines as well to cover the above areas. One should also cover
other exams like Bank PO exams etc to cover this area. CSAT preparation is
always fun and one should thoroughly enjoy this process. CSAT demands smart
work, short cuts and most important common sense to crack the CSAT.
5. General Mental Ability & Basic Numeracy
It covers the following areas:
ü Averages
ü Ratio & Proportion
ü Percentages
ü Time & Distance
ü Numbers
ü Basics of Geometry
ü Sequences, Progression and Series
ü Permutation & Combinations
ü Probability
The above areas can be covered from
any good CAT book R.S. Aggarwal book or Arun Sharma book. One should learn as
much short cut as possible. Although these areas have not appeared for last 2
CSAT exams, but it will not be surprise if they appear anytime in future exams.
One should cover all the above areas to save himself from risk of surprise.
Again, practice is the key to success in this area as well.
6. Decision Making & Problem Solving
This area
checks the decision making ability & problem solving ability of a
candidate. Normally, situation based & behavioral questions are asked from
this area like if you are DC of a flood affected district, so what will be your
best course of action during emergency period. These kinds of questions check
the personality and attitude of a candidate. There cannot be a particular
answer to these kinds of question but a better decision than other options;
hence these questions do not carry negative marking. A candidate should attempt
these questions as these do not carry negative marking.
Some
material is again available on this topic and a candidate should practice as
well, however, a candidate should properly analyse the question and select the
best & ideal answer for that particular situation. These questions can help
a candidate in cracking the exam as each question carries 2.5 marks and do not
carry negative marking as well.
Time Management
Time
management is the key to success in prelims exam. A candidate is allotted 2
hours for attempting the 80 questions and still candidates find it difficult to
complete the paper despite being correctly knowing the answer of questions.
Some tips for time management:
ü Join a good test series and assess
your performance and speed alongwith common mistakes
ü Practice as many variety of
questions as possible as examiner also has limited choices to set the paper
ü Carefully read the instruction
before starting the exam (Many candidates did the mistake of not reading the
non negative questions instruction in 2011 exam and left those questions even).
ü Do not spend too much time on one
question; leave it for the end if you are not able to crack it in sufficient
time.
ü Keep your ego aside during exam
with the particular question like why I am not able to attempt even a simple
question etc.
ü Try to start reading the question
paper before starting the exam at actual
time as normally question paper is distribute 10 min ago before schedule time (
UPSC paper do not even have seal on the question paper). It will increase your
time and will give you confidence
ü Try to attempt similar questions in
a block
ü While attempting question first
look at the options, some questions can be directly cracked by putting option
in the question, it saves your calculation time.
ü Learn as many short cuts as
possible to improve calculation speed
ü DI & RC questions should be
attempted after reading the complete detail only
ü Do not go by approximation &
gut feeling, it often proves disaster and try to get precise answer.
ü Try to attempt easy questions in
the beginning, it will give you confidence and even simple questions proved
very difficult in the end and difficult questions become easy if a candidate
has score enough in the beginning only.
ü Do not go by the length of RC,
often lengthy passages have direct answers and smaller passages have tough
questions.
ü Prepare for CSAT when you want to
read some lighter subject as I have already mentioned that CSAT is a great fun.
ü Prepare your concept for CSAT in
summary form so that in last days one only needs to revise the concept and need
not to spend much time for its revision.
ü Maintain your cool during the exam,
it will help you not to panic and will save your silly mistakes and time.
ü Always remember two hours during
the exam are the most important time in your life, so keep your whole
concentration in the exam and give your best shot in the exam.
