With the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) just a few months away, aspirants are busy with last-minute preparations.Dhrubajyoti Banik tells you how the new format of CSAT is going to help people in balancing their knowledge and aptitude. However, aspirants can’t take any of the preparatory stages lightly, he warns
Come August 24, 2014 and many civil service aspirants will be putting in their best to clear their first hurdle — Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), the first part of the toughest competitive exam in the country. Since 2011, the UPSC is conducting the exam in a new format, evidently more evenly balanced—with a fine balance between knowledge and aptitude.
Till 2010, the preliminary examination, had two papers. Paper I, common for all candidates, was a General Studies paper, with 150 questions to be attempted in 120 minutes. Paper II was chosen by the candidate from a list of 23 optional subjects. In the changed pattern, while there will still be two papers, each will be of 200 marks and of 120 mins duration.
Preparation Strategy
The first and the foremost thing to gather is the thorough understanding of all the test areas. The fundamental difference between Paper I and Paper II is learning concepts and building basic ability. Whichever area we look at, aspirants should understand the basic concept and improve your ability in that area. The aspirants also need to get an adequate exposure to different models of questions. That will get rid of any surprise element in the exam.
For aspirants, to be successful in this paper, they need to work on the speed cautiously. They need to be above others in the exam so that your chances of getting short-listed in the prelims will be significantly higher. Performance feedback is very important as the number of areas and the type of questions are much more than that of Paper 1.
A mere superficial understanding of the different areas will not help the aspirants to crack questions in the exam. It is required that they not just crack questions correctly but also in the minimum possible time. In a nutshell, unlike Paper I, the strategy will not just be acquiring facts. Paper- II calls for understanding of concepts and application of concepts in different scenarios. It isn’t that by memorising a few formulae will help the aspirants to achieve the target. Rather, if a aspirant relies too much on formulae for solving problems, then that can be more counterproductive. Whatever may the nature of the question, they should be in a position to tackle that by multiple approaches. The questions will be application oriented and they will require expert guidance to realise their objective. They will have to put in lot of efforts.
Prep for the upcoming months
Concept Building and Strengthening
The fundamental difference between Paper I and Paper II is that while Paper-I will test the memory based learning, Paper -II will test the analytical, logical reasoning and conceptual abilities. The areas in paper I require a solid knowledge base. Unless the aspirants are knowledgeable about the same, they can’t answer the related questions. Reading different study material, magazines, newspapers, attending lectures, participation in the insightful discussions with your friends, making notes are some of the ways by which you can build your knowledge base for a good score in Paper-I.
However, in Paper-II, the questions related to any of the seven test areas will test your grip on the concept or the logic component underlying therein. Mere rote learning of the different mathematical formulae will not help. The aspirants need to have a good grip over the concepts and calculation skills. This can be developed by regular practice. They should work on 2-3 test areas (out of seven test areas in Paper-II) on a daily basis. With this approach, they should be in a position to touch upon each of the seven test areas within a cycle of 3-4 days. The same approach needs to be repeated for the next cycle and onwards. they should keep reviewing their targets every week and stay focussed.
Individual Tests(Topic wise Tests)
A firm grip over the concepts is necessary but not just sufficient prerequisite in cracking the exam. It, thus, becomes significant that the aspirants keep assessing their performance from time to time in individual test area, within a certain time constraint. Once, they are confident about the concepts related to a particular topic(s), then they can start taking individual tests related to the topic(s).
In every cycle of 3-4 days, the aspirants should make sure that they appear for 1-2 individual tests. While solving the test papers, keep a time target (say 30-35 minutes) and focus on maximising the net score. After the test, analyse the performance not just in terms of the number of questions right and wrong but also in terms of number of easy/difficult questions left, number of easy/difficult questions attempted, time taken to answer mark individual question, individual sub-topics from which the questions were attempted etc. Also, aspirants should compare their score against the expected and the best possible score for that test. In this stage, they should develop their own strategy of dealing with the individual test papers. The emphasis in this stage must also be on identifying shortcomings in each area, if any, in terms of awareness of concepts and methods of solving.
Mock tests
Aspirants should take mock tests and analyse the approach. These mock tests contain questions from all the seven test areas. These tests can be covered at the rate of about one or two tests per week. The main learning will be in tackling the individual paper within an overall exam scenario, thus developing abilities to take on the real CSAT. The aspirant should regularly analyse your mock performance under the expert guidance.
Emphasis on Approach, Speed and Accuracy
Concept building, approach, speed and accuracy play vital roles. While solving questions from the study material, the aspirants should make sure that you work on building a basic approach for the same. Also, while solving questions, aspirants should lay that extra emphasis on arriving at the answer for the question in the fastest possible time.
Important dates
last date for the receipt of application form is June 16, 2014 and the examination is on August 24, 2014.
The writer is chief knowledge expert, T.I.M.E. Delhi