How to Prepare CSAT For UPSC (CSAT Strategy)

Here are some simple steps so that anyone can qualify paper 2 by investing only total 30 hour of daily practice (2 hrs. daily for 15 days) and 15 hrs. (1 hrs. evaluation after practice):i.e. total 3 hrs. for this paper.

1. Join our CSAT Test Series or Purchase the Mock CSAT (General Studies -II) of Youth Destination IAS Coaching.
2. Practice each paper for 2 hrs. and try to finish it within stipulated time. Always remember these 2 Mantras for this paper.
3. Practice and Speed. It is essential that you practice this paper before the exams, to an extent that your speed in obtaining accurate results for its various segments, increases. So, Practice is the key here – which brings both speed and accuracy
4. Try to devote time between comprehension and other sections, on the basis of number of questions asked from each.
5. As per last few previous year paper, weightage of comprehension has increased (Approx. 30/31 question every year) so try to solve them first. It tests your command over language, so if you read GENERAL STUDIES papers and other resource materials of CSE thoroughly, I.e. Newspapers etc., you will find that most of the comprehensions are directly from magazines, newspaper articles, government or international bodies’ reports. Also try to read passage at least twice to gain a better understanding of the passage.
6. In first reading just read the passage without much focus on understanding the deep motive behind it. Just try to get the broad overview and then read the question so to understand on what area you have to focus on to be able to answer the questions regarding the passage, correctly. Now read the passage again for a second time with the intention to procure the answers of the questions being asked in the passage.
7. Time taken to solve the comprehension will reduce after regular practice.
8. After comprehension, focus on the questions which you find easy to solve without much effort and then try the question which you find tougher than the ones solved before. In this way, try to engage with relatively easier questions before and work on tough ones, later on.
9. Never use guess work in CSAT paper, it will reduce your + into –
10. Always try to finish paper within 2 hrs. and if questions are left, try not to solve them; You can solve them while reviewing your answers and mistakes later on after completion.
11. Try not to repeat any comprehension again and judiciously review your mistakes while reading answers and try not to repeat it again.

If you try to inculcate these into your habits, you definitely get marks more than required to qualify. The Paper II or CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test), is known to be easily solvable by use of logic and language. However, it does not mean that you should take the paper lightly because of its qualifying nature. Practice is the key here and many good candidates, who obtained high scores in the first paper, General Studies II, failed to qualify Preliminary Exams due to their lackadaisical approach to CSAT.