Is CSAT Difficult for the Students who are weak in Maths?

CSAT was not a level-playing field when it was a scoring paper (2011 to 2014) and many bright students who are not from non-maths background lost their chances of clearing UPSC. It was a very bad experiment by UPSC.
It’s not the case now. To make it a level playing field, from 2015, UPSC made CSAT a qualifying paper. That means a student needs to score only 27 correct answers out of 80 to clear CSAT.
Students still feel that CSAT is only for students who are strong in Mathematics. Not at all. Only 35% to 38% of CSAT is maths and the rest 62% to 65% is non-maths questions, and one needs to score just 33.33% to clear CSAT. So, there are more than enough questions for Non-Maths students also to answer and score in CSAT. Let’s analyse this more comprehensively. Also, watch the following video for detailed analysis:

1. UPSC CSAT Exam Syllabus

1. Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning
2. Logical reasoning and analytical ability
3. Basic numeracy (numbers, simple algebra, arithmetic, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level)
4. Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. Class X level)

2. CSAT Exam trend Analysis

If you look at the trend, exact number of questions from each subject varies but within in the range

topic-wise weightage of topics in the UPSC CSAT paper:

year	Basic Numeracy	Logical Reasoning	Reading Comprehension	Data Interpretation
2015	30	18	30	02
2016	31	21	28	0
2017	28	22	30	0
2018	18	22	26	14
2019	22	18	30	0
2020	39	10	25	1

3. Increasing Difficulty level in CSAT

If you analyse year on year CSAT papers, you will observe that by each passing year the difficulty level of questions is increasing. So, is it difficult to qualify CSAT now? The answer is ‘No’. It is still easy if you follow the below strategy.

4. Strategy to clear CSAT

A. Basic Numeracy

Being weak in maths is just a mental barrier. You can overcome it by getting your fundamentals right, learning how to approach the different kind of questions and practicing regularly. Try to practice 15 different questions daily from different topics for two months, you will answer more than 20 Basic Numeracy questions in CSAT easily.

B. Logical reasoning

Logical reasoning is the easiest section in CSAT. Any student can grasp the subject easily and solve the questions. Just good practice is required to improve speed and efficiency. Remember, if you have good practice in this section, it can be a time saving section in CSAT exam.

C. Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension section requires rigorous practice. Two important skills that you have to improve to score well in this section is – 1. Reading speed 2. Comprehending skills. More you read more you will improve these skills. There is no any other shortcut or formula to score in this section. Once you feel confident about reading speed (i.e., 6 newspaper editorials in an hour) you can start practicing reading comprehension questions to improve comprehending skills.

D. CSAT Material for Practice

1. Neeharika Reddy IAS Academy CSAT material is more than sufficient for CSAT preparation
2. Students should mandatorily solve UPSC previous year question papers to strategize their preparation

In case, if you still need additional material, you can buy these books
Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations – R S Aggarwal
Analytical Reasoning – M. K. Pandey
Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning – R. S.Aggarwal

5. UPSC CSAT Exam Pattern & Marking Scheme

• The UPSC CSAT paper consists of 80 questions and the time allotted for the paper is 2 hours.
• Each question carries 2.5 marks in the CSAT paper making a total of 200 marks.
• There is a penalty for incorrect answers. For every incorrect answer, the candidate is penalized 1/3rd of the total marks allotted to that question, i.e., 0.83 marks will be cut. If a question is left unattempted/unanswered, no marks will be deducted.

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