Important Information About CSAT 2012

The Civil Services Aptitude Test is conducted with the aim of selecting the most eligible candidates for Civil Services Main Examination. The successful candidates qualifying in CS Mains as well as the Personality Test will be recruited across some of the most prestigious vacancies in IAS, IPS, Indian Revenue Service, Indian Foreign Service, and plenty of others. This examination is conducted every year under the guidelines of Union Public Service Commission, and is often represented as Civil Service Preliminary Examination. This year CSAT 2012 will be held on 20th May 2012. The exam pattern, syllabus, and application procedure are similar to that of IAS Prelims, with both being conducted under UPSC.

Recruitment notifications for CSAT 2012 have already been published across all leading newspapers and employment news in India on 4th February 2012, and are also available in the official website of UPSC. The date of examination has been specified on 20th May 2012, with the last date of receiving the applications to be 5th March 2012. Only online applications are entertained, and the same can be filled in from the UPSC official website. Make sure to refer the recruitment advertisement carefully to learn about the eligibility criteria, examination fees, exam centers, and other important details.

Much alike IAS Prelims, CSAT comprises of two papers, compulsory for all, with objective type questions. Each paper carries 200 marks each with time duration of two hours for each paper. The candidates qualifying in this examination will be eligible to appear for the main examination. However, the cut-off marks for CSAT varies from year to year depending on the number of applications, number of vacancies, and difficulty level of the exam papers. Paper 1 comprises of objective questions on General Awareness, while Paper 2 comprises of Logical reasoning, Problem solving and Decision making, English Language Comprehension skills, mental ability and quantitative aptitude, communication skills, data interpretation, and analytics.

The syllabus for CSAT General Awareness includes current affairs, Indian history and politics, Indian and World geography, Indian political system, general science, economic and social development, and environmental and ecological issues. Detailed Civil Services syllabus is available online.

Civil Services examination is one of the prestigious recruitment exams of all time. With changes in exam pattern and syllabus, CSAT 2012 is anticipated to be significantly special in determining the fate of thousands of aspiring merits. So, practice hard and start preparing for upcoming IAS Prelims right away!!