The UPSC Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) is the second paper in the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination. The CSAT is designed to test a candidate’s aptitude, logical reasoning, and analytical abilities. Here’s a detailed syllabus for the UPSC CSAT:
Paper-II: General Studies-1 (CSAT)
- Comprehension: This section evaluates the candidate’s ability to understand, interpret, and analyze information from passages.
- Interpersonal Skills, Communication Skills, Decision Making, and Problem Solving: Questions in this section assess the candidate’s ability to understand and analyze situations, make informed decisions, and communicate effectively.
- General Mental Ability: This section includes questions on logical reasoning, analytical ability, and data interpretation. It assesses the candidate’s problem-solving skills.
- Basic Numeracy: Questions in this section cover fundamental numerical and mathematical concepts, including numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.
- Data Interpretation: This section assesses the candidate’s ability to read and interpret data presented in various forms such as tables, graphs, charts, and diagrams.
- English Language Comprehension Skills (Class X Level): This part tests the candidate’s proficiency in English language comprehension.
It’s important to note that Paper-II (CSAT) is a qualifying paper. You must score a minimum of 33% to qualify for Paper-I (General Studies). The marks obtained in Paper-II are not considered for the final ranking in the UPSC Civil Services Examination.
More Details of CSAT Syllabus
1. Comprehension
- Reading Passages: In comprehension tests, you will be provided with one or more reading passages. These passages can be on a wide range of topics, including literature, science, social issues, history, economics, and more.
- Understanding and Interpretation: The primary objective of comprehension is to assess your ability to understand the content of the passages and interpret the information presented.
- Inference: Comprehension questions may require you to draw inferences or conclusions based on the information provided in the passage. This tests your ability to go beyond the explicitly stated information and make logical deductions.
- Vocabulary: Some questions may test your understanding of vocabulary in the context of the passage. This can include identifying the meaning of specific words or phrases based on the passage.
- Contextual Understanding: Comprehension questions may assess how well you grasp the context and purpose of the passage. This includes understanding the main idea, theme, tone, and author’s perspective.
- Main Points and Supporting Details: Questions may ask you to identify the main points or central ideas in the passage, as well as the supporting details that contribute to those points.
- Sequencing: Some questions may ask you to arrange events, ideas, or facts presented in the passage in a logical sequence.
- Author’s Purpose: You might be asked to discern the author’s purpose in writing the passage. This includes understanding whether the author aims to inform, persuade, entertain, or argue.
- Comparisons: Comprehension questions may require you to compare and contrast different aspects presented in the passage.
- Critical Evaluation: You may encounter questions that ask you to critically evaluate the information presented in the passage. This involves assessing the validity of arguments and the reliability of sources.
- Summarization: Some tests may ask you to provide a concise summary of the passage or specific sections of it.
- Application of Information: In some cases, you may be asked how the information presented in the passage can be applied to real-life situations or problems.
2. Interpersonal Skills, Communication Skills, Decision Making, and Problem Solving
- Interpersonal Skills:
- Understanding social behavior and interpersonal relationships.
- Skills related to effective communication, empathy, and cooperation.
- Conflict resolution and negotiation abilities.
- Emotional intelligence and the ability to understand and manage one’s emotions and the emotions of others.
- Leadership qualities and teamwork.
- Communication Skills:
- Verbal and non-verbal communication.
- Effective listening and speaking.
- Presentation skills.
- Reading comprehension and summarization.
- Persuasive and effective communication.
- Communication in various contexts and settings.
- Decision Making:
- The ability to analyze situations and make informed decisions.
- Evaluating alternatives and considering consequences.
- Problem analysis and decision-making under pressure.
- Ethical and moral dimensions of decision-making.
- Critical thinking and judgment.
- Problem Solving:
- Analytical thinking and problem identification.
- Approaches to problem-solving.
- Creative and innovative problem-solving.
- Identifying solutions and evaluating their effectiveness.
- Practical application of problem-solving skills.
3. General Mental Ability
- Series Completion: Questions may involve completing number or letter series patterns. Candidates are expected to identify the pattern and fill in the missing element.
- Coding-Decoding: This involves coding words or phrases using a specific rule or pattern. Candidates need to decipher the code or encode a given word/phrase according to a specific rule.
- Seating Arrangements: Candidates are asked to arrange people or objects in a specific order or manner based on given conditions or rules.
- Direction and Distance: Questions related to directions and distances, where candidates may need to determine the shortest distance between two points or identify the direction in which an object is moving.
- Blood Relations: Problems related to family relations, where candidates are asked to determine the relationships between family members.
- Logical Venn Diagrams: Questions involving the interpretation of Venn diagrams to find relationships between different sets or groups.
- Syllogism: These questions require candidates to determine the validity of conclusions drawn from given statements using logical reasoning.
- Analogies: Candidates may be asked to identify the relationship between two words or concepts and apply the same relationship to a different pair of words or concepts.
- Statement and Assumptions: In this type of question, candidates must evaluate whether a given statement is followed by certain assumptions.
- Data Sufficiency: These questions require candidates to determine whether the given data is sufficient to answer a specific question.
- Mathematical Operations: Problems that involve mathematical operations on numbers, letters, or symbols, and candidates are asked to find the result.
- Critical Reasoning: Candidates may be presented with arguments and asked to evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, or conclusions.
- Decision Making: Questions may involve making decisions based on given information and conditions.
- Analytical Reasoning: These questions typically require candidates to analyze a given situation and make logical deductions.
4. Basic Numeracy
- Number Systems: Understanding the properties and relationships of various types of numbers, such as natural numbers, whole numbers, integers, rational numbers, and irrational numbers.
- Arithmetic: Proficiency in basic arithmetic operations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This also involves concepts related to factors, multiples, LCM (Least Common Multiple), and HCF (Highest Common Factor).
- Decimals and Fractions: Knowledge of decimal representation and conversion to fractions, as well as fraction simplification, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
- Percentage: Understanding the concept of percentages, their applications in various contexts, and the ability to calculate percentages of numbers.
- Ratio and Proportion: Comprehension of ratio and proportion, including direct and inverse proportions, and their practical applications.
- Profit and Loss: Ability to calculate profit and loss in commercial transactions, and related concepts like cost price, selling price, and discount.
- Time and Work: Proficiency in solving problems related to time and work, including concepts of work rate, time taken to complete a task, and related calculations.
- Time, Speed, and Distance: Understanding the relationships between time, speed, and distance and their applications in problems involving motion.
- Averages: Knowledge of how to calculate and use averages in different scenarios, such as finding the average of a set of numbers.
- Simple and Compound Interest: Understanding the principles of simple and compound interest calculations and their applications.
- Geometry: Basic knowledge of geometric concepts, such as lines, angles, triangles, circles, quadrilaterals, polygons, and their properties.
- Algebra: Proficiency in elementary algebra, including solving linear equations, quadratic equations, and related problems.
- Mensuration: Understanding the measurement of areas, volumes, and perimeters of geometric figures like squares, rectangles, circles, triangles, and three-dimensional shapes.
- Data Interpretation: Basic interpretation of data presented in the form of tables, graphs, charts, and diagrams to extract information and answer related questions.
5. Data Interpretation
- Data Representation: Understanding how data is represented, including tables, bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, and other graphical formats.
- Data Analysis: Analyzing data to draw meaningful conclusions, identify patterns, and make inferences.
- Data Comparison: Comparing different data sets to find relationships and differences.
- Percentages: Calculating percentages and using them to understand data.
- Ratio and Proportion: Understanding the relationship between quantities and applying this knowledge to interpret data.
- Averages: Calculating and interpreting averages of data sets.
- Percent Change: Analyzing how data changes over time, often expressed as a percentage change.
- Profit and Loss: Analyzing financial data, including profit and loss statements.
- Interest: Calculating and interpreting simple and compound interest.
- Time and Work: Understanding how time and work are related, especially in the context of data interpretation problems.
- Speed, Distance, and Time: Applying concepts of speed, distance, and time to interpret data related to travel and motion.
- Permutations and Combinations: Understanding the principles of permutations and combinations for certain types of data interpretation problems.
- Probability: Applying probability concepts in data analysis.
- Data Sufficiency: Evaluating the given data to determine whether it provides sufficient information to answer a particular question.
- Caselets: Interpreting data in the form of caselets or short passages and answering questions based on the information provided.
- Calendars: Using calendar data for date-related calculations and analysis.
6. English Language Comprehension Skills (Class X Level)
- Reading Comprehension: This involves reading passages or paragraphs and answering questions based on the content. Questions may relate to understanding the main idea, details, inferences, author’s viewpoint, and more. These passages can be on a variety of subjects and themes.
- Vocabulary: The vocabulary component assesses your understanding of words, synonyms, antonyms, and the context in which words are used in sentences. This may also include idiomatic expressions.
- Grammar and Usage: Questions related to grammar and usage test your knowledge of English grammar rules, including sentence structure, verb forms, subject-verb agreement, tenses, prepositions, articles, and conjunctions.
- Sentence Completion: These questions typically involve completing sentences with the appropriate words or phrases, ensuring that they fit the context and grammatical structure.
- Cloze Test: A cloze test involves a passage with certain words missing. You are required to fill in the blanks with appropriate words, keeping the overall meaning of the passage in mind.
- Sentence Improvement and Correction: Questions in this category focus on identifying and correcting errors in sentences, such as grammatical errors, sentence structure issues, or word choice.
- Jumbled Sentences: Jumbled sentences require you to rearrange a set of words to form coherent and grammatically correct sentences.
- Paragraph Formation: You may be asked to arrange a set of sentences in a logical sequence to create a coherent and well-structured paragraph.
FAQs on CSAT Syllabus
1. What is the purpose of the CSAT in the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination?
The CSAT is the second paper in the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination. It is designed to test a candidate’s aptitude, logical reasoning, and analytical abilities. The CSAT is a qualifying paper, and you must score a minimum of 33% to qualify for the first paper (General Studies).
2. Is there a specific syllabus for the CSAT English Language Comprehension Skills section?
The English Language Comprehension Skills section in the CSAT primarily assesses your ability to understand written English. While there isn’t a detailed syllabus, the questions are typically based on Class X (10th-grade) level English language skills, including reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, and sentence construction.
3. What are the key areas to focus on when preparing for the CSAT?
Key areas to focus on for the CSAT include reading comprehension, logical reasoning, data interpretation, problem-solving, and basic numerical and mathematical concepts. Additionally, you should pay attention to English language skills at a Class X level, such as vocabulary and grammar.
4. Do the CSAT questions change every year?
The specific questions in the CSAT may vary from year to year, but the general topics and areas mentioned in the syllabus remain consistent. To prepare effectively, candidates should practice solving previous years’ question papers, mock tests, and refer to appropriate study materials covering these areas.
5. Is the CSAT paper considered in the final ranking for the UPSC Civil Services Examination?
No, the CSAT paper is a qualifying paper. The marks obtained in the CSAT are not considered for the final ranking in the UPSC Civil Services Examination. It is required to qualify the preliminary examination, and only the marks of the General Studies Paper-I are considered for selecting candidates for the Main examination and subsequent stages of the UPSC exam.
To get free counseling/support on UPSC preparation from expert mentors please call 9773890604
- Join our Main Telegram Channel and access PYQs, Current Affairs and UPSC Guidance for free – Edukemy for IAS
- Learn Economy for free- Economy for UPSC
- Learn CSAT – CSAT for UPSC
- Mains Answer Writing Practice-Mains Answer Writing
- For UPSC Prelims Resources, Click here
