CSAT Syllabus / Civil Services Exam: The Civil Services exam will be comprised of Pre and Main exam. The pre-exam will be of two compulsory papers of 200 marks each. Paper, I will be General Studies and Paper-II will be Aptitude Test (CSAT). Pre-exam will only for qualification for the main exam. The marks in prelims will not be counted for final ranking. Based on the criterion of minimum qualifying marks of 33% in Pre-exam, a list of candidates to be qualified for Civil Service (Main) Examination will be drawn. The article below given to cover the CSAT Syllabus details and the exam pattern. A list of top boos is given in this article which may help to cover the CSAT Syllabus.
Exam Pattern
For Preliminary Exam
- The exam will be conducted in offline mode in duration.
- The exam consisted of 3 papers and two compulsory papers with each paper of 200 Marks.
- Each question will be 1/3 Mark penalty for wrong answer choices.
| Papers | Details of the question papers | Total Marks | Total Time |
| I | General Studies – This paper will be counted for qualifying to write the Civil Services Mains exam. | 200 | 2 hrs |
| II | Aptitude test (CSAT) – This paper is of qualifying nature, but the candidate must score at least 33% marks in this paper. However, marks of this paper are not counted for writing the Mains examination. | 200 | 2 hrs |
| Total | 400 | 4 hrs | |
For Main Exam
- The Mains exam will be conducted in Descriptive test mode.
- It consists of 9 different papers and paper-1 & paper-2 are necessary for all.
- The remaining will be optional subjects.
| Paper | Subject | Marks |
| A | Regional Language (Qualifying) | 300 |
| B | English Language (Qualifying) | 300 |
| 1 | Essay | 250 |
| 2 | General Studies – 1 | 250 |
| 3 | General Studies – 2 | 250 |
| 4 | General Studies – 3 | 250 |
| 5 | General studies – 4 | 250 |
| 6 | Optional Paper – 1 | 250 |
| 7 | Optional Paper – 2 | 250 |
| Written test Total | 1750 | |
| Personality Test | 275 | |
| Final Total | 2025 | |
CSAT Syllabus
There will be 2 papers in the CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test) examination. These papers are as follows-
- General studies
- General ability test
CSAT Syllabus for Paper I: General Studies
- Indian policy & governance– constitution, political system, Panchayati Raj, public policy, rights issues, etc.
- History of India– & Indian National movement
- Economic & social development– sustainable development, poverty, inclusion, demographics, social sector initiatives, etc.
- Current Affairs– events of national & international importance.
- General issues on Environmental– Ecology, biodiversity & climate change (no subject specialization needed).
- Indian & world geography– Physical, social, economic geography of India & the World.
- General science
Analysis of Paper I
| Topic | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
| History | 13 | 20 | 15 | 21 |
| Economics | 18 | 12 | 18 | 6 |
| Polity | 17 | 25 | 18 | 13 |
| Geography | 11 | 11 | 14 | 15 |
| Environment & bio-diversity | 22 | 23 | 22 | 21 |
| Science & technology | 19 | 9 | 13 | 17 |
| Current Affairs | 7 |
CSAT Syllabus for Paper II: General Ability Test
- English language comprehension skills (10th standard level)
- Data interpretation (10th standard level)
- Basic numeracy (no. & their relations, orders of magnitude, etc. of 10th standard level).
- General mental ability
- Decision making & problem-solving
- Logical reasoning & analytical ability
- Interpersonal skills & including communication skills
- Comprehension
Analysis of Paper II
| Topic | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
| Basic numeracy | 13 | 3 | 19 | 19 |
| General mental ability | 15 | 16 | 12 | 7 |
| Decision making & problem-solving | 6 | 7 | 6 | 0 |
| Analytical ability & logical reasoning | 10 | 14 | 12 | 22 |
| Comprehension (in Hindi & English both) | 27 | 32 | 23 | 26 |
| English language comprehension skills | 9 | 8 | 8 | 6 |
Note– Given details about CSAT Syllabus is referenced from the website www.upscsyllabus.in. For more information about Civil Services Exam Syllabus, you can access the official website.
Important books to prepare for IAS
- Indian Polity for Civil Services Examinations by M. Laxmikanth for Polity
- Indian Art and Culture by Nitin Singhania for Culture
- Oxford School Atlas by Oxford Publishers for Geography
- Certificate Physical and Human Geography by Goh Cheng Leong for Geography
- Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh for Economy
- Economic Survey by the Ministry of Finance for Economy
- India Year Book for Current Affairs
- A Brief History of Modern India by Rajiv Ahir for Modern India
- General Studies Paper 2 Manual by MHE for CSAT)
- NCERT Books
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