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ANALYSIS: CIVIL SERVICES (PRELIMS) 2013 PAPER -II

Civil Services (Prelims) 2013 - Paper II had 80 questions. Each of the 80 questions carried equal marks of 2.5. There were 74 questions for which 0.833 marks was deducted for any wrong answer marked. The remaining 6 questions (on Decision Making) did not carry any negative marking. Out of a total of 80 questions, there were 31 English questions (from 12 passages), 24 Reasoning, 19 Maths and 6 on Decision Making. These questions, however, were placed in a random order. In English part, all the questions were pertaining to the passages. The number of qs ranged from 2 to 5 per passage. Out of 12 passages, there were 3 passages which were simpler to understand as compared to the remaining nine passages. One doesnot require any prior knowledge of any particular topic to be able to answer the majority of questions. However, the questions were such that 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. So, these questions demanded good application of logic, and inference and hence clearly were more analytical. However, the questions pertaining to Maths & Reasoning were such that in order to crack them, the candidate need to be good in reasoning & elementary mathematical skills. Overall, the difficulty level of the paper was MODERATE. For a well prepared candidate, it wouldnot be difficult to score at least 110 marks(out of a maximum possible 200) from this Paper II alone.

Out of 80 questions, there were 51 easy, 13 medium while 16 difficult. Even if one does a total of 60 questions, with an overall accuracy of 80%, one can get to a net score of 110 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 110 marks could have been obtained in this paper.

TEST AREA	NUMBER OF QUESTIONS	MAXIMUM POSSIBLE MARKS	GOOD NET SCORE	DIFFICULTY LEVEL
Comprehension	23	57.5	26	MODERATE-DIFFICULT
Basic Numeracy	19	47.5	25	EASY-MODERATE
Decision Making & Problem Solving	6	15	12	MODERATE
Analytical Ability & Logical Reasoning	24	60	32	MODERATE
General Mental Ability
Interpersonal Skills including Communication Skills	-	-	-	-
English Language Comprehension Skills	8	20	15	EASY
TOTAL	80	200	110	MODERATE

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	13	3	7	23
Basic Numeracy	12	4	3	19
Decision Making & Problem Solving	4	1	1	6
Analytical Ability & Logical Reasoning	15	4	5	24
General Mental Ability
Interpersonal Skills including Communication Skills	-	-	-	-
English Language Comprehension Skills	7	1	0	8
Total	51	13	16	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: 23

The paper had 23 questions from a total of nine 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 23 questions, there were 11 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)/assumption(s)/inference(s). This format is exactly in line with the question types as given by UPSC in the earlier years exam-CSAT2011, 2012 -Paper II. In 40 mins, a good candidate can attempt at least 16 questions with at least 80% accuracy. Thus, a good score in this test area, alone, will be 26+ marks.

S No	Passage	Starting words of the Passage	Source	Number of Qs	Nature of Qs	Number of doable Qs
1	An extract from the book -"The Idea of Justice" by Amartya Sen	The subject of democracy has become severely muddled.......	Source	2	DIFFICULT	2
2	An article on Corporate Governance	Corporate Governance is based on principles such as conducting the business...	Source	2	Moderate-Difficult
3	An extract from the book- Basic Nutrition by Lori A Smolin & Mary B Grosvenor.	Malnutrition most commonly occurs between the ages of..	Source	2	Moderate	1
4	An extract from the book-"Agricultural Risk, Insurance, and Income: Astudy of the impact and design of India's Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme"	A number of empirical studies find that farmers are risk-averse...	Source	2	Moderate-Difficult	1
5	An extract from the first page of the fifth Chapter titled "Financial Intermediation & Markets": Union Budget	Financial Markets in India have acquired greater depth and liquidity over the years...	Source	4	Moderate -Difficult	2
6	A passage on "Crude Mineral Oil"	Crude Mineral Oil comes out of the earth as a thick brown...		2	Easy	2
7	An extract from the book -"Essentials of Ecology" -Chapter 13th	The law in many parts of the world increasingly restricts the discharge of agricultural slurry...	Source	5	Moderate	3
8	An extract from the book-""Higher Education in the 21st Century: Vol 2- Quality & Excellence"	The miseries of the world cannot be cured by physical help only..	Source	2	Easy-Moderate	1
9	An article on "Illegal Mining and the related ecological disaster"	Ecological Research over the last quarter of the century has established that..	Source	2	Moderate	1
TOTAL				23	Moderate	13

< B>BASIC NUMERACY

No. of Questions:19

The number of questions pertaining to Basic Numeracy was 19. The questions were from different topics (Numbers, Equations, Ratio, Proportion, Time & Work, Time & Distance, Data Interpretation). A good student should in a position to answer at least 12 questions, with at least 80% accuracy in less than 25 minutes.

S No	Topic/Area	Number of Qs	Nature of Qs	Number of doable Qs
1	Numbers, LCM	2	Moderate	1
2	Equations, Ratio	6	Moderate	4
3	Time & Work	2	Easy-Moderate	1
4	Time & Distance	4	2 easy, 1 Moderate 1 Difficult	2
5	Data Interpretation (Pie Charts & Bar Graphs)	5	Easy-Moderate	4
Total		19	Easy-Moderate	12

DECISION MAKING & PROBLEM SOLVING

No. of Questions: 6

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. However, in order to answer these questions, an active critical reading is required. For each of these six questions, there was NO negative marking. At least four of these questions were doable. A good time allocation strategy would have to attempt all of these questions within 12 minutes.

ANALYTICAL ABILITY & LOGICAL REASONING, GENERAL MENTAL ABILITY

No. of Questions:24

This test area comprises questions from topics like Number Series, Sequencing, Distribution, Routes & Networks, Cubes etc. Most of these questions were easy in nature and a good student would not have faced much difficulty in marking the right answers for a majority of these questions. There were 15 easy and doable questions (out of 24). By doing these questions with at least 80% accuracy, one can score 32+ marks. A good time allocation strategy will be 25 minutes for these questions.

S No	Topic/Area	Number of Qs	Nature of Qs	Number of doable Qs
1	Missing Number in the series (Figure based)	2	Difficult	1
2	Routes & Networks	4	Easy-Moderate	3
3	Selection	4	Easy-Moderate	3
4	Distribution	4	Easy-Moderate	2
5	Sequencing, Seating Arrangement, Ranking	3	Moderate	2
6	Cubes	1	Moderate	1
7	Comparison	2	Easy	2
8	Non Verbal Reasoning (Next figure in the series, Odd Man out)	3	Moderate	1
Total		24	Moderate	15

ENGLISH LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION SKILLS

No. of Questions: 8

The passages are small (on an average 100-150 words), 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 18 minutes. In this time, one can score 15 + marks, which would be a good net score.