How to Prepare for Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination?

Civil Services (Preliminary) examination has two papers viz; General Studies Paper-I and General Studies Paper-II (GS-II). GS-II is also known as the CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test). This pattern came into force in 2011.

There is no strategy that applies to all aspirants for all exams. It all depends on your educational background, your time, interest in studies, and an executable pragmatic study plan. You cannot complete the syllabus if you study without giving it a thought. Every exam will have some topics that you are familiar with and some topics that you are not familiar with. You should master familiar topics first to score more marks. Then You should study unfamiliar topics to score at least average marks.

For example, if you are from a science and engineering background, a science and technology section and CSAT of the syllabus will be familiar. On the other hand, if you are from an art and humanities background, core subjects (History, Polity, Geography, and Economy ) are more familiar. So accordingly, you should plan your studies. It is always better not to leave any part of the syllabus because questions will be asked from all sections. Hence You should prioritize the syllabus based on the number of questions asked from each section.

The Civil Services is notoriously called an unpredictable examination because of various factors. The majority of the questions are being asked from one subject every year. One year it is current affairs, another year it is Polity and Governance and so on. So your motto should be Expect the Unexpected.

General Studies Paper-I

GS-I paper has seven sections. Among these, Polity and Governance, History and Culture, Geography and Environment, Economy and Development are called four core subjects. About 66% to 75% of the questions are being asked from traditional four core subjects. Your first priority is to complete these four subjects. Analytical questions can be asked from these subjects. You can answer them with precision if you read standard textbooks. You should stick to the syllabus while reading. If you are not sure of the extent of the syllabus, then checking previous questions for that topic will help you a lot.

The remaining three subjects are mostly dynamic in nature. You should focus on current affairs, recent legislations, recent constitutional amendments, recent landmark judgments, government schemes, etc.

CSAT / General Studies Paper-II

CSAT is a qualifying paper in which a candidate should score a minimum of 33 percentage of marks. However, if a candidate fails in the CSAT paper, his GS-I paper will not be evaluated. This change has been introduced in 2015. Before 2015, the CSAT score was also considered for evaluation. That means marks from both GS-I and GS-II were considered for screening of candidates.

Overall, this paper can be categorised into three sections. They are Basic mathematics, Reasoning, and English Comprehension. Among these three sections, find your strong and weak sections. By studying for a couple of days, you can get full clarity in your strong section. Later, you should focus on weak sections. You need to spend more time here to understand the basics. After you are aware of the basics, you should practice them. Without practice, success in this paper is very difficult. Qualifying in CSAT paper is very easy if you focus more on practice. Otherwise, it would become a nightmare for you. You should practice previous question papers compulsorily to feel the depth and difficulty level of the paper.