What is the Syllabus for UPSC CSAT 2013?

The Syllabus for UPSC CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test):

Paper I - (200 marks) Duration: Two hours
- Current events of national and international importance
- History of India and Indian National Movement
- Indian and World Geography - Physical, Social, Economic geography of India and the
World.
- Indian Polity and Governance Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public
Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
- Economic and Social Development Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion,
Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
- General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change - that do
not require subject specialization
- General Science.

Paper II- (200 marks) Duration: Two hours

- Comprehension
- Interpersonal skills including communication skills
- Logical reasoning and analytical ability
- Decision making and problem solving
- General mental ability

- Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc.) (Class X
level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. -Class X level)
- English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).

How to prepare for upsc CSAT 2013 | UPSC CSAT Preparation

How to prepare for UPSC CSAT 2013? - Step 1 (one year before the test)
Understand the test by going thru CSAT Syllabus, CSAT Past papers
Read The Hindu newspaper daily and Frontline magazine and take notes on Important
news, editorials and analysis articles
Go thru the free study material
Read current affairs notes and try to answer current affairs questions
How to prepare for UPSC CSAT 2013? - Step 2 (six months before the test)
Get the study material and study/practice for about 4 hours per day
Get the required CSAT books and study for about 4 hours per day
How to prepare for UPSC CSAT 2013? - Step 3 (three months before the test)
Revise the study material and study/practice for about 2 hours per day
Revise the required books and study for about 2 hours per day
Get India Year Book 2013 and study/revise for about 1 hour per day
Get The Economic Survey of India 2013 and study/revise for about 1 hour per day
How to prepare for UPSC CSAT 2013? - Step 4 (one month before the test)

Do the one practice test (both paper I and Paper II) per day and analyze and work on
weak area
Revise the study material /required books and study for about 2 hours per day
Revise India Year Book 2013 and study/revise for about 1 hour per day
Revise The Economic Survey of India 2013 and study/revise for about 1 hour per day

With a chance to score heavily, the Civil Services Aptitude Test has become vital for
cracking the UPSC.
With the change in the syllabus of the UPSC preliminary examination two years back, students who
wish to clear this prestigious examination are now required to take two papers on General Studies.
While General Studies Paper I retains the outline and broad characteristics of the earlier General
Studies paper, the novelty and game changer now is the General Studies Paper II, also known as Civil
Services Aptitude Test.
Both the papers have a weightage of 200 marks each, but it is now clear that the GS Paper II is much
more scoreable than Paper I because of its elements of traditional aptitude, reasoning,
comprehension and so on.
So how do you organise your preparation for the GS Paper II?
First things first
Get a hold of the types of question you need to prepare.
Exposing you to questions of all possible categories and from all possible subjects is one of the key
ways to prepare for CSAT. While doing this, adopt the following steps in order to gain an advantage
over your competitors:
For every question type/topic,
i) Understand the nuances of the question type/topic, as also the width and the depth of questions
that can be asked on the same
ii) Develop your thought process to tackle questions within a topic
iii) Identify and eliminate any errors in your thought process

iv) Try to improve the quality of your reactions, find shorter ways to think and solve questions from
the topic
For this purpose, organise your preparation into the following areas:
Basic Numeracy: This topic has to be studied under the following categories
a) Numbers: Consisting of the chapters of Number Systems and Progressions
b) Word Based Problems: Consisting of the chapters of Averages, Alligations, Percentages, Profit
and Loss, Interest, Ratio and Proportion, Time and Work, Time Speed and Distance.
c) Counting based chapters: Permutations and Combinations, Probability, Set Theory
Data Interpretation: Questions on this topic typically ask you to interpret information which is
presented in the form of line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, tables and/or a mixture of the above.
Questions are then asked about the information provided and you would need to answer these based
on the data provided.
Logical Reasoning: This is again a very important area on which to focus your preparations.
Questions under logical reasoning can be classified under Puzzles, Linear Arrangements, Circular
arrangements, Blood relations, Sequences and Series, Direction test, Mathematical Symbols
Numerical puzzles.
Comprehension: Under comprehension you are provided with a passage of anywhere between 250
to 1,000 words, and are asked to solve questions based on the content of the passage. Typically, you
would encounter two kinds of comprehension based questions:
a) English Comprehension: These questions have to be solved in English by all candidates and
hence do not have a Hindi translation to them.
b) General Comprehension: The comprehension questions are also translated into Hindi.
However, these questions are quite tricky and complex in nature & hence you need to focus on your
ability to understand the nuances.
Interpersonal Skills & Communication skills:
Questions under this category test your ability to structure language and your verbal skills. Since,
these questions are also translated into Hindi, you should only focus on such questions of verbal
ability which have the potential of being translated into Hindi.
Decision Making: These test your ability to think logically as an administrator in the context of a
real life situation.
Exposing yourself to questions on each of these categories would take you a long way towards
cracking the General Studies Paper II of the UPSC.

The writer is one of the authors of Tata McGraw-Hills recently published title, General Studies
Paper 2 (also know as CSAT) for Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2013.