UPSC CSAT Syllabus For IAS Prelims 2024

UPSC CSAT Syllabus is a critical resource for UPSC Prelims exam preparation. Candidates who are preparing for the competitive UPSC CSE examination can check out the official UPSC CSAT Syllabus 2024 detailed in the official IAS notification itself. In view of the UPSC CSE Prelims exam, CSAT stands for "Civil Services Aptitude Test". Candidates need to prepare two papers for UPSC Prelims, namely General Studies paper 1 and General Studies paper 2 (CSAT).

• The Union Public Service Commission introduced the UPSC CSAT Syllabus in the IAS exam scheme back in 2011.
• A total of 80 questions for 200 marks are asked from the UPSC CSE CSAT Syllabus in Prelims from various technical topics.
• The official CSAT Syllabus is prepared to assess the analytical & mental aptitude skills of aspirants.
• As CSAT is a qualifying paper for the Prelims stage, all candidates must score a minimum of 33% marks to pass it.
• In this article, we will check the CSAT syllabus in detail along with subject-wise tips, study materials, previous year analysis, etc.
• Candidates can also download the UPSC CSAT Syllabus PDF for free from the link given in this article below.

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Also, check out UPSC Prelims Topic Wise Questions PDF here.

UPSC CSAT Syllabus 2024

The UPSC CSAT or General Studies Paper 2 is a part of the IAS Prelims syllabus. The exam was conducted on 28th May 2023 in the afternoon session after GS Paper 1. Candidates’ reasoning ability, analytical skills and critical thinking ability will be assessed through topics in the UPSC CSE CSAT syllabus. However, candidates must clearly understand that the contents of UPSC Syllabus for CSAT paper is relatively less than UPSC Prelims GS Paper 1. Let’s now check out the official UPSC CSAT Syllabus 2024 as declared by UPSC below.

• Comprehension
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability
• Decision-making and problem-solving
• General mental ability
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level)
• Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency, etc. — Class X level)

Note 1 - Paper 2 (CSAT) of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.

Note 2 - The questions will be of multiple choice, objective type.

Note 3 - It is mandatory for the candidate to appear in both the Papers of Civil Services (Prelims) Examination for the purpose of evaluation. Therefore a candidate will be disqualified in case he/she does not appear in both the papers of the Civil Services (Prelims) Examination.

Also, read How to prepare for CSAT UPSC? here.

CSAT Syllabus For UPSC PDF

As mentioned earlier, the UPSC CSAT syllabus constitutes an important part of the UPSC Prelims Syllabus. Thus, in order to ensure a properly planned and strategic preparation, all aspirants must download the official topic-wise UPSC CSAT Syllabus PDF. It will also help them in understanding the range of topics present in the UPSC Prelims GS Paper 2. Candidates can visit the official UPSC website or just click on the direct links provided below to download the CSAT Syllabus for UPSC PDF.

UPSC CSAT Maths Syllabus

UPSC CSE aspirants face a lot of issues while preparing for the UPSC CSAT Maths Syllabus. It’s because UPSC has not clearly specified the topics and sub-topics present in this section.

However, our experts have gone through all the UPSC CSAT Previous Year Papers and have arranged a list of topics to prepare from the two core topics of the CSAT Maths Syllabus, namely-

1. Basic Numeracy, and,
2. General Mental Ability.

Have a look at the detailed UPSC CSAT Maths Syllabus for the IAS Prelims Exam 2024.

UPSC CSAT Reasoning Syllabus

Just like the CSAT Maths Syllabus, UPSC has also not clearly specified the UPSC CSAT Reasoning Syllabus in its official notification. However, we have also decoded the IAS CSAT syllabus for Reasoning into two parts, namely

1. Logical Reasoning And Analytical Ability, and,
2. Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency.

Let’s check out the topic-wise UPSC CSAT Reasoning Syllabus 2024 in detail below. 

UPSC CSAT Syllabus Trend Analysis (2011-2022)

Once candidates have gone through the official UPSC CSAT Maths & Reasoning Syllabus, it’s very important to check the subject-wise weightage asked in the exam. As per our IAS Exam Analysis, the number of questions asked in previous CSAT papers from each section is given in the table below for your reference.

Also, check the UPSC Cut Off for CSAT paper here!

UPSC CSAT Syllabus - Recommended Books

As you now understand, covering the UPSC CSAT syllabus is not quite hard if prepared with the right study materials and dedication. Thus, we have curated some of the best and industry-tested UPSC Books for the CSAT Prelims syllabus for best preparation in the table below. 

Check out detailed CSAT Books For UPSC here.

We hope that this article about UPSC CSAT Syllabus helped you in understanding the important topics & sub-topics that you need to focus on. You can also download the Testbook App to access important UPSC CSAT questions, and other Prelims & Mains study materials, live classes and more!