The General Studies II Paper in the UPSC Civil Services Prelims Exam is also known as UPSC CSAT. Although it is a qualifying paper, you need a rock-solid UPSC CSAT Exam Strategy to ace this paper. To qualify this 200 mark Prelims Paper you need to score more than 33% or 66 marks. Hence, thorough knowledge of the weightage of each topic and subsequent preparation tips can help you sail through it smoothly.
Read on for further tips on how to prepare for UPSC CSAT. Before beginning preparation, you must acquaint yourself with the syllabus, exam pattern, marking scheme, and so on.
The UPSC CSAT 2025 Syllabus as prescribed by UPSC in their notification, consists of the following broad categories.
UPSC Syllabus
UPSC CSAT is a qualifying paper in the UPSC Civil Services Prelims Exam. It is essential to score 66+ marks out of 200 to ensure selection in the Prelims. Therefore, the first step to acing CSAT is recognising its importance.
Also read: UPSC Preparation Strategy
As a UPSC Aspirant, it is extremely beneficial to analyse the UPSC Exam’s past years’ trends to gauge the possible pattern of the upcoming paper. Hence, the UPSC CSAT 2025 topic-wise weightage is as follows.
UPSC CSAT Topic-Wise Weightage |
||||
Year |
Comprehension |
Reasoning |
Maths |
Total |
2019 |
30 |
18 |
32 |
80 |
2020 |
25 |
10 |
45 |
80 |
2021 |
27 |
17 |
36 |
80 |
2022 |
27 |
15 |
38 |
80 |
2023 |
26 |
11 |
43 |
80 |
2024 |
27 |
15 |
38 |
80 |
As can be observed from the table, throughout the years, comprehension and maths are important sections that consistently carry a lot of weightage. Hence, if you practice sufficient questions from these topics and get these sections right in the exam, you will be able to qualify CSAT easily.
Adopt a smart approach and work on topics that seem doable for you. Any standard book by TMH publication or Arihant Publication would suffice for UPSC CSAT Preparation. Consistent practice is the key element in the UPSC Prelims CSAT Strategy. Hence, practice as many questions as you can from these manual-like books but be careful of incorrect answers in these books. However, the best recommendation would be books from GKP Publications.
Additionally, you can check out our UPSC CSAT courses that cover all the topics in the syllabus with ease.
Also read: Best Booklist for UPSC Preparation
CSAT stands for Civil Services Aptitude Test. It is officially known as General Studies Paper 2 and is included in the UPSC Civil Services Prelims Examination.
CSAT is a 200-mark paper, consisting of 80 questions of 2.5 marks each.
Yes, for every wrong answer, there is ⅓ rd negative marking. However, there is no negative marking for unattempted questions.
You must score a minimum of 33% or 66 marks to qualify for the CSAT paper.
Since CSAT is qualifying in nature, the score will not be added to the final score. However, without qualifying in CSAT you cannot make it to the Main, even if you qualify in GS Paper I.
As per the UPSC Notification 2025, these are the topics mentioned in the syllabus.
Since it is qualifying in nature, many candidates neglect CSAT and lose their attempt at UPSC Main. To prepare, you can read the syllabus carefully, identify the topics that are already familiar to you, practice them well, and attempt as many mocks as possible to boost your confidence.
Yes, you can check out our available CSAT courses here.