CSAT - New Syllabus Analysis

Let us now look at the different test areas of Paper II (as outlined by UPSC) in detail. Comprehension & English language comprehension skills In general usage, and more specifically in reference to education and psychology, Comprehension has roughly the same meaning as understanding. Reading comprehension measures the understanding of a passage of text based on specific questions related to the text in the passage. The questions could be direct references to the facts quoted in the text or could be indirect questions like, inferences, course of action based on the information available, tone of the passage/author etc. Reading speed plays a key role in ones success in such questions. Familiarity with the topic is another key parameter. Hence, the students are advised to work...

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CSAT - The Changes and Ways to Succeed

As the import if the change is the introduction of aptitude test, lets us look into various aspects of aptitude tests, what they mean to test and ways to emerge successful in such tests, specifically in the context of CSAT. Aptitude test: Aptitude, by definition, is an innate/acquired/learned/developed component of a competency to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. Aptitudes may be physical or mental. In aptitude tests, the mental aptitude is tested. The generic tendency is to link aptitude to simple arithmetic and English. But contrary to that, aptitude can be in various other fields as well, like engineering, philosophy etc. Aptitude tests are designed to assess your logical reasoning or thinking performance with respect to the area of concern. They consist of multiple-choice...

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CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test) New Format

With the Government of India approving a proposal in March this year to introduce an aptitude test in place of the existing optional paper in the Civils preliminary examination, aspirants for the civil services will face a different pattern of examination from next year (2011). The candidates will now have to , for the prelims exam, appear in two objective-type papers having special emphasis on testing their "aptitude for civil services" as well as on "ethical and moral dimension of decision-making" under a new moniker CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test ). Both these papers — having equal weightage — will be common to all candidates in place of the one common paper (general awareness) and one optional paper (any particular subject of choice) under the existing system which lays...

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