To crack one of the toughest exams of the Country, you need to start preparing right away. The first step leading towards your preparation is to know and understand the syllabus completely.
Civil Services Preliminary Examination
The Civil Services Exam is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) each year. The Civil Services exam is conducted in 2 stages – Prelims and Mains. There are two papers in Prelims exams – namely Paper I and Paper II. Paper I tests you on General Studies and Paper II tests you on Aptitude. Qualifying Paper I lets you appear for the Mains examination. Paper II is only to analyze you i.e it is only of qualifying nature.The marks scored in Paper II are NOT added for the overall merit of the Civil Services Preliminary Examination.
CSAT Paper I (General Studies)
200 Marks
Duration: Two Hours
Number of Questions: 100
Paper I Syllabus (General Studies)
- Current Affairs: Events of national and international importance
- History of India and Indian National Movement
- Indian and World Geography – Physical, Social, Economic geography of India and the World.
- Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
- Economic and Social Development – Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
- General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change (no subject specialization required)
- General Science
Recommended Books for Paper I
Current events of national and international importance
India Year Book(Should read selective chapters if time is constraint)
Newspapers – The Hindu,Indian Express (Can follow any one,Read only editorials of the other IE if following THE HINDU)
Economic Survey(Very Important both for Prelims and Mains)
Any Monthly Current Affairs magazine to fill any gap in newspaper reading
Xaam’s UPSC Prelims 2020 Online test Series 200 Tests @ Rs1990
History of India and Indian National Movement
New NCERT for classes 6-12 (Click here to download )
Read Tamil Nadu Board books of Class 11 and 12 if you find old NCERT boring. (Click here to Download) (Download Old NCERT here)
Specturm /India Struggle for Independence
India’s Struggle for Independence – Bipin Chandra
India’s Art and Culture – Nitin Singhania
NCERT-An Introduction to Indian Art Class 11
Indian and World Geography -Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World
NCERT books of classes 6th-8th (World Geog.- Land and People)
NCERT books of classes 9th,11th,12th
Certificate Physical and Human Geography – GC Leong
Oxford School Atlas
Indian Polity and Governance
NCERT books for classes 11th, 12th
Indian Polity – Laxmikanth
Economic and Social Development
NCERT books for classes 11,12
Indian Economy – Ramesh Singh(Can skip if you understand the basic concepts and read Sriram Notes thoroughly
Economic Survey ,Budget
General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change
NCERT 7th
Biology NCERT 12 (Chpt 13-16); Chemistry NCERT 12 Part2 (Chapter 12,13,14)
Shankar IAS Environment Book Current Affairs
General Science
TMH manual Science part
Current Affairs And last but not the least ,Solving Previous years papers is a must(Click here)
CSAT Paper II (Aptitude)
200 Marks
Duration: Two Hours
Number of Questions: 80
Civil Services Preliminary Exam General Studies Paper 2 is popularly known as CSAT. There are many who call not only the General Studies Paper 2, but also the complete preliminary stage exam as CSAT (Civil Service Aptitude Test). Aspirants should note that a terminology like “CSAT” is nowhere mentioned in the UPSC notification.
Paper II Syllabus
- Comprehension
- Interpersonal skills including communication skills
- Logical reasoning and analytical ability
- Decision making and problem solving
- General mental ability
- Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc.) (Class X level), Data Interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)
- English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).
- Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level. (will be tested through passages from English language only without providing Hindi translation)
Recommended Books for Paper II
Best way to prepare for paper 2 is solving mocks weekly.Since it is a qualifying paper and you need to score only 66 out of 200 one should not dwell much upon it.Reading too many books for paper 2 is not recommended.Solve past papers to get the idea and then weekly practice is enough.
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