Dear Aspirants,
Having taken the first step in taking the decision for appearing for Civil Services Examination-2012, you have to decide further course of action. The first step is preparing for Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), which is normally conducted in the month of June.  Paper-I of the CSAT, tests you in your General Awareness Quotient (GAQ). Paper-II tests your skills of analysis, reasoning and simple arithmetic and interpretation of data given in the form of charts, graphs etc.

There is misconception that the Paper-II of the CSAT resembles the Reasoning Test which is a component of Bank Exams. It is far from true. The purpose of the Paper-II is to test your skills of interpretation. It is to test your speed in grasping the subject matter and giving appropriate answers to the MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions). In a way it also tests your retention capacity. The standard of the question paper is that of class XII. Hence, this paper does not require any elaborate preparation. The key is here “Practice”. You have to continuously practice the tests so that your speed, reading and retention skills improve with time.

The deciding factor for clearing the CSAT is Paper-I.

Here, you have to study extensively keeping the number of questions appearing from various subjects – geography, constitution, current affairs, economy, science, space and defence activities, government policies and plans etc. The mistake many aspirants do is to study a lot of stuff which is not necessary. Systematic coverage of each area is sufficient. However, one particular area which deserves special attention is Current Affairs. For this student the aspirant is to be alert and never miss any single topical issue in prominence.  While for other subjects, notes which are almost static can be of help, in the case of Current Affairs, continuous updating of awareness is quite essential.

In a nutshell for Paper-I “Preparation” is the key while for Paper-II “Practice” is the success-mantra.

I will be giving more and more inputs to the aspirants in this page very frequently.

Do not miss this page.

Yours sincerely,
M V Krishnamohan