Dissecting the UPSC Sample Paper for Civil Services Prelims 2011

Department of Personnel, Government of India came out with a new structure and Syllabus for the Civil Services Prelims Examination. As this will be the first time, the new syllabus and examination pattern will be followed, there are quite a few apprehensions about the exam. In this article we try to help ease those apprehensions.

The Pattern

Unlike previous years, from 2011, the UPSC Civil Services Prelims Exam will not have any optional paper. Each student will now appear for the same two papers. There will be two 2-hour exams, Paper-I and Paper-II. Paper I will be similar to the General Studies Paper of the past, with minor additions and deletions to the syllabus. Paper-II is the new kid on the block. Both the papers will carry 200 marks and there will be negative marking.

The notification and the subsequent ones, are silent on the number of questions, marking scheme etc. There are mixed reactions to this- whether there will be subsections in the paper, or there will be differential marking. It will be futile to make a final call. Trying to second guess the UPSC can prove dangerous, hence, aspirants are advised to prepare for all kinds of scenarios.

Paper-II (CSAT) tests the student on general aptitude similar to various aptitude tests. The only major difference being the section on decision making and Interpersonal skills and Communication.

The Syllabus

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).
• Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level (last item in the Syllabus of Paper-II) will be tested through passages from English language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question paper.
• The questions will be of multiple choice, objective type.

When we check the GS syllabus, the major change as such is the introduction of environment, ecology, biodiversity and the removal of general mental ability. The general mental ability portion has now been allocated to the CSAT.

Although, the introduction of environment, ecology, climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development seems to suggest that these are new areas, the questions related to these topics have been asked in the past. This merely suggests that these areas may carry more weightage than they used to do in the previous years. Thus, one needs to have a slightly tweaked approach towards the preparation for the GS paper.

For the CSAT, everything except general mental ability will be new to CS aspirants.

The Sample Paper

UPSC released a sample paper then revised with more questions. This sample paper is the only real source to understand the kind of questions expected this year. In this section we analyse each and every question in the sample paper.