UPSC unlikely to cancel CSAT Test, Verma Panel views awaited

Even as the government awaits the Arvind Verma panel's views on the syllabus/pattern of the civil services examination, senior officials see little scope for a recommendation favouring scrapping of the contentious Civil Services Aptitude Test-II or a postponement of the August 24 preliminary examination. Government sources conceded that a more likely option to resolve the CSAT tangle is to reduce the weightage of questions relating to English comprehension in General Studies Paper II, which carries 200 marks in all.

As per the existing prelims exam pattern, there are usually 8 questions on English comprehension among the total 80 questions asked in General Studies Paper II.

"Given that the central grievance of the aspirants relates to these 8 questions, for which no Hindi/regional language translation is given, the panel may look at the possibility of bringing down their number to, say, 5. This would take care of the alleged disadvantage that students opting for Hindi claim vis-a-vis counterparts taking the exam in English, while also allowing them to make good scores in questions relating to other fields like comprehension, interpersonal skills, logical reasoning and analytical ability, basic numeracy, decision-making and problem solving and general mental ability. The latter carry a translation into Hindi/regional language," a source said.

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Courtesy: Times of India