How to prepare for CSAT:- By Rushikesh Dudhat
Last year UPSC brought in a major change in civil services
preliminary exam pattern by removing the optional subject and introducing a new
paper 2 commonly known as CSAT. Though it caused lot of anxiety in students
initially, the two preliminary examinations on new pattern gives us fair idea
about paper 2. Most importantly it dispels the myth that CSAT favors students with
mathematics background. In fact the number of mathematics questions in 2011
paper which were around 15, could be categorized into more of logical questions
and this year, i.e. in 2012 paper the number of
mathematics question were reduced to just two.
Also a comparative analysis of paper 1 and paper 2 shows
that , CSAT paper consists of 80 questions with each question carrying 2.5
marks as against 2 marks carried by each question of paper 1 (G.S.) having 100
questions. So the weightage is more to paper 2. But the number of question may
vary in coming years as UPSC has not specified number of questions thus making
the current pattern more dynamic.
