Candidates prove aptitude for Civil Services
The 2011 Civil Services Preliminary Examinations, held for the first time in a changed format and nicknamed CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test), were held in 45 cities across the country on Sunday.
In the new exam format, the UPSC scrapped the optional subjects paper, which was a part of the preliminary exams along with the General Studies paper, and replaced it with General Studies-Paper 2, an aptitude test.
The second paper contained questions that test the candidate’s English comprehension, decision-making, problem solving, logical reasoning and inter-personal skills as well as general mental ability.
The General Studies-Paper 1 has been retained with minor changes to include more questions on topics such as environment, biodiversity and climate change, besides questions on Indian history, polity, governance and current affairs, and fewer questions on ancient Indian history.
The General Studies-Paper 1 contained 100 questions while Paper-2 contained 80. Both the papers held a total weightage of 200 marks.
At the UPSC Building examination hall on Shahjahan Road, many candidates said they were happy with the new format, which had questions that tested spontaneity as well as decision-making skills. However, others felt that there was an overdose of questions that tested the candidates’ ability to comprehend English.
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