Targeting 80 in paper 1 of prelims.What sources can fetch it if i revise them in remaining days?

amrit10

Hi this is going to be my first csat.how should i spend the remaining 50 days to get 80 in the 1st paper?i mean what must be read and re read in the remaining days to make it a good investment of time to achieve the target?

spirate

Laxmikanth Indian Polity <-- 16 questions last year

Modern India (say Spectrum) <-- ~10 questions last year
Pay special attention to:
i) Charter Acts, Govt of India Acts, Indian Councils Acts etc.
ii) Socio-cultural movements
iii) Movements led by Gandhi
iv) Alternative streams (Communism, Tribal/peasant movements, revolutionary movements etc)

Basic economic concepts (money supply, banking, IIP and the like), from say Ramesh Singh <-- another ~10 questions.

Basic concepts of Physical geography from NCERT XI <-- should cover ~10 more.

That should help you hit the target if you have high accuracy. Attempt some 15-20 questions from other areas (S&T, ecology etc.) to compensate any mistakes you may make in the above areas.

kainat09

well as said by spirate if you concentrate on the above areas then you can easily get 80 number in paper one and yes try to attempt some question from s &t,and ecology.for this you can read any good magazine previous issues based on these areas.

Hackboy89

@spirate i'd be really grateful if you can tell me about the chapters to do from Ramesh Singh, i've done a no of topics from it but due to time constraint and other exams, won't be able to complete the full book..

spirate

@Hackboy89 I think we should study the following concepts of economics at least once. You should have that "aha" moment where all the parts fit and give you the big picture. Then, you can then approach any question conceptually.

1*. GDP (factor cost/production method, market price/expenditure method, income method. When are the three numbers different?)
2. GNP (compare with GDP. When are the two different? Which is a "better" indicator?)
3. NNP/NDP (why deduct depreciation?)
4*. Inflation (demand pull and cost push. Structural. Headline and core. CPI and WPI. Phillips curve, stagflation and skewflation. Why has inflation remained persistently high in India?)
5***. Monetary tools to combat inflation (there is always a question from this area) - CRR, SLR, Repo, government securities and treasury bills.
6. Nominal vs real GDP/GNP/Net National Income etc. (i.e., current prices vs constant prices.)
6a. Base year selection (why does this matter? Why did we recently update to 2004-05 and are now planning to update to 2011-12? Aren't we eroding the value of "constant" prices if we keeping changing the base year frequently?)
6b. GDP deflator. Just the definition here.
7*. MSME- also just the definition and current thresholds
8*. Budget process (you may have this covered in Polity already. Also look at FRBMA goals)
9*. Deficits in the budget- fiscal, primary, revenue, primary revenue, effective revenue
9a. Deficit financing (monetizing vs borrowing)
10. Balance of Payments- current, capital and finance accounts.
11*. Current Account Deficit. Financing it with capital inflows.
12. FDI, FII, ECBs.
13. How are CAD, fiscal deficit, inflation and growth linked? "Twin deficits" problem.
14. Capital account convertibility
15. Currency- fixed vs floating. LERMS. Why is our rupee depreciating? Is it good for India? Why are some countries competitively devaluing their currencies ("currency war")? NEER and REER if you have the time.
16***. Demographic Transition Theory (another area which always shows up in the exam)
17. Banking: all the stuff under #5 above + base rate, priority sector lending, NPAs, SARFAESI Act. No need to go into excessive detail. Read any conceptual stuff that shows up in the newspapers.
18*. National Manufacturing Policy (asked in both Prelims and Mains last year). Maybe also look at the National Minerals Policy this year.
19. Savings and investment rates (both expressed as % of GDP). First understanding how they are different. India has a higher investment rate than savings rate. How is that possible?
20*. Taxation- may be important this year due to GST. (direct and indirect. progressive and regressive. Pigovian. VAT, GST)
21*. RGESS may show up this year.
22*. Inclusive growth. Maybe focus on gender inclusion.

Please build on this non-exhaustive list.

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PS Along with the definitions, focus on analysis. I've tried to prompt basic analysis in parentheses. I've also marked the areas that I think are important for this year with an asterisk.

PPS Sorry, don't have Ramesh Singh available. But you can look these concepts up in the Contents list and study selectively rather than doing a cover-to-cover read.

Hackboy89

thanks a lot @spirate .. this will be really helpful in my preparation...

super like!!

Plato

Generally what is the score of csat 1 of those who successfully crack civil services and make into final list...

Maxi

Well Plato, there is no individual cut offs in paper 1 & 2. Over all cutoff for the last 2 yrs since csat was introduced was in the range of 200+. So its aimed to ensure qualifying pre for 220+ marks together. As people are usually comfirtable with aptitude paper (paper 2) they usually score 140+ easily in it and hence they target 80+ in paper 1. I cleared pre last yr and my score as per my assumption was 85-90 in paper 1 & 145-150 in paper 2. As I am a CAT qualified so for me paper 2 was a cake walk last yr. I am hoping for the same this yr.