What is the best strategy to prepare for the CSAT?

The CSAT paper is included in the UPSC civil service Prelims exam and carries 80 questions of 200 marks. Youth Destination, the best IAS coaching in Delhi will help you in preparing the best strategy for this exam. generally, candidates overlook its importance, being a qualifying paper.

These effective steps will help you to prepare for this exam. GS Paper 2nd of UPSC civil service Prelims exam is known as CSAT. Candidates need only 33% marks in this paper because it is a qualifying paper but due to the unpredictability of UPSC, don't overlook this paper. 

It was introduced in the UPSC civil service Prelims exam in 2011. The CSAT paper II was not difficult at that time. It had an untroubled syllabus and exam pattern but the difficulty level of questions is increasing every year. 

Now there is no fixed pattern to follow to frame the paper. Every year questions are set with a distinct level. These important tips and tricks will help you make the best CSAT strategy for the UPSC exam.

Go through the syllabus

Candidates must go through the syllabus for the CSAT paper before starting their preparation. The syllabus of the CSAT paper has been divided into these categories.

Reading comprehension, interpersonal skills, communication skills, logical reasoning, analytical ability, decision making, problem-solving ability, general mental ability are the higher difficulty areas of this paper. 

Basic numeracy, general mental ability, and logical reasoning may consume a lot of time if you have not practiced a lot before the exam and comprehension is the most tricky part of the CSAT paper. Candidates can follow these tricks to qualify for this low-cutoff exam.

Daily one hour is sufficient for the preparation of GS paper 2 or CSAT and spend your maximum time in the preparation of your GS paper first. CSAT paper has been defined properly and can be easily prepared if you give only one hour for its preparation compared to GS paper first.

Management of time

Be aware of the time you spend solving each question while attempting the practice papers. The more you will practice, the more time spent on solving a question will be reduced.

Know your weak areas

Candidates should solve the previous year’s question papers of the UPSC civil service exam to identify their weakest subject area. It will not only help you know your strong and weak areas but also in revision.

Identify your strong subjects

It is suggested that candidates should identify their strong subjects so that they can solve questions from that section first. It will make you feel confident about your preparation level and performance and if you are stuck on tricky questions then you will not panic and will switch on to the next question.

The best strategy to prepare for the comprehension section

Comprehension asked in CSAT paper is of moderate level so there is no need to worry so don't lose 30 to 40 marks in the comprehension otherwise you will be preparing again for next year and other candidates will be selected due to the difference of these marks.

The best way to prepare for this section is to read enough material and a good CSAT strategy for UPSC. Read some standard weekly magazines like Yojana and Kurukshetra, editorial section of the newspaper daily preferably The Hindu. 

You can also watch debates on RSTV to improve your language skills. Read the editorial completely with utmost sincerity and attention until you get the meaning properly. The complexity of subject matter and vocabulary of the editorials can make you puzzled and you can feel difficult to understand it but regular reading will help you in solving comprehension.

It is important to manage the time and solve every comprehension passage in the minimum possible time. The best trick for this is to find the keywords of the comprehension. To find these keywords, aspirants should go to the question first and mark keywords. 

Hence, it becomes easy to find the answer when you identify keywords first. Building up your vocabulary is a sure shot way to score well in the comprehension section. There is no substitute for regular practice.

Reading the comprehension from previous year’s question papers and learning new idioms and phrases will not only upgrade your vocabulary but also help in gaining confidence and pace.