Civil Services (Pre.) Exam 2015

Analysis of GS Paper I (CSAT), CSP 2015

The 2015 CSP GS Paper 1 was easier in comparison to the 2014 GS Paper - I. The order of weightage to the various sections was as follows : Economy, Geography, Ecology & Environment, Polity and History. The questions from these topics constituted almost 75 % of the paper. Economy in itself constituted 20 % of the paper.

A significant and major departure from the norm was seen in the type of questions.

The number of single statement/choice based question have increased bringing down the overall difficulty level. As many as 56 questions were of this type. Another peculiar shift has been that unlike the previous years’ papers, this year current events also found place in the paper.
Questions from Art & Culture have been reducing in number over the last four years. The same was the case this year too. The questions were basic and tested the candidate’s basic understanding of general studies.

As compared to last year, more sitters were there in the paper. There were 48-50 questions that were easy and could have been easily attempted by any student.

The overall difficulty level of questions could be termed moderate. There was a preponderance of fact-based questions this year which was not the case during previous years. This again highlighted the importance of studying basic textbooks thoroughly, particularly NCERT books of Class 6 onwards.

Detailed analysis is given in the table given below:

 

Sr. No.	Nature of Q.	One statement/ choice	Two statements/ choices	Three statements/ choices	Four statements/ choices	Five statements/ choices	Six statements/ choices	Matching Pairs	Difficulty level Moderate	Doable	Total
	Topics
1.	HISTORY	4	1	6	1	-	-	1	HARD	7	13
2.	POLITY	7	3	2	1	-	-	-	EASY	9	13
3.	GEOGRAPHY & AGRICULTURE	10	1	2	1	-	-	1	MODERATE TO HARD	8	15
4.	SCI & TECH	2	2	4	-	1	-	-	HARD	4	9
5.	ECOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT	7	1	5	-	-	-	-	MODERATE	7	13
6.	ECONOMY	16	3	-	2	-	-	-	MODERATE	12	21
7.	ART & CULTURE	3	-	1	-	-	-	-	MODERATE	2	4
8.	SOCIAL WELFARE SCHEMES	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	EASY	2	2
9.	MISC. GK/CURRENT AFFAIRS	6	1	1	-	2	-	-	MODERATE	7	10
10.	TOTAL	56	13	21	5	3		2	MODERATE	58	100

 

On the basis of difficulty level, accuracy and attempts category wise cut-off is expected as follows:
General/Open category: 105 ± 2
OBC: 100 ± 2
SC: 95 ± 2
ST: 90 ± 2

 

Analysis of GS Paper II (CSAT), CSP 2015

The paper was much easier than last year, especially in terms of reading comprehension questions. There were quite a few single question Reading Comprehension passages that were easy. Also, there were no decision making questions, which have traditionally been tough to crack. Quantitative Aptitude questions and Reasoning questions in this year’s paper were easier than last year’s questions from these areas. There was one incorrect question under Set Theory. Apart from that there were no real hurdles in the paper.

Detailed Break-up of Math and Reasoning Questions

 

Topics	Number of Questions
Analytical reasoning	12
Series	3
Figures	2
Percentage	3
Equitation	5
Set Theory	4
TSD % W	3
Ratio and Mixture	2
P & C	4
Graph	2
Numbers	1
Clock	1
Cubes	1
Geometry	1

 

Detailed Break-up of Verbal Questions

 

Topics	Type	Number of Questions
Reading Comprehension	Single Question	19
	Two question RC (2 passages)	4
	Three question RC (1 passages)	3
	Four question RC (1 passages)	4
Critical Reasoning		5
Syllogism		1