As part of the UPSC Civil Services Exam, candidates are required to clear the CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test), which tests their analytical skills, reasoning ability, and aptitude.
While only 33 percent is needed to qualify in this section, several aspirants face setbacks in the CSAT component. One such aspirant was Karamveer Narwaniya.
Despite excelling in the General Studies paper, he missed clearing the prelims stage multiple times due to failures in the CSAT section.
CSAT continued to haunt him. “I was genuinely scared of it. I needed to improve my strategy for this section, as I was performing well in General Studies,” he shares.
Coming from an engineering background, Karamveer was overly confident about clearing CSAT by focusing solely on Maths and Logical Reasoning.
“I neglected the English comprehension section and even avoided questions that seemed doable. As an aspirant, we should not forget that UPSC tests your abilities in every section,” he says.
“I set my ego aside and gave equal weight to all three sections. That is what UPSC expects — do not neglect anything,” Karamveer adds.
To ace Maths and Logical Reasoning, he also started referring to notes designed for the CAT (Common Admission Test) exam.
Karamveer also began analysing question papers from the last 10 years along with their answer keys. This analysis helped him understand the types of questions he could expect in the exam.
His dedicated preparation paid off in his third attempt in 2023 when he cleared the exam and secured AIR 954 in the IRMS (Indian Railway Management Service) category.