Introduction

The UPSC, convinced of the need for important changes in the method of recruitment to the Civil Services, recommended to the government that a Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) replace the existing Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination.

As per the new pattern, at the Preliminary Examination stage,

• There will be two objective-type question papers common for all the candidates.
• Both these papers will have equal weightage (200 marks each).
• The emphasis will be on testing the aptitude of the candidate for the demanding life in the civil service and on the ethical and moral dimensions of decision-making.

The upcoming scheme will have the advantages of

1. testing a candidate’s decision-making skills and aptitude for the civil services; and
2. providing a level playing field for all the aspirants since all the candidates will have to attempt two common objective-type papers.

“CSAT will come into effect from Civil Services Exam, 2011. The change will be effective only for the Preliminary Test, i.e., the first stage of the Civil Services Exam from 2011 onwards. The second and third stages — Civil Services Main Exam and Interview, respectively — will remain the same.”

The proposed syllabus for CSAT – Paper II comprises of 7 areas |200 marks|2 hours duration

1. Comprehension

2. Interpersonal skills including communication skills

3. Logical reasoning and analytical ability

4. Decision making and problem solving

5. General mental ability

6. Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. -Class X level)

7. English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level (last item in the Syllabus of Paper-II) will be tested through passages from English language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question paper.

A Hindi equivalent / translation will be available for the initial six tested areas, while the seventh area, English Language Comprehension skills, will be available exclusively in English language, indicating a need of understanding of English language in prospective IAS officers as English is the Lingua Franca of our country. 

The Myths
The candidates for CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test) are confronted by a plethora of information, conjectures and assumptions disseminated by people lacking the perception needed for handling the CSAT and by organizations with vested interests. Candidates need to sift through the chaff and understand what direction to take. We have tried to dispel some myths that students ask us about.

Myth 1 – CSAT will be a diluted version of the IIM-CAT, XAT or MAT

The CSAT stands for the Civil Services Aptitude Test, an exam customised to test a candidate’s aptitude for the Civil Services and not a Management Aptitude Test, which tests for aptitude to do an MBA successfully. Management Aptitude Tests such as the IIM-CAT and XAT have a dual focus – to test whether a student has the aptitude / potential to become a manager in the corporate world and to test whether a student will be able to handle the academic rigours of a demanding course, a Masters in Business Administration or a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management. CSAT, on the other hand is not an entrance exam for admission into an MBA program offered by a Business School, rather CSAT is a recruitment exam for a career in the Civil Services, a discipline which requires a different set of abilities and attitude, so the CSAT is an entirely different exam.

Myth 2 – The Maths of CSAT will be difficult and will give an undue advantage to candidates with a Maths background

CSAT, by virtue of being an Aptitude Test for Civil Services, will test students for their ability to play with numbers but not higher level Maths.  The sample questions released by UPSC are indicative of the difficulty level of this component. They do not need knowledge of formulas or any difficult Math skills. A difficult Maths question on which more students tend to make mistakes will not be difficult because of higher level Maths but will be difficult because of a twist or a trap in question due to fancy language. A candidate who has passed 10th standard knows more Maths than is needed by the CSAT. I agree that with passage of years the mathematical skills would have got rusty but would definitely not need learning from scratch. Understanding and practicing various types of questions that can come in the exam is required initially, while later a candidate can focus on finding out what type of questions they most frequently make mistakes on and correcting themselves is required for the final honing of quantitative skills.

Myth 3 – The English and Reasoning questions are easy and do not need hard work

The English questions are not easy rather they are seemingly easy. If you compare English with say an area like Maths, then the differences are stark. Candidates from our Indian schooling systems have to do a lot of Maths in their syllabi. Parents, teachers and students work hard on Maths, but except for the initial focus on English during primary schooling, at later stages from standard 5 to 12 students are just handed a mandatory English reader (book), which has a few stories followed by some questions. Students can recall that during the high school and later stages they could study English for a few days before exam and could secure the desired score in English subject. So if you analyze, English is an area where our foundation is weak and candidates will have to put in an extra effort to match the standards of testing.

Explore this page for free resources and sample questions of Paper II