With increased focus on history and economy, the Civil Services Preliminary test conducted on Sunday was designed for elimination process more than testing the knowledge of aspirants.
While the test covered all areas mentioned in the syllabus, the questions had a specialist orientation rather than the expected generalist orientation, according to civil service exam trainers. Many candidates have expressed the view that they found no cause and effect relationship in their preparation and their performance at Paper-I. “It is evident that the paper was designed to reject and reduce the candidates to a manageable number rather than test any knowledge relevant for a prospective administrator,” said V. Gopalakrishhna, director of Brain Tree, while analysing the paper.
General Studies Paper-I, which determines merit, was held in the morning and General Studies Paper-II, popularly known as CSAT, which is of a qualifying nature, was held in the afternoon.
In a statement, Rambabu, a teacher at La Excellence, said there was less emphasis on current affairs this time and the focus shifted to traditional areas. He opined that Paper-II was very tricky and geography questions were “tremendously increased” compared to last time. Questions from history and environment were a bit difficult while those from polity and economy were relatively easier.
As the question paper was tougher, the cut-off marks can be expected to be much lower this time, around 100. The results are likely to be released in November.
Aspirants were of the opinion that the Union Public Service Commission, which conducts the test, should review the style of questions and the pattern as the present system was only useful as a gatekeeper. Many feel too much is left to chance and there is no direct cause and effect relationship.
This year 52,934 aspirants had applied from two centres in Telangana — Hyderabad and Warangal. From the twin cities, there were 46,171 applicants who appeared for the test at 99 centres.