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.
TEST
AREA
|
NUMBER
OF QUESTIONS
|
MAXIMUM
MARKS
|
GOOD NET
SCORE
|
DIFFICULTY
LEVEL
|
Comprehension
|
32
|
80
|
36
|
MODERATE-DIFFICULT
|
Basic
Numeracy
|
3
|
7.5
|
7.5
|
EASY
|
Decision
Making & Problem Solving
|
7
|
17.5
|
12.5
|
MODERATE
|
Analytical
Ability & Logical Reasoning
|
14
|
35
|
34
|
MODERATE-DIFFICULT
|
General
Mental Ability
|
16
|
40
|
Interpersonal
Skills including Communication Skills
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
English
Language Comprehension Skills
|
8
|
20
|
10
|
MODERATE
|
TOTAL
|
80
|
200
|
100
|
MODERATE
|
The table below gives the question numbers,
with respect to different test series, and with respect to each of the seven
test areas.
Test
Area
|
QUESTION
NUMBERS
|
Test
Series - A
|
Test
Series- B
|
Test
Series -C
|
Test
Series-D
|
Comprehension
|
Q1-Q15,
Q28-Q38, Q51-Q56
|
Q13-Q18,
Q28-Q53
|
Q1-Q6,
Q16-Q41
|
Q1-Q11,
Q36-Q41, Q51-Q65
|
Basic
Numeracy
|
Q24,
46, 62
|
Q9,
24, 61
|
Q12,
49, 62
|
Q19,
32,47
|
Decision
Making & Problem Solving
|
Q74-Q80
|
Q74-Q80
|
Q74-Q80
|
Q74-Q80
|
Analytical
Ability & Logical Reasoning
|
Q16-23,
Q25-Q27,Q39-Q45, Q47-Q50, Q57-Q61, Q63-Q65
|
Q1-12,
Q19-23, Q25-27, Q54-60, Q62-65.
|
Q7-11,
Q13-15, Q42-48, Q50-61, Q63-65
|
Q12-18,
Q20-31, Q33-35, Q42-Q46, Q48-50
|
General
Mental Ability
|
Interpersonal
Skills including Communication Skills
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
English
Language Comprehension Skills
|
Q66-Q73
|
Q66-Q73
|
Q66-Q73
|
Q66-Q73
|
Total
|
80
|
80
|
80
|
80
|
The table below gives the number of questions (difficulty level
wise) with respect to each test area.
Test
Area
|
Number
of Questions (Level of Difficulty wise)
|
Easy
|
Medium
|
Difficult
|
Total
|
Comprehension
|
18
|
6
|
8
|
32
|
Basic
Numeracy
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
Decision
Making & Problem Solving
|
5
|
1
|
1
|
7
|
Analytical
Ability & Logical Reasoning
|
18
|
5
|
7
|
30
|
General
Mental Ability
|
Interpersonal
Skills including Communication Skills
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
English
Language Comprehension Skills
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
8
|
Total
|
48
|
14
|
18
|
80
|
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.
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