Topicwise Analysis - General Studies 2011 & 2010 CSAT Prelims papers

Introduction

CSAT 2011 exam was taken on 12 June 2011. There were 100 questions worth 2 marks each. Majority of them were "4 statements true and false" (4tf) questions, i.e.  4 statements are given for each question and then you're required to identify the correct and incorrect ones. So mere acquaintance with some topic doesn't help, you need to have idea about 'what, why and how' of a topic.

To compare this 2011 paper with 2010 paper, click me

Broad analysis

History

Ancient

1. Indus valley (secular/textile)
2. Jain philosophy- world is created by
3. Vedic civilization-meaning of dharma and rita

Medival

1. Reasons for cultural contacts between southeast asia and bay of bengal

Modern post 1857

1. Nehru report recommendations
2. Usha mehta-role indian freedom struggle
3. Home charges in drain of wealth.
4. Kheda satyagraha, why
5. Land settlement system of lord cornwallis
6. Quit india movment- false statement
7. Weddernburn and caine committee 1893
8. Gandhi-book unto this last

Again no point in mugging up those 150 places of harappa where painted gray pottery was found or the 1500 kings, 1500 timelines and 1500 places (stupa here and there, castle-mosque-tomb and temple in every city)  from medieval portion.

Dates, places and kings have lost relevence for CSAT.

Polity

Panchayat

1.   metropolitan planning committee
2.   73rd amendment provides for-statements

Financial polity

1.   vote on account and interim budget-difference between them
2.   union budget is not pass it by the lok sabha when
3.   the functions of finance commission of india.
4.   consolidated fund of india-withdrawing money
5.   revenue of union government goes into each account

Static

1.   fundamental duty-which of the following is not

See majority of questions from budget /money related matters of constitution. And not a single question asking to match the article numbers or timelines. Economy is gaining importance and lime-light like never before and in future prelims, its going to the surpass the current Katrina kaif (geography). It is also time to put D.D.Basu on rest from now onwards for prelims.

Geography

Agriculture

1. Lower Gangetic climate good for which crops
2. Micro-irrigation
3. Name of state producing lot cash crops, central part producing cotton.
4. Salinization in irrigation
5. State with good climate for orchid cultivation

Physical

1. La nina is different from a el nino
2. Westerlies in southern hemisphere are stronger. Why
3. Jetcraft flies easily in lower stratosphere why?

World geography

1. Brahmaputra makes u turn because
2. African and eurasian desert belt, why formed?
3. Malacca strait-reducing travel time to east asia.

Only 11 questions (because lot has gone in to climate change topic). Agro profiles of states have became important. No mapping-questions. No specific place (city, district) based question. Only one, biodiversity area at Odisha.

Climate change-biodiversity

1. Animal living in sandy and saline area in india
2. Algal blooms in seawater
3. Carbon cycle, which adds co2
4. Biodiversity forms the basis for human existence by
5. Oil-zapper
6. Coal combustion at thermal plants, pollutants emitted
7. Ozone hole in antarctica why
8. Microbial fuel cells-statements
9. Bioasphalt important because
10. Mangroves in tsunami
11. Red data book for endangered species
12. Carbon credits-false statement.
13. Why western ghats and indo-burma regions are hot spots of biodiversity
14. Why carbon dioxide does not remain in lower atmosphere
15. Marine upwelling zones are important for ecosystem productivity because
16. Why tropical rainforest does not regenerate quickly
17. Himalayan range is rich in species diversity because
18. Central acts, having relevance with biodiversity conservation
19. Two rivers of jharkhant and odisha merging and forming biodiversity area at
20. Site for in-situ method of conservation of flora
21. Biodiversity between lower and higher latitudes

Almost 1/5th of the paper is from climate change.

Let me quote a passage from civil service times' december issue dedicated to biodiversity

Pteridophytes: india has about 1200 species under 204 genera. While species of marsilea, azolla and salvinia grow in aquatic habitats, those of acrostichum occur in mangrove ecosystems.

^See how deep and minute details are bombarded in various magazines and books, while here we find the question don't require that much depth. As UPSC itself said in syllabus "general issues on environment that donot require subject specialization" however, most questions are "4TF" type so you need to have your concepts clear.

Science and technology

Computers

1.     blu-ray disc is different from dvd
2.     bluetooth and wi-fi device -difference
3.     virtual private network

  physics

1.     lake frozen on top but bottom is liquid 
2.     cfl and led lamps-difference between them
3.     artificial satellite does not fall down because
4.     asteroids and comets-difference between them
5.     geostationary satellite meaning
6.     ionosphere facilitates radio-communication because

  chemistry

1.     brent crude oil meaning
2.     heavy water in nuclear reactor-its function

  biology

    biochemistry

1.       antioxidants and fruit
2.       aspartame artificial sweetener
3.       blood groups
4.       trans fats advertisement

    genetics

1.       bt-brinjal advantage
2.       dna sequencing will help us in

  botany

1.     tree dies when bark is removed because

Total 18 questions from science. If you count algae bloom and carbon-cycle like questions from climate change into science portion then it is around 25/100= 1/4th of the paper from science only.

No disease question this time. 3 bio-questions directly related to day-to-day life. We see ads of calorie-free sugar and trans-fat free cooking oil and antioxidants everyday. But in almost every question, they gave 4 statements and asked you to identify the true/false out of them. That's why mere acquaintance with a topic won't help, you need to have some idea on how and why of the topic. Botany makes comeback, carnivore plant last time, tree bark this time.

Bt-brijal, DNA sequencing= current affairs from magazine. (Otherwise the 'current S&T portion of Mags dealing with all those Graphene etc. didnot turn out to be very helpful)

Economy

1. Gdp and per capita income increased during last 5 years or not
2. Credit to agriculture and allied activities by various institutes
3. Economic growth is coupled with
4. Lowering of bank rate leads to
5. Value added tax. False statement
6. Closed economy, meaning
7. Class struggle process in karl marx's theory
8. Fdi and fii difference between
9. High food inflation because
10. Fiscal stimulus.
11. Current account deficit, how to reduce
12. Economically-foreign visitors in common wealth games amounts to
13. Teaser loans by commercial banks
14. Base effect's role in inflation
15. Why disinvestment in public sector enterprises
16. Mega food parks- why
17. Imf gives loans to which nations.

Like 2010, this new economy is not about numbers but understanding. Prime reason for giving economy such an important, imo is to put coaching classes at disadvantage, because their GS strategy heavily relies upon current affairs and geography.

Some coaching classes used to show off like by merely doing geography one can crack prelims. Economy has been their weakest link.

In 2010 there were 26/150 questions from economy (17%). This time it 17/100= 17%. So economy is given equal importance like last time. If you count financial polity's 5 questions in economy then it is 22/100 marks = even more than climate change.

Social economical development, rights issue, empowerment etc

1. Human rights given under universal declaration of human rights
2. Tribal insurrection in 19th-century
3. National minority-advantages given
4. Physically disabled people-benefits available under the law
5. Inclusive growth can be furthered by
6. Aam admi bima yojana
7. Micro-finance includes which facilities
8. Who is eligible for mnrega
9. Demographic dividend meaning

Again for empowerment and socio-economic topics were covered from theoretical angles by books and mags. (lifted from M.A. Sociology) child-women rights from un declarations, 500+government schemes named after rajiv and indira since the independence: big list of chronology, names-dates. Nothing asked. These questions could be solved by self study of routine books without having any special material.

Current international affairs

1. Look east policy means
2. New start
3. Australia group, and wassenaar arrangement
4. South-east Asia has got attention of global community  because

Manmohan singh and Patil's visits to southeast asia were making lot news in magazines and recently concluded trade pacts with asian nations, hence I'm putting look east in current-international. You may have prepared lot from current based national and international affairs, and here it is barely 4 marks of international! But don't get disappointed, it'll help in mains.

Public policy or yearbook stuff

Public policy study-material in market, was designed according to college-syllabus and was leading nowhere. Example, public policy topic in magazines and books was going towards all the theoretical and philosophical stuff, minister-bureaucrat relations etc. (lifted from m.a. Socio/pub.ad) while here we see the public policy questions are not philosophical but to the point e.g. Disinvestment in PSE, food parks etc. So I'm putting them in to relevant sections (economy) rather than classifying them strictly according to syllabus.

Person in news, sports and awards

Just like 2010, it is a very sad day for all those Shantiswaroop Bhatnagars, Magsaysay, Nobles and national film awards, CWG and Asian games winners. Not a single question! What a shame. Now they're doomed to be remembered only by their wives, kids, friends and neighbors…not by competitive exam candidates anymore. I call upon all the civil service aspirants to stop paying attention to them. Pratiyogita darpan should totally scrap down their monthly sections dedicated to these (and give us discount for less number of pages)…lol wait a minute! You may get some 2 markers related to bigwig NRI and sportsmen in mains so don't totally neglect, just because they did not ask it in prelims. Think of them as cash-crops, if you get good market price, then nothing better than that.

% wise breakup-Pie Chart of 2010 civil service prelims General studies exam

 

Table
History	15
Science	30
Geography	30
Polity	7
Yearbook	4
Economy	26
International Agencies	14
Mental Ability	24
Total	150

What was not asked?

 

Ancient history	0
Persons in news	0
Awards	0
Sports	0
Total	0  !!

 

 

Conclusion

On the first hand, during the exam most of us found the 2010's prelim GS paper very 'tough', but after doing the breakup and analysis myself, I find that this paper looked 'tough' only because we are following a study-pattern based on previous years' trends (like cramming the Constitution article numbers, history, geography-location, current affairs, sports etc.). This prelim General Studies paper is both a trend breaker and a trend setter (for upcoming CSAT), just like the Mains GS paper of 2009.

Now it's more about understanding than just blind cramming. 

( These are my personal conclusions and I'm not inviting anyone to debate it ;-) )

I'm talking about 'cost benefit ratio': how much energy should you give to a topic or a book to gain each mark.

What is safe to skip

Polity	No meaning of mugging up all those article numbers, this time it was common sense questions. But you must have a thorough understanding of how Constitution works.
India Yearbook	Safe to skip entire book (4 marks worth stuff, no meaning of doing  Ph.D on that 1000 page book, like we had to do 4 years back when they used to ask 20+ marks worth questions from it.)
Ancient and medival history	Safe to skip ancient and medival (No meaning of mugging up 1 million names,dates and events for 4 marks when you can pump all energy for other easy to understand things.)
Five Year Plans	No meaning of mugging up all data for 2 marks.
International affairs	1.                Most stuff was from UN and its agencies since they've direct relevance to poverty,Development and climate change. And wasn't from the 'cramming part' like WHO was established in ***** year and its headquater is  @ xyz place 2.                Bilateral visits, international summits ignored. (magz put lot emphasis on this)
Science	No point in cramming all those chemical formulas, periodical table, and numbers like 1 joule=how much kilowatt etc.
Space	No cramming of all those planets, PSLV date-line etc stuff.
Current affairs	LIKE tonnes of film and social service awards, 500  sports events, national 'summits' and all those things on which the magazines put too much emphasis but who have no practical relevant to human life and problems of this world on macro scale.

Where to concentrate the energy?

UPSC is telling you that general studies have to have relevance with day to day life.

Its more important to understand a topic than a blind cramming

1.                GS becomes more relevant to practical problems of India, economy, and environment.

2.                Agriculture, environment and economy gains prominence like never before

3.                Very dangerous to neglect economy. And this 'New' economy is not about numbers but understanding. Few years back, Economy was only worth 5 marks, this time its 17+ But interestingly, it wasn't really a rocket science or Ph.D stuff, if you put some energy, almost all questions were easy to solve.

4.                Disease (HIV, Swine Flu, hepatitis, malaria) is important

5.                Geography – jungle, environment, and wildlife related. (not all those 'famous places cramming')

 

Source :  Website: www.mrunalpatel.co.nr / http://mrunal-exam.blogspot.com