The candidates who appeared for the Civil Services Examinations (Prelims) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) were pleased with their performance on Sunday. Paper II, the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) introduced for the first time, had questions on English language, mathematical reasoning, analytical ability and interpersonal skills.
T S Arvind, 25, said, “The CSAT paper tested the mental aptitude of the candidates. None of the questions were out of the syllabus. Coaching helped me in the logical reasoning, though the paper was time consuming.” The General Studies paper (Paper I) had too many environmental questions based on current affairs, he said. Navjet Singh, 27, said that the second paper was really good. A lot of candidates thought there was number crunching and had prepared on the lines of GMAT. In Paper II, there were eight decision making questions that carried no negative marking.
These questions were based on situations that one has faced and can face in the future, he said. “I anticipated the question paper to be difficult, but it was easy,” said Shwetha K N.Similar thoughts were echoed by Mahendraprabhu on second paper. According to Career Launcher team, UPSC surprised many when it came up with the decision that it will do away with optional subjects and will introduce a separate paper of aptitude testing in the preliminary examination. First, the number of  questions in the General Studies was reduced from 150 to 100. Second, the CSAT paper was heavily biased towards reading comprehension. General Studies (Paper I) In General Studies, each correct answer fetched two marks and for an incorrect answer, there was a penalty of 0.67 marks (One-third of the marks allocated to each question) .

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