On Wednesday, the government declared that it will continue with the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) in the civil services preliminary examination 2015. It also set 33 percent score as the pass mark.
The central government will appoint an expert committee to look into the complaints made by the civil services aspirants, regarding the syllabus, eligibility, scoring scheme and paper pattern of the CSAT. The final decision will be made based on the committee’s observations. Till then the General Studies paper II (CSAT) will continue as a qualifying exam.
According to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the candidates who appeared for the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary examination in 2011 will be granted an extra attempt this year. This extra chance is being given because the paper pattern was changed in 2011, prior to that Paper I included General Studies and the candidates were to choose an optional subject for Paper II. There were several protests against this new scheme, and in 2014 the government decided to not include the English section questions for merit or gradation. This was done because the non-English medium candidates were suffering.
In 2011, a total of 4.72 lakh candidates had applied for the UPSC examination, out of which 2.43 lakh appeared for the exams.
The Union Public Service Commission conducts the civil services examination in three phases- the preliminary exam, mains and an interview round. Clearing all three rounds makes the candidates eligible for the posts of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), amongst others
[“source-indiatoday.intoday.in”]
