As part of the UPSC Civil Services Exam (preliminary), the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) tests the analytical skills, reasoning ability, and aptitude of aspirants.
Many candidates, especially those from non-science backgrounds, fear the mathematics part of the CSAT paper.
IAS Abinash Mishra and IPS Amit Verma shared a few useful tips on Quora to ace the paper.
Invest an hour daily from March mid onwards to prepare for the CSAT section.
Solve previous year question papers once and analyse them thoroughly to know about your weak and strong subject areas.
Solving these papers would give you the best insight into the type of questions asked by UPSC in the CSAT paper.
You could work on your weak areas (English and Maths) by practising these sections from any of the books available for CSAT like Arihant.
The best strategy would be to solve 25 to 30 CSAT questions (from various institutes’ test series or any question bank) especially from your weak sections daily — till the time one is confident in attempting CSAT.
Daily practising of a few questions is much more effective than practising the whole mock at one go.
If you score more than 50 percent in all of the previous year question papers, there is nothing to worry about. Practise one or two mocks before the Prelims exam.
During the exam, attempt that section first which is your strength. It could be logical reasoning or comprehension or any other topic.
Always keep in mind that one needs to only score 33 percent of 200 as this paper is of only qualifying nature. Invest time and energy in preparing CSAT that would ensure your qualification.