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This is an archive article published on June 8, 2024

UPSC CSAT Simplified: How to approach ‘Calendar’ questions? (Part 1)

How to solve questions on ‘Calendars’ accurately and swiftly? In this special series on CSAT, our expert simplifies it for you. Let’s learn.

UPSC CSAT Simplified Calendars part 1 Mudit Gupta

What type of questions should an aspirant expect from the 'Calendars' topic and how to answer them in minimum time? (Image: Freepik)

As we know cracking UPSC Prelims is not just about your knowledge of General Studies. The CSAT paper too, gives a hard time to aspirants. So, UPSC Essentials’ special series ‘UPSC CSAT Simplified’ presents some important topics from the qualifying CSAT paper of UPSC prelims. The aim is to provide you with some tested methods to answer the questions correctly without wasting precious time.

Mudit Gupta, our CSAT expert, takes you through the types and tricks of one of the most frequently asked topics: Calendar. Don’t miss to ‘Check your progress’ towards the end of the article. Also, let us know what topics you want us to cover as part of this new series. Please write to us at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com.

About our Expert: Mudit Gupta has been a mentor and faculty for the UPSC Civil Services exam for 8 years with expertise in CSAT, Polity, International Relations, and Current Affairs. He is known to break complex concepts into simpler ones that allow UPSC aspirants to develop a grip over the subject matter.

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What type of questions should an aspirant expect from the ‘Calendars’ topic and how to answer them in minimum time?

Let’s begin with an example. Almost everyone gets excited about the country’s Independence Day celebrated on the 15th of August every year. This year, in 2024, the Independence Day would fall on Thursday. Let us say you want to plan your celebrations for Independence Day in 2025 in advance, without looking at the calendar can you tell on which day will the 15th of August, 2025 fall?

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Here is a trick to solve such problems in the least possible time. Let us frame the problem lucidly.

Question 1: If 15th August 2024 is Thursday, what will be the day on 15th August 2025?

To solve such problems we first need to determine if 2025 is a leap year. Checking if it is a leap year should be your first step. To check if the year is a leap year, we divide it by 4. If the remainder is 0, the year is a leap year. But, if the remainder is not zero, the year is not a leap year. Since 2025 is not divisible by 4, it is not a leap year. It also means that there would be only 28 days in February 2025.

If we jump from 15th August 2024 to 15th August 2025 in a monthly fashion (as shown in the figure given below), we will NOT encounter 29th February in between because 2025 is not a leap year. Whenever we jump from 1 year to another and there is no 29th February in between, we simply add 1 to the day to find out the answer.

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(image courtesy: Mudit Gupta)

So, if its Thursday on 15th August 2024, it will be (Thursday + 1 = Friday) on 15th August 2025.

Let us consider one more case:

Question 2: If it’s Sunday on 15th August 2027, what will be the day on 15th August 2028?

We again have to hop from 15th August 2027 to 15th August 2028 in a monthly fashion to check if we encounter 29th February 2028 in between or not. Before starting the exercise, let us be clear that since 2028 is completely divisible by 4, it is a leap year having 366 days and an additional day in February i.e. 29th February 2028.

(image courtesy: Mudit Gupta)

As we hop from 15th August 2027 to 15th August 2028, we encounter 29th February in between and hence, we will add +2 to Sunday to get our answer. So, if its Sunday on 15th August 2027, it will be Tuesday on 15th August 2028.

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To summarize, whenever we have to find out the day on the same date of the next year, we have to check the availability of 29th February as we hop in a month-wise fashion. If we encounter 29th February, we add +2 to get the answer and if there is no 29th February in between, we add +1 to get the answer.

Check your progress:

Using the above logic, try and answer this:

Question: If it is Friday on 1st March 2024, then what will be the day on 1st March 2025?

(Please post your answers in the comment box.)

Previous Article in the UPSC CSAT Simplified series:

How to approach Reading Comprehensions?

How to approach ‘Cubes and Dice’ questions?

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Manas Srivastava

Manas Srivastava leads the UPSC Essentials section of The Indian Express (digital). He majorly writes on UPSC, other competitive exams and education-related projects. In the past, Manas has represented India at the G-20 Youth Summit in Mexico. He is a former member of the Youth Council, GOI. A two-time topper/gold medallist in History (both in graduation and post-graduation) from Delhi University, he has mentored and taught UPSC aspirants for more than five years. His diverse role in The Indian Express consists of writing, editing, anchoring/ hosting, interviewing experts, and curating and simplifying news for the benefit of students. He hosts the YouTube talk show called ‘Art and Culture with Devdutt Pattanaik’ and a LIVE series on Instagram and YouTube called ‘LIVE with Manas’.His talks on ‘How to read a newspaper’ focus on newspaper reading as an essential habit for students. His articles and videos aim at finding solutions to the general queries of students and hence he believes in being students' editor, preparing them not just for any exam but helping them to become informed citizens. This is where he makes his teaching profession meet journalism. He is also the editor of UPSC Essentials' monthly magazine for the aspirants. He is a recipient of the Dip Chand Memorial Award, the Lala Ram Mohan Prize and Prof. Papiya Ghosh Memorial Prize for academic excellence. He was also awarded the University’s Post-Graduate Scholarship for pursuing M.A. in History where he chose to specialise in Ancient India due to his keen interest in Archaeology. He has also successfully completed a Certificate course on Women’s Studies by the Women’s Studies Development Centre, DU. As a part of N.S.S in the past, Manas has worked with national and international organisations and has shown keen interest and active participation in Social Service. He has led and been a part of projects involving areas such as gender sensitisation, persons with disability, helping slum dwellers, environment, adopting our heritage programme. He has also presented a case study on ‘Psychological stress among students’ at ICSQCC- Sri Lanka. As a compere for seminars and other events he likes to keep his orating hobby alive. His interests also lie in International Relations, Governance, Social issues, Essays and poetry. ... Read More

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