Paper II was as expected, with no change, with respect to previous year, in terms of the number of questions or in terms of the marking scheme. However, this time questions in test area -Basic Numeracy or Maths were just 3 in number. The majority of the questions were from Comprehension and Reasoning. Clearly, this time the students were tested more on English usage skills and Logic skills. This paper had a total of 80 questions, with a total of 200 marks, to be attempted in 120 minutes. Each question carried equal marks. The paper had NO ‘SECTIONS’. These 80 questions were from seven test areas viz. Comprehension, Decision Making & Problem Solving, Analytical Ability & Logical Reasoning, Interpersonal Skills including Communication Skills, General Mental Ability, Basic Numeracy & English Language Comprehension Skills. The questions from any of these test areas were not placed in any specific sequence. There were 73 questions for which 0.833 marks was deducted for any wrong answer marked. The remaining 7 questions (on Decision Making & Problem Solving) did not carry any negative marking. Out of these 80 questions, there were 40 questions, which were based on passages – Comprehension (32 Qs) and English Language Comprehension Skills (8 Qs). An avid reader would not have faced much difficulty in answering most of these questions. However, there were some of the questions which were quite tricky and the options were very close to each other. In order to crack the remaining 40 questions, any candidate good in conceptual and reasoning skills would have found the paper to be manageable. Overall, the difficulty level of the paper was moderate. UPSC has not specified minimum marks for Paper I and II. There is no cutoff declared. UPSC, most likely, will consider the grand total of the two papers- Paper I & Paper II for the cutoff. All those students who were adequately prepared and have been appearing for All India MOCK CSATs by T.I.M.E would have found the paper doable and would have comfortably got a net score of at least 100 (out of 200) from Paper II alone. Out of 80 questions, there were 48 easy, 13 medium while 19 difficult. Even if one does a total of 55 questions, with an overall accuracy of 80%, one can get to a net score of 100 marks, considered as a good score. The questions can be classified area-wise. The table below gives the broad overview of the questions which were there related to each of the test areas. The last but one column in the table gives an illustration of how at least 100 marks could have been obtained in this paper.

The table below gives the question numbers, with respect to different test series, and with respect to each of the seven test areas.

The table below gives the number of questions (difficulty level wise) with respect to each test area.

Let us analyze the different types of questions from each of the test area, number of doable questions in each of the test area, and a good net score.

COMPREHENSION

No. of Questions: 32

The paper had 32 questions from a total of eight passages. This test area had some of the questions, for which the answers cannot simply be obtained by just scanning through the passage. One has to read through the passage, get the essence of it and then look for applying those points in arriving at the answer for the questions. These questions demanded good application of logic, and inference and hence clearly were more analytical. However, there were many other questions which were easy in nature. One of the key highlights, here, was that out of 32 questions, there were 18 questions, where each of these questions was followed by two to four statements. In such questions, you have to identify the correct/incorrect statement(s)/assumptions/inferences. This format is exactly in line with the question types as given by UPSC in CSAT2011 -Paper II. All those who have been regularly appearing for All India MOCK CSATs by T.I.M.E would have found this format very familiar and would have come across with the answers at the earliest. In 45 mins, a good candidate can attempt at least 21 questions with at least 80% accuracy. Thus, a good score in this test area, alone, will be 36+ marks.

BASIC NUMERACY

No. of Questions: 3

One of the surprise elements in this paper was almost negligible number of questions in Maths in comparison to the number of questions in English or in Reasoning. The number of questions pertaining to Basic Numeracy was restricted to only 3. This would have come as a big relief for many of the candidates, especially those who are from Non-Maths background. There were no questions pertaining to Data Interpretation, or other mathematical topics. It is important to note that these 3 questions were easy. A good student should in a position to answer all of these three questions with ease in less than 7 minutes.

DECISION MAKING & PROBLEM SOLVING

No. of Questions: 7

This test area comprises questions from “Situation Analysis. Answering these questions will not take much of time, as these types of questions do not demand much of your calculation skills, as what is required in case of Basic Numeracy/General Mental Ability. However, in order to answer these questions, an active critical reading is required. For each of these seven questions, there was NO negative marking. At least five of these questions were doable. A good time allocation strategy would have to attempt all of these questions within 10 minutes.

ANALYTICAL ABILITY & LOGICAL REASONING, GENERAL MENTAL ABILITY

No. of Questions:30

This test area comprises questions from topics like Sequencing, Distribution, Deductions (Syllogisms), Venn Diagrams, Cubes, Blood Relations etc The questions pertaining to Syllogisms & Logical Connectives were moderate in difficulty level. However, there were many other questions which were very easy in nature and the students would not have faced any difficulty in marking the right answers for those questions. For e.g., the set of 5 questions on sequencing (scheduling of guest lectures on five subjects) was very easy. Similarly, the individual questions on distribution, blood relations, comparison were also easy. There were 19 easy and doable questions (out of 30). By doing these questions with at least 80% accuracy, one can score 34+ marks. A good time allocation strategy will be 30 minutes for these questions.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION SKILLS

No. of Questions: 8

The passages are small, as compared to the passages pertaining to Comprehension. A total of three passages were there. A candidate, who has a basic command over English language, can score well in this area. A good time allocation strategy will be 16 minutes. In this time, one can score 10 marks, which would be a good net score.