PAPER- 1

Introduction
CSAT 2011 exam was taken on 12 June 2011. There were 100 questions worth 2 marks each. Majority of them were 4 statements true and false (4tf) questions, i.e. 4 statements are given for each question and then youre required to identify the correct and incorrect ones. So mere acquaintance with some topic doesnt help, you need to have idea about what, why and how of a topic. To compare this 2011 paper with 2010 paper, click me

Broad analysis

History

Ancient
1. Indus valley (secular/textile) 2. Jain philosophy- world is created by 3. Vedic civilization-meaning of dharma and rita

Medival
1. Reasons for cultural contacts between southeast asia and bay of bengal

Modern post 1857

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Nehru report recommendations Usha mehta-role indian freedom struggle Home charges in drain of wealth. Kheda satyagraha, why Land settlement system of lord cornwallis Quit india movment- false statement Weddernburn and caine committee 1893 Gandhi-book unto this last

Again no point in mugging up those 150 places of harappa where painted gray pottery was found or the 1500 kings, 1500 timelines and 1500 places (stupa here and there, castle-mosque-tomb and temple in every city) from medieval portion. Dates, places and kings have lost relevence for CSAT.

Polity
Panchayat
1. 2. metropolitan planning committee 73rd amendment provides for-statements

Financial polity
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. vote on account and interim budget-difference between them union budget is not pass it by the lok sabha when the functions of finance commission of india. consolidated fund of india-withdrawing money revenue of union government goes into each account

Static
1. fundamental duty-which of the following is not See majority of questions from budget /money related matters of constitution. And not a single question asking to match the article numbers or timelines. Economy is gaining importance and limelight like never before and in future prelims, its going to the surpass the current Katrina kaif (geography). It is also time to put D.D.Basu on rest from now onwards for prelims.

Geography
Agriculture
1. Lower Gangetic climate good for which crops

2. 3. 4. 5.

Micro-irrigation Name of state producing lot cash crops, central part producing cotton. Salinization in irrigation State with good climate for orchid cultivation

Physical
1. La nina is different from a el nino 2. Westerlies in southern hemisphere are stronger. Why 3. Jetcraft flies easily in lower stratosphere why?

World geography
1. Brahmaputra makes u turn because 2. African and eurasian desert belt, why formed? 3. Malacca strait-reducing travel time to east asia. Only 11 questions (because lot has gone in to climate change topic). Agro profiles of states have became important. No mapping-questions. No specific place (city, district) based question. Only one, biodiversity area at Odisha.

Climate change-biodiversity
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Animal living in sandy and saline area in india Algal blooms in seawater Carbon cycle, which adds co2 Biodiversity forms the basis for human existence by Oil-zapper Coal combustion at thermal plants, pollutants emitted Ozone hole in antarctica why Microbial fuel cells-statements Bioasphalt important because Mangroves in tsunami Red data book for endangered species Carbon credits-false statement. Why western ghats and indo-burma regions are hot spots of biodiversity Why carbon dioxide does not remain in lower atmosphere Marine upwelling zones are important for ecosystem productivity because Why tropical rainforest does not regenerate quickly Himalayan range is rich in species diversity because Central acts, having relevance with biodiversity conservation Two rivers of jharkhant and odisha merging and forming biodiversity area at Site for in-situ method of conservation of flora

21. Biodiversity between lower and higher latitudes Almost 1/5th of the paper is from climate change. Let me quote a passage from civil service times december issue dedicated to biodiversity Pteridophytes: india has about 1200 species under 204 genera. While species of marsilea, azolla and salvinia grow in aquatic habitats, those of acrostichum occur in mangrove ecosystems. ^See how deep and minute details are bombarded in various magazines and books, while here we find the question dont require that much depth. As UPSC itself said in syllabus general issues on environment that donot require subject specialization however, most questions are 4TF type so you need to have your concepts clear.

Science and technology

Computers
1. 2. 3. blu-ray disc is different from dvd bluetooth and wi-fi device -difference virtual private network

physics
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. lake frozen on top but bottom is liquid cfl and led lamps-difference between them artificial satellite does not fall down because asteroids and comets-difference between them geostationary satellite meaning ionosphere facilitates radio-communication because

chemistry
1. 2. brent crude oil meaning heavy water in nuclear reactor-its function

biology
biochemistry 1. 2. 3. 4. antioxidants and fruit aspartame artificial sweetener blood groups trans fats advertisement

genetics 1. 2. botany 1. tree dies when bark is removed because bt-brinjal advantage dna sequencing will help us in

Total 18 questions from science. If you count algae bloom and carbon-cycle like questions from climate change into science portion then it is around 25/100= 1/4th of the paper from science only. No disease question this time. 3 bio-questions directly related to day-to-day life. We see ads of calorie-free sugar and trans-fat free cooking oil and antioxidants everyday. But in almost every question, they gave 4 statements and asked you to identify the true/false out of them. Thats why mere acquaintance with a topic wont help, you need to have some idea on how and why of the topic. Botany makes comeback, carnivore plant last time, tree bark this time. Bt-brijal, DNA sequencing= current affairs from magazine. (Otherwise the 'current S&T portion of Mags dealing with all those Graphene etc. didnot turn out to be very helpful)

Economy
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Gdp and per capita income increased during last 5 years or not Credit to agriculture and allied activities by various institutes Economic growth is coupled with Lowering of bank rate leads to Value added tax. False statement Closed economy, meaning Class struggle process in karl marx's theory Fdi and fii difference between High food inflation because Fiscal stimulus.

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

Current account deficit, how to reduce Economically-foreign visitors in common wealth games amounts to Teaser loans by commercial banks Base effect's role in inflation Why disinvestment in public sector enterprises Mega food parks- why Imf gives loans to which nations.

Like 2010, this new economy is not about numbers but understanding. Prime reason for giving economy such an important, imo is to put coaching classes at disadvantage, because their GS strategy heavily relies upon current affairs and geography. Some coaching classes used to show off like by merely doing geography one can crack prelims. Economy has been their weakest link. In 2010 there were 26/150 questions from economy (17%). This time it 17/100= 17%. So economy is given equal importance like last time. If you count financial politys 5 questions in economy then it is 22/100 marks = even more than climate change.

Social economical development, rights issue, empowerment etc

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Human rights given under universal declaration of human rights Tribal insurrection in 19th-century National minority-advantages given Physically disabled people-benefits available under the law Inclusive growth can be furthered by Aam admi bima yojana Micro-finance includes which facilities Who is eligible for mnrega Demographic dividend meaning

Again for empowerment and socio-economic topics were covered from theoretical angles by books and mags. (lifted from M.A. Sociology) child-women rights from un declarations, 500+government schemes named after rajiv and indira since the independence: big list of chronology, names-dates. Nothing asked. These questions could be solved by self study of routine books without having any special material.

Current international affairs

1. 2. 3. 4. Look east policy means New start Australia group, and wassenaar arrangement South-east Asia has got attention of global community because

Manmohan singh and Patils visits to southeast asia were making lot news in magazines and recently concluded trade pacts with asian nations, hence Im putting look east in current-international. You may have prepared lot from current based national and international affairs, and here it is barely 4 marks of international! But dont get disappointed, itll help in mains.

Public policy or yearbook stuff

Public policy study-material in market, was designed according to college-syllabus and was leading nowhere. Example, public policy topic in magazines and books was going towards all the theoretical and philosophical stuff, minister-bureaucrat relations etc. (lifted from m.a. Socio/pub.ad) while here we see the public policy questions are not philosophical but to the point e.g. Disinvestment in PSE, food parks etc. So Im putting them in to relevant sections (economy) rather than classifying them strictly according to syllabus.

Person in news, sports and awards

Just like 2010, it is a very sad day for all those Shantiswaroop Bhatnagars, Magsaysay, Nobles and national film awards, CWG and Asian games winners. Not a single question! What a shame. Now theyre doomed to be remembered only by their wives, kids, friends and neighborsnot by competitive exam candidates anymore. I call upon all the civil service aspirants to stop paying attention to them. Pratiyogita darpan should totally scrap down their monthly sections dedicated to these (and give us discount for less number of pages)lol wait a minute! You may get some 2 markers related to bigwig NRI and sportsmen in mains so dont totally neglect, just because they did not ask it in prelims. Think of them as cash-crops, if you get good market price, then nothing better than that.

Please Dont ask me about cutoffs in blog comment or emails

My answer to all your cut-off queries is this: Result will be declared around 15th August, till then presume that youve cleared the prelims and start preparing seriously for mains from tomorrow. If you dont, then others will and theyll get more marks. My friend Chakreshm said i made the mistake of not studying till prelim result in my 1st attempt and paid the price by missing final selection by 10 marks, and it really hurt at that stage. so guys take care. Lets say 2 lakh appeared, but out of them only 20-25 thousand candidates are serious, and rest janta is JBPS (just because papa said, im appearing). So 80% of them cannot even score more than 20%.

Hell, many of them just come to roam and picnic in the city and dont even bother to sit through both papers. So 20,000 serious players competing for about 12000 mains seats. = 2 serious guys competing for 1 mains form. So whatever your score is, from 30-40-70-90 anything, it is good. And you mustnt give up hope just because some fancy coaching class sir at delhi came up with a magical cut-off figure of 60 after surveying his 50 brilliant students in a shanty basement of Mukharjinagar or just because someone said he attempted more than you.. Prelim marks = not counted in final merit but mains marks are counted and to get a decent rank in final list, you need to score huge in mains. Many friends cleared the prelims but missed the interview call by just a few marks, it hurts. So instead of waiting and worrying about cut-off till august, get busy doing mains. Talking of which, here are some useful links for mains strategies by toppers.

Mains strategies by toppers

Public administration and General Studies (anay dwivedi) http://anaydwivedi.wordpress.com/ Anthropology (Dr.K.Vijayakarthikeyan) http://www.indianofficer.com/forums/10586-q-share-your-anthropology-actionplan.html#post35979 Political Science by Abhiram http://www.indianofficer.com/forums/10560-topper-strategy-how-i-prepared-political-sciencemains-abhiram-g-sankar.html Geography by Abhiram http://www.indianofficer.com/forums/10532-topper_strategy-how-i-prepared-geography-mainsabhiram-g-sankar.html If youve some odd subject and cant find its mains strategy or book list then this ebook has all answers http://www.scribd.com/doc/6192829/How-to-Crack-Civil-Services-Examination

Conclusion
Basically the brief of whatever Ive already mentioned above +not looking for any debates. 1. Dates, places and people = not important. (be it history, geography or current affairs) 2. Economy = new katrina kaif. 3. Geography= fast losing its popularity like Akshay kumar. Specific names of city, village, mountain or waterfalls not important because of the new climate change-biodiversity topic. May be this was done to crush the coaching factories.In short, Wizard's Geography special book (and any other 'special Geography book') blasting your head off with 50000 x 10^20 place names in India and World, are not important anymore. Same is true for all those 'prelim special issues' of various magazines dealing with Geography, Economy etc. because all they do is throw date-place-name-height and length details at you without clearing your concepts. 4. Self-study is sufficient for biodiversity climate change topic, you dont need some magicmaterial by coaching class/magazines copied from M.sc (botany) or IPCC journals and bombarding you with tones of minute details. Climate change is taken over geography as the new hot topic. 5. Aint no point in studying in depth for medieval/ancient anymore. (hardly 4 marks) if youre feeling lucky, you may even sell your books related to that, itd not hurt much.(unless history is your optional subject) because GS (History) mains syllabus is only post- 1857 mutiny onwards. *GS (Mains) also has Art-culture portion from Ancient-medieval, but it requires different books and different approach. Not the conventional kings and battles stuff. 6. The glorious era of India yearbook is finally over. Dont throw it away though, you can use it as dumbbells or to kill cockroaches. 7. Polity very easy, financial polity given emphasis, you could solve most by merely going through the legendary Laxmikanth. DD basu is as irrelevant for prelims as Mimoh Chakhrabarti is for bollywood. 8. Say Goodbye to PSLV chronology and Planet :size and number of moons tables. The new 'Space/Astronomy GS' is about basic understanding only. 9. Sayonara to All the sports-related terms,famous players of each sports, measurements of playgrounds, countries participating in FIFA, CWG or Asian Games, All the Hindustani and Carnatic musicians, dancers and painters. 10. Government has setup 5000+ National institutes on each subject (dairy,fisheries,pulses,...) in each town. But no need to remember it anymore.

The 90s are officially over

When youre newcomer to ias exam, you search for booklist on internet and you come across this list :Mishra Puri, Dutt Sundaram, Dd Basu, S.C.Kashyap etc.etc. This booklist is doing rounds all over google because it was on famous vajirams official site since last 4-5 years. This booklist is no longer relevant because it was prepared keeping the late-90s trend in mind. Whatever we do for GS current: names, places and awards..it is all part of that late-90s trend. From 2008 UPSC was moving away from it, 2010 this trend was given a proper burial and 2011 =cement is poured over it and it is sealed forever. If youre still preparing with that 90s mindset then better get over with it asap.

To see the analysis of paper-II (Aptitude) Click me

Now I take the liberty of

copy-pasting other people's views

EclipsedFate :You forgot 1 thing. Nothing from census either.....I spent hours on it. Subsvirgin /Subhash (2010 topper) My observations 1. Short paper 2. Toughness level was more or less the same as that of the last year's paper. 3. The trend of delving into seemingly inconsequential but inherently logical concepts continues. Bark of tree, Jet flights, Malacca straits, Aspartame, antioxidants, etc. 4. Geo + Economy + General Science = 60 % of the questions. 2010 trend continues. 5. UPSC does not want the rate of interest IMF charges to developing countries. Neither does it care about the logic behind restructuring of loans. Simple. It wants to know who gets these loans. As the idea advert says, Keep it simple, silly! 6. NCERT Fan boys got a breather this time. Year book fan boys again gulped down hard exam

PAPER- 2
Table of Contents Introduction 1 Reading Comprehension 3 LR & DI (Logical reasoning and Data Interpretation) 4 Reasoning 4 Data and GRaph interpretation 4 Quantitative aptitude / Mental ability 5 Conventional mental ability 5 English language (No Hindi questions here) 5 Decision Making (no penalty for any question) 5 Conclusion (again not looking for debates) 7 Speed calculation vs Speed reading 7 Engineer-science-MBA friendly? 7 Remove the caps and start from the scratch 8

Introduction
CSAT Aptitude Paper-II had 80 questions worth 200 marks.(Exam on 12 June 2011) Comprehension 28 Mental Ability 10 Verbal reasoning 17 Data interpretation8 English 9 Decision Making 8 total 8

Number of Questions asked from each topic

% Wise topic breakup for CSAT 2011 Paper II (Aptitude)

Reading Comprehension
Paragraph Right to Education (lifted from The Hindu editorial) Inclusive growth Creative society Country under Foreign domination Keystone species Ecosystem Moral Act Total Questions 5 5 4 # of Lifted from 4TFs 3 3 The Hindu editorial

Economic Survey 2009-10, Chapter "Microfoundations of Inclusive growth" Manoranjan Mohanty, "Social Movements in All 4 Creative Society: Of Autonomy and Interconnection " in people's Rights

4 2 Discovery of India by Nehru questions 4 question 3 3 All 3 3 2 Ethical Religion (1907) by M.K.Gandhi 28 20

1. As you can see, Comprehension question =28 = more than any two of the remaining topics combined. So Comprehension for Aptitude=Climate Change topic for GS=HOT.

2. In school exams, the comprehension questions are direct- simple 4 options and answer can be found directly from any single sentence. Here we find most questions are 4TF. 3. 4TF means (4 statements: true or false) i.e. youre given multiple statements and asked to identify how many correct/incorrect. These types of questions eat more time and energy because you have to read each sentence very carefully to make sure there is no hidden meaning inside it. Mere hasty superficial reading, may lead to wrong conclusions. You may need to re-read many passages again and again for each 4TF. (same was the case with GS paperlot of 4TF questions) 4. In UPSC prelim-question papers, paragraph is one first page then questions will be on 3rd page. (page #1=English, Page#2=Hindi translation) So youve to frequently flip the pages. And if it is a 4TF question, then youve to flip pages more number of times. So it requires practice.

LR & DI (Logical reasoning and Data Interpretation)

Reasoning
Set Family Tree. Paragraph about A,B,C,D,E is given relate them to each other. Description of Mr.X,Y and The standing in line, who is in front of whom. 2800 people taking part in a voting, some of them male and some of them female. Tabulate the data to answer the questions 70% male, 2/7th of them married. How many females are unmarried All animals are carnivores All trains run on diesel All poets are poor 2*2 squares. Find the Missing number A,B,C living in North,south etc. (Map direction) Plane mirrors Min Colors required to paint a big wheel with number of sectors 2*2 square. A going to B, how many ways Number of triangles in a pyramid Total Questions 3 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 17

Data and Graph interpretation

Set Number of questions Age pyramids of 4 nations. Identify the nation with declining population 1 Population growth curve of ABCD 1 Pie Charts comparing diseases of two towns 2 Velocity of Train A and B (graph) 1

Disease graph-# of bacteria vs Time 3 Total 8 Compared to BANK PO verbal-reasoning and Data interpretation questions, these are relatively easy. Hence For LR/DI portion, R.S.Agrwals Verbal and Non-verbal reasoning book is more than sufficient to get a grip on logical-reasoning and data interpretation. No special coaching is required for this.

Quantitative aptitude / Mental ability

Conventional mental ability
Topic Word problem HCM LCM Question Coin of Rs. 1 and 2, total amount 50 Rs. Three persons walking with different steps 1. Two trains, ratio of distance covered by them. 2. Graph showing speed and time of three athletes. Time Speed Distance Venn diagram Geometry % of students not playing Football 1. Water of the tank will last for how many days 2. Square divided into four rectangles. Marks 1 1 2 1 2

Averages Student: 3 tests with average N score 1 Counting 6 routes from City A to B 1 Progression Penalty for Each day 1 Total 10 As you can see, these questions dont require mugging up tons of complex formulas for liquid mixtures allegation, partnership, moving railway and boat speeds etc. You dont need to master the Chinese Remainder theorem or Vedic math formulas for high-speed calculation.

English language (No Hindi questions here)

He walked several miles3 My toothbrush 3 Polar bear 3 Total 9 These questions required only interpretation of simple English paragraphs and answer the question based on that. In this portion there was nothing complicated like Sentence correction in GMAT or complex synonyms-antonyms in CAT/Bank PO.

Decision Making (no penalty for any question)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Meeting missed because boss did not tell you Local thug asking you to vacate the plot in Bollywood ishtyle. Project deadline, you met accident. Earthquake survivors alleging corruption charges against you. Boat prices high during flood. Vaccine for Gram-Pradhan Night shelters for homeless=increased thefts in area. Dowry case

These were quite complex than the mock-Situation reaction tests given in RS Agarwaal etc books, where the options are black vs white: good vs evil. Here most options are either in gray area or equally white. More than one correct answer is possible depending on your approach (humane officer vs rulebook officer vs boy scout vs Jhola-chhaap NGO or Activist of pseudo-civil society vs Columnist of The Hindu/Frontline vs IPS officer of a typical South Indian movie (who is not bound by CrPC, IPC, Police manual or even Newtons three laws). Mr.Rulebook officer approach is not necessarily the bad option for every question and every situation e.g. in financial matters or subjects handled by different departments: there are rules to be followed, there is office-discipline to be maintained, there is division of work and separation of powers and they all exist for a good-reason. Same way Mr. Humane-take-no-punitive-action officer approach may not be the best answer for every situation. Officers are given discretionary coercive powers for a reason and theyre expected to exercise them according to the situation. Similarly encroaching upon the jurisdiction of other Departments (even with good intentions) may have long term negative impacts as everyone starts to poke his nose in others business: it leads to chaos. So selecting the Superman(Lokpal!) cum Superjournalist cum superNGO cum judge-juryexecutioner cum Mr.Poke-my-nose-in-everything-disregarding authority-&-rules approach for every question and every situation may not lead to the best answer. Like UPSC said response will be evaluated based on level of appropriateness for given situation In these Decision Making questions : which is the best answer? Even the real-life officers with impeccable service record will have different answers, if you ask them to solve theseso only UPSC can tell and I dont think theyll release the official-answer-key for this. As JohnRambo said These decision making Qs are too subjective, one could successfully argue on all four options.

Conclusion (again not looking for debates)

Most people concluded that this was the easiest and cheapest of all aptitude paper theyve ever seen. That happened because UPSC was testing the waters for the first time. You can be sure that next paper wont be a total Pappu like 2011s paper. because UPSC takes pride in its tough exams, when things become transparent or too easy or unambiguous- UPSC takes it as a personal insult :D So How can (and may) UPSC increase the toughness of next aptitude paper In 2012? 1. Increasing number of 4TF questions in comprehension. Itll put candidates on panic because of the time limit. Even this time people had hard time going through the comprehension. 2. Increasing the number and complexity of Decision Making questions (as there is no proper book/material available on this, itll keep coaching classes at bay. So for UPSC it is two birds in one stone.) 3. Diversifying the English portion: not limiting it to just paragraph reading. May be some easy fill in the blanks etc. but I dont think theyll immediately toughen this up, in order to give the rural candidates a level playing ground.

Speed calculation vs Speed reading

1. Speed calculation: A Must have skill for Bank PO and CAT. But for CSAT, simple mathematical understanding and accuracy in calculation is sufficient. Youre not required to memorize or calculate the cube roots of 16 digit numbers. 2. Speed reading is going to be the must have traits from now onwards for Prelims. As you saw both GS and Aptitude paper had lot of 4TF question- they eat lot of your time in reading. God forbid, if UPSC decides to increase the number of 4TF questions even further- thatll give very stressful time in exam-hall.

Engineer-science-MBA friendly?
1. Some people had been saying that now Engineers, MBA and science-graduates are at advantage than Arts/Commerce graduates because of the changed trend. Is it really so? Let us see. 2. In the GS paper, the science topics did not require subject specialization. Anyone doing proper preparation from NCERT,GS manuals could have solved majority of those questions. If they asked for chemical formulas of compound released in ATP cycle or the amount of light emitted by 50 CFL bulbs of xyz power-rating.then we could say yes it is friendly for them. 3. So there no need for anyone to feel guilty for not being an engineer/science graduate. 4. Similarly now there is enough time and idea on how to deal with the secret aptitude paper. So again being a non-MBA, non-CAT, non-Bank PO guy is not going to put you at disadvantage because now you have enough time to practice and master your aptitude skills in right direction, till now you had compiled a mountain of material on your desk, from internet and bookstores dealing with everything from CAT,GMAT,Bank PO, CDS,LIC,SSC everything because you did not know what

kind of aptitude paper will be there. But now the 2011 exam is gone and you know what is worth doing and what is worth skipping.

Remove the caps and start from the scratch

What Im trying to say is, this exam requires you to start from basics and removing whatever cap youre wearing and start from scratch. I used to take pride Im a Pharmaceutical guy so I know all about science, biochem and medicines and still my concepts about Artificial sweeteners/ Sugar-free are not clear and they asked a 4TF question= Im fumbling for answers. Similarly, I had mugged down Sprectums book on Gandhi-Nehru Tagore and other (50+) Personalities of Modern India. So I consider myself freedom fighter specialist And yet a new freedom fighter Usha Mehta comes in GS 2011 and Ive no idea about her! So for 2012: Remove the caps and start from the scratch and basics. (true for any tough competitive exam)