UPSC CSAT Simplified: Here are your three common doubts cleared

As we enter the month of September 2024, with more than 260 days still left for the UPSC Prelims 2025, we should chalk out a prudent strategy for the CSAT examination to sail through the upcoming challenge smoothly.

At the outset of the preparation, an aspirant is usually faced with basic yet very essential doubts vis-à-vis the CSAT portion. If we can answer these questions sequentially and systematically, we will have a foolproof strategy for the UPSC CSAT 2025. Let’s consider them one by one. 

Question 1: When to start the CSAT preparation?

Given the qualifying nature of the exam, the aspirants sometimes take the CSAT lightly. However, the UPSC cut-off for 2023 is a testament that many candidates who scored well in GS Paper-I couldn’t write the Mains examination due to a shortfall in the CSAT section. Losing out an attempt due to a shortfall in the CSAT marks is painful.

The syllabus of the UPSC CSAT examination is such that all the three pillars viz quantitative aptitude, logical reasoning, and English reading comprehension require extensive practice to attain speed and accuracy. The more you practice, the more you will acquaint yourself with different types of questions asked by UPSC, giving you a competitive edge over the others.

Some of you might have a phobia of mathematics or extensive calculations, and some might fear lengthy paragraphs. The only credible and sustainable way to overcome this problem is to practice extensively. Just going through the theory and the formulae is not sufficient to clear the CSAT paper.

In an ideal scenario, CSAT should be covered in two phases. The first phase comprises the entire theory and its application and the second phase comprises extensive question practice. You should try and wrap up the first phase by the last week of October and then devote the remaining months to revision and question practice.

You might argue that given the length and breadth of the UPSC syllabus including extensive GS, optional subjects, and current affairs, how is it practical and possible to cover the CSAT theory by October end?

This leads us to the second question:

Question 2: How much time should be devoted to CSAT?

While approaching CSAT, the right frame of mind is extremely important to sail through the challenge. If you see it as a mountain, you will have a hard time climbing it. Rather, see it as a puzzle, to be solved at the end of the day after your hectic schedule.

To put it simply, rather than treating CSAT as a burden, see it as a leisure slot wherein, you’re solving puzzles and challenging questions. Given that you still have more than 250 days for your Prelims examination, the sufficiency of time allows us to devote 1-1.5 hours to CSAT daily, leaving enough room for other pillars of preparation viz: GS, Optional, and Current Affairs.

To fit CSAT into your daily schedule, keep the last 1.5 hours of your day for CSAT. This will allow you to manage other areas effectively throughout the day.

To present the flip side, if you plan to start CSAT in February 2025 or March 2025, you will have to spare 3-4 hours approximately daily to catch up with the concepts as well as extensive question practice, risking the revision of GS for the last moment.

To be a devil’s advocate here, I would like to put a shortcut in your mind: Given that CSAT is a qualifying paper, and you only need 1/3rdof marks to qualify it, how about a quick fix approach wherein, you only cover 2 pillars and leave the third one? (You either cover Reasoning and English Comprehension and leave Quant or the other way round). This will help you shoot two birds with one arrow viz: you will save time and effort and might as well clear the CSAT paper comfortably. But is this approach practical?

Let us find the answer to it in our third question.

Question 3: Can we skip mathematics or logical reasoning?

Before delving into the answer to this question, let us look at the graph given below:

Image Courtsey: Mudit Gupta

The graph given above depicts the variation in the questions of UPSC CSAT over the last 4 exam cycles. At the outset, we can see a constant trend in the English Reading Comprehension however, it is difficult to predict the number of questions asked in Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude.

In such a trend, even if you plan to skip, let us say, logical reasoning, you never know if the UPSC will increase the weightage of Logical Reasoning in the upcoming Prelims. A similar logic follows for the Quantitative Aptitude. So, it is not wise to take a risk and predict the number of questions from a specific pillar or chapter.

The other side of the same coin is even though the above graph shows the number of questions asked from each pillar however, it doesn’t decipher the difficulty level of questions. For ex: in 2023 and 2024, Quantitative Aptitude held a dominant position in terms of the number of questions and also, the difficulty level of questions from this pillar was above average.

So, looking at the graph you might strategize to leave Logical Reasoning and give extra focus to Quantitative Aptitude however, given the above-average difficulty level, you might have found it difficult to score through these questions in 2023 and 2024.

To summarise the answers to the three questions answered above, given the current trend of UPSC CSAT, it is wise to cover the theory and formulae of CSAT at the earliest, and not later than the last week of October, and then devote some time to question practice daily. Also, it would be unwise to skip certain pillars of the syllabus, given the unpredictable nature of the exam. 

(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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