CSAT strategy

A lot of you were asking for my CSAT strategy.

Honestly, even I struggled with CSAT a lot (it was the reason I couldn't clear prelims in my 2nd attempt). Here is a list of a few things which I did to improve my CSAT score:

1. Find your strengths. In csat, you need not attempt all 80 questions as it is a qualifying paper (though it has become an eliminating paper in recent years). Be smart about question selection.

2. Abide by the clock. You need to find your comfortable range of questions based on your accuracy. For me, it was 45-50 questions.

3. Don't rely on a particular section too much. In my 2nd attempt, I somewhat neglected Quant as I felt that I could score in Reading comprehension and Reasoning. You need to balance all the three sections and work on your weak areas.

4. PYQs, PYQs and PYQs. Yes, in CSAT also, you can improve your confidence and accuracy through practicing the PYQs. They are your best friend.

5. As Reading comprehension holds significant weightage (25-28 questions), you can improve your accuracy with less time and effort. Many YouTube videos are available to explain the approach for corollary, inference and crux based questions. After that, practice the PYQs.

6. One thing which helped me in Reading comprehension is that, I used to read the questions and the options first, before reading the paragraph. You may find a lot of options with negative or extreme statements which you can eliminate without even reading the para. Followed by quick reading of paragraphs along with underlining the relevant things based on the questions.

7. Don't panic. It is very important to remain calm in csat paper. It may happen that you might not be able to solve the first few questions back to back. But remind yourself that you will find your set of questions, you just need to keep calm and focused, as again, you need not attempt all the questions.

8. Doubt solving with friends help a lot. Don't feel shy to ask them in case you have any queries, as silly as they might be.

My resources for csat: lectures of Vision IAS, few YouTube videos, lectures at SPIPA (Bhavik Thakkar Sir - BTitude Channel on YouTube and Parimal Vadhvana Sir), PYQs for practice, doubt solving with friends.

CSAT is manageable, provided you have done your bit with utmost honesty and hardwork.

All the best🌷