Civil Services Prelims New pattern - 2015

At last the government had come out with new changes in the Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2015. The Prelims Paper 2 (CSAT) will only be a qualifying paper with 33% as the qualification marks.Therefore its weightage has been drastically reduced and the weightage for Paper-I has been tremendously increased. There by Paper-1 will be the decide whether the candidate gets selected or not.

After changes, an aspirant can’t leave any topic of the syllabus because there will be no CSAT for covering up it. He has to be thorough in basic concepts along with current issues to manage the cutthroat competition.

Added to the vastness of the General Studies (paper-1) syllabus, it is very important to take care of the minutest details of everything in the syllabus and reproduce them accurately in the examination.

A thorough observation of the past few general studies paper shall reveal that it is much simple and somewhat predictable. Further recent changes incorporated by the UPSC on the prelims exam has not only made the GS paper much simpler but has drastically reduced the overall effort which was required for clearing the exam, provided the candidate follows the right approach and puts in sufficient effort

How to re-craft your General Studies preparation to succeed in the new pattern?

Master all the important concepts in a holistic manner across all the disciplines be it history, polity, economy, geography, science and tech etc.

Understand the theories/principles/fundamental around which the concepts are woven to offer explanations.

Incorporate interdisciplinary concepts to explore more theories and explanations and thus further enriching understanding.

Apply these theories and concepts to real situations and discover their validity or falsity for a given set of values.

In that sense only candidates who have managed to take their preparation to the next level run a chance of clearing the Prelims.

Now the question is as to how to maximize the probability of answering the most number of questions in the paper-1. Foremost is adhering to the wide extensive approach to which there is no substitute. A candidate must be thorough with the various important concepts across all disciplines in conjugation with popular theoretical paradigms.

Once a wide extensive coverage is achieved, it should be followed by a selective intensive approach in which the keyword is ‘current affairs’. Now the word current affairs itself is so broad that some candidates find the application of the selective intensive approach almost impossible. But an avid observer will notice that there is definite definition of ‘relevant’ current affairs and irrelevant current affairs, which we can very well deduce from the previous year question papers.

Having said all this it is equally important to mention in the end, that a candidate must always try to remain original and honest during the course of preparation. All we can offer are just vital clues to make your approach focused and streamlined but the best approach for you is the one you think is the best for you.