The difference between success and failure is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right. Persistence gives confidence and continued right mental attitude followed by consistent action will bring success. The civil services require a candidate who has the clarity of vision and tenacity in efforts. The modern administrative systems face multiple push and pulls from different directions and challenges are truly diverse in character. As the nature of challenges take new shape, the bureaucratic mechanism has to adapt itself to perform its roles and responsibilities effectively. The UPSC is making continuous efforts to improve the selection process and that is why the syllabus of Civil services Examination has been changed thrice during the last decade.

The Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) was initially proposed in the Report of the Civil Services Examination Review Committee, 2001, also known as the Professor Y. K. Alagh Committee Report. The committee, after its study of the officers selected, concluded that a mismatch exists between the “Suitability or Aptitude of Civil Servants and the Needs of Services”. Taking a step in the right direction, the Government has finally decided to introduce the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) to recruit Civil Servants in the forthcoming examination.

The new pattern of examination aims to test a candidate from the ethical and moral dimensions of civil services, that is, whether he or she has the aptitude to become a part of the steel frame of India. People looking for easy fame, money and power will be filtered out. It is specifically meant to prevent their entry into civil services. The recent change in the pattern of civil services examination must be seen in the same light.

Today the students are facing immense problem because no detailed guidelines have been released and some of the topics are entirely. Everybody wants to know what is CSAT and how to prepare CSAT. We have discussed the issue of CSAT with many of the eminent persons associated with Civil Services Examination, some are associated with UPSC in different capacities and on the basis of these interactions it has come to light that CSAT is neither CAT nor Bank PO. The questions will have similarities with CAT but context and outlook of the problems would be revolving around the civil services arena.

See Also:

• What is Aptitude Test
• Detailed Analysis of CSAT Syllabus
• Understanding The Dynamics of English Language Comprehension Skills
• Comprehension (1st topic of Syllabus)
• Interpersonal Skills Including Communication Skills
• Problem Solving and Decision Making
• Basic Numeracy - Sample Questions
• General Mental Ability
• Data Interpretation & Reasoning
• Logical & Analytical Reasoning