Analysis of GS Paper I (CSAT), CSP 2014
The 2014 CSP Paper 1 was easier than the 2013 CSP Paper 1. Geography, Ecology and Environment constituted almost one-third of the paper. In a significant departure from the norm, there were only 6 questions from Economy this year - past years’ papers typically had 15-20 questions from this section. Similarly, belying the popular belief among Civil Services’ aspirants that there would be a good number of questions from Modern Indian History, this time there were just 4 questions from this section.
Questions from Science, especially from Biology, Ecology & Environment were conceptual in nature. Questions from Art & Culture have been increasing in number over the last three years. This trend continued this year too with 13 Questions asked from this area.
The difficulty level of questions ranged from moderate to difficult. There was a preponderance of fact-based questions this year which was not the case during previous years. This again highlighted the importance of studying basic textbooks thoroughly, particularly NCERT books of Class 6 onwards.
| S.N. | Subjects |
2014 |
1. |
History |
8 |
2. |
Art and Culture |
13 |
3. |
Polity |
13 |
4. |
Geography |
15 |
5.. |
Economy |
6 |
6. |
Science and Tech |
17 |
7. |
Ecology and Environment |
17 |
8. |
Social Welfare Schemes |
04 |
9. |
Current Affairs |
07 |
|
Total |
100 |
Sixty-three of the questions were either matching-pair based or multiple statement based and thus needed more than a single piece of information to solve them. Though these questions looked simple at first glance, the options were quite close and hence, the questions were not easy. Questions such as those on ‘Mundako Upandishad’ and on ‘Saka era calendar’ were asked by UPSC in previous years too.
Overall, the paper was moderate to difficult. A score of around 100 to 110 in this paper would be considered a good attempt.
Analysis of GS Paper II (CSAT), CSP 2014
The 2014 CSP Paper II had quite a few surprises in store for aspirants. First of all, Decision Making questions were completely absent from this paper. Last year’s CSAT paper had 6 questions (worth 15 marks) from this portion. These were comparatively risk-free marks since these questions did not have any negative marking. Further, two of the options for these questions fetched full marks. The absence of these questions certainly made the paper slightly tougher.
Questions in this year’s paper were also lengthier than last year’s questions. This year not many questions were direct; most questions required at least some inference/logical thinking.
Quantitative Aptitude questions and Reasoning questions in this year’s paper were tougher than last year’s questions from these areas. The options given were relatively close and this also added to the amount of time required to solve the question.
The Verbal Ability section was also tougher this year. Twenty-six questions from Reading Comprehension were present in the paper. Compared to last year’s paper, fewer RC questions were fact-based; a greater proportion of these questions were inferential in nature.
Reasoning questions were significantly tougher than those in previous years. Questions were no longer direct and/or simple. Most of the questions required aspirants to make some assumptions in order to solve the question.
Two of the questions in this year’s paper contained errors. This too would have caused some confusion to aspirants.
Breakup of this year’s GS Paper II (CSAT):
| S. No. | Topic |
No. of questions |
1 |
Reading Comprehension |
26 |
2 |
Critical Reasoning |
6 |
3 |
Analytical Reasoning |
16 |
4 |
Quantitative Aptitude |
16 |
5 |
Data Interpretation |
6 |
6 |
Non-verbal Reasoning |
4 |
|
Total |
74 |
Overall, this paper was tougher than last year’s GS Paper II (CSAT). Considering this, and the difficulty level of this year’s GS Paper I, it is expected that the cutoff for clearing prelims this year will range from 210-220 (for general category candidates). The cutoff is likely to be 190-200 for OBC candidates, 185-195 for SC and 180-190 for ST candidates.
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