CSAT Pattern

The new format of the civil services examination is yet to get into practice, but been planned to hit the road from the year 2011 onwards under the category of ‘Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT).’

According to the new scheme, the candidates would be facing an aptitude test in the place of ‘General Studies’ and ‘Optional Subjects’ question pattern that were conducted under the plan called as the ‘Preliminary examination.’ The Union Public Service Commission has been established under the ‘Article 315’ of the Constitution of India for coordinating the effective functioning of the All India Services, common to both the states and the unions.

It is also responsible for conducting the All India Civil Services examinations for appropriate admissions to the civil services, such as Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Forest Service (IFS) and to other government related jobs, which could be grouped under Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ categories.

CSAT 2011 Pattern / Format

Comprehension

In this section, questions may be based on certain real-life situations. The aim will be to test how good a candidate is at fact-finding, sifting through information, interpreting text, predicting and inferring events and recognizing implied meanings.

Inter-personal skills

Inter-personal communication implies face-to-face communication involving few people (typically two) rather than large groups. This section is aimed to test the candidate’s ability to understand and manage the dynamics of social interaction.

Logical reasoning and analytical ability

Logical reasoning measures your ability to understand, analyze and evaluate arguments. Each question is based on a short passage, graph, table or a set of conditions. Analytical ability questions are aimed at measuring your ability to analyze a given structure of arbitrary relationships and to deduce new information from that structure.

Decision-making and Problem-solving

This section measures your ability to use logic in solving problems. The question will generally relate to situations that require you either to take some action, to explain why an action has or would be taken or interpret what the action implies. Questions based on some law and order situations or administrative deadlocks also can be expected.

General Mental Ability (GMA)

In the old pattern, General Mental Ability (GMA) Tests were included in the General Studies Paper. Now it has been shifted to Paper-II. The aim of the GMA Test is to evaluate your cognitive abilities — how proficient are you at learning and finding solutions.

Basic Numeracy

This section includes numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc, which are of class X level. The questions will test your ability to use numbers and solve simple numerical problems. The numerical knowledge you need for these tests is school level mathematics.

Data Interpretation

Data Interpretation (DI) questions tests one’s ability to interpret data presented in tables, graphs and charts. It usually requires two basic steps. First, you have to read a chart or graph in order to obtain certain information. Then you have to apply or manipulate the information for an answer.

This section also includes data sufficiency. Each question is followed by two statements — (1) and (2). Your task is to analyze each of the two statements to determine whether it provides sufficient data to answer the question.

Comprehension: This section tests your ability to read and understand written material. Questions in this section will be of class X level and will be tested through passages. The Reading Comprehension test requires a good grasp over the English language. The passage will be followed by multiple choice questions.