The comparison between the old pattern and the new pattern on different parameters like Marks, questions, marks per question, time, negative marking.
|
Old Pattern(till 2010) |
New Pattern(from 2011) |
||
Name of the examination |
Civil Services Preliminary examination |
Civil Services Aptitude Test |
||
Paper |
Paper 1(General Studies) |
Paper 2(One optional |
Paper 1 |
Paper 2 |
Marks |
150 marks |
300 marks |
200 marks |
200 marks |
Questions |
150 |
100/120 ** |
* |
* |
Marks Per question |
1 |
3/2.5** |
* |
* |
Time |
120 mins |
120 mins |
120 mins |
120 mins |
Negative Marking |
0.33 marks |
0.33 of the marks allotted |
* |
* |
Note (**): In Paper-2, the candidate had to choose one optional paper (out of 23 subjects). For Mathematics and Statistics, the number of questions was 100, while the number of questions for any of the remaining 21 optional subjects was 120.
Note (*): The number of questions marks per question, and negative marking has not been released by UPSC till date.
Comparison: Past and Present (for Paper-1)
The comparison between the old syllabus for Paper-1 and the new syllabus for Paper-2. It can clearly be observed that the test area of 'General Mental Ability" which was there in Paper-1 (old syllabus) has now been taken out from Paper-1 and kept in Paper-2 (as the next table indicates).
Old Syllabus-Paper 1 or General Studies(till 2010) |
New Syllabus -Paper 1(from 2011) |
General Science |
General Science |
Current events of national and international importance |
Current events of national and international importance |
History of India and Indian national Movement |
History of India and Indian national Movement |
India and World Geography |
India and World Geography |
Indian Polity and Economy |
Indian Polity and Governance |
General Mental Ability |
Economic and Social Development |
|
General Issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate change |
Comparison: Past and Present (for Paper-2)
The table below gives the comparison between the old syllabus and the new syllabus for Paper-II. It can be observed that Paper-II had undergone a major change in light of the fact that lots of new areas have been included, which were earlier not there in Civil services (Preliminary) examination.
Old Syllabus Of Paper 2 (till 2010) |
New Syllabus- Paper 2(from 2011) |
Optional Paper (any one out of 23 subjects) |
Comprehension |
Interpersonal Skills including Comprehension Skills |
|
Logical reasoning & Analytical ability |
|
Decision making and Problem Solving |
|
General Mental Ability |
|
Basic Numeracy (Numbers & their relations, orders of magnitude etc)-Class Xth level, Data Interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc)-Class Xth level. |
|
English Language Comprehension Skills(Class Xth level) |
Main Examination:
The candidates who clear the first stage of the civil services examination (i.e. CSAT), will be called for the next stage (i.e main examination). In year 2008, the number of candidates who qualified for mains was approximately 7% of the total number of candidates who appeared for civil services preliminary examination. The Main Examination consists of a written examination and an interview test. The written examination will consist of 9 papers of conventional essay type. Out of these 9 papers, first two papers are only qualifying in nature.
PAPER |
SUBJECT |
MARKS |
Paper-I |
One of the Indian languages to be selected by the candidate from the Languages included in the eigth schedule to the constitution (Qualifying Paper). |
300 |
Paper-II |
English(Qualifying Paper) |
300 |
Paper-III |
Essay |
200 |
Papers-IV & V |
General Studies (2 papers) |
600(300 marks for each of the two papers) |
Papers-VI, VII, VIII & IX |
Any two subjects to be selected from the list of optional subjects. Each subject will have two papers. Thus, a total of four papers |
1200 (300 marks for each of the four papers) |
Interview |
300 |
|
Total (Excluding the marks obtained in the qualifying paper) |
2300 |
Number of Test Takers-Prelims & Mains
The table below gives the number of candidates who applied for civil services (prelims & mains) for different post
Year of Examination |
Number of Candidates applied for CS(Prelims) |
Number |
Number |
Number |
Total number of vacancies |
2002 |
301585 |
157486 |
3430 |
3301 |
310 |
2003 |
316496 |
160784 |
5972 |
5750 |
457 |
2004 |
349020 |
174475 |
5565 |
5328 |
453 |
2005 |
345106 |
175202 |
5140 |
4923 |
457 |
2006 |
383983 |
195803 |
7692 |
7496 |
533 |
2007 |
333680 |
161469 |
9158 |
8886 |
734 |
2008 |
325433 |
167035 |
11669 |
11330 |
767 |
2009 |
409110 |
193091 |
12096 |
11516 |
875 |
2010 |
547698 |
269036 |
12491 |
- |
920 |
Interview:
Candidates who obtain minimum qualifying marks in the written Main Examination will be called for an interview for a Personality Test. However, the papers on Indian Languages and English will be of qualifying nature. The marks obtained in these qualifying papers will not be counted for ranking. The number of candidates to be called for interview will be about twice the number of vacancies to be filled. The interview will carry 300 marks (with no minimum qualifying marks).
Centres for Preliminary Examination:
The examination centres for the preliminary exam usually are:
Agartala |
Chandigarh |
Imphal |
Lucknow |
Ranchi |
Ahmedabad |
Chennai |
Itanagar |
Madurai |
Sambalpur |
Aizwal |
Cuttack |
Jaipur |
Mumbai |
Shillong |
Aligarh |
Dehradun |
Jammu |
Nagpur |
Shimla |
Allahabad |
Delhi |
Jodhpur |
Panaji (Goa) |
Srinagar |
Aurangabad |
Dharwad |
Jorhat |
Patna |
Thiruvanathapuram |
Bangalore |
Dispur |
Kochi |
Port blair |
Tirupati |
Bareilly |
Gangtok |
Kohima |
Puducherry |
Udaipur |
Bhopal |
Hyderabad |
Kolkata |
Raipur |
Vishakhapatnam |
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