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UPSC Prelims 2012 Complete Analysis and Cut-Off Marks
Now that CSAT 2012 is finally over its time for its analysis and predicting the Prelims 2012 cut off marks.
Like last year, Paper 1 was relatively difficult compared to Paper 2 which had lesser number of questions
but took much longer to finish. If you’re a IAS exam aspirant, this analysis of 2012 CSAT will surely be
useful to you to predict trends and orient your preparation accordingly. Of course, I also mention the
probable cut off for Prelims 2012 so make sure you read this post completely.
Paper 1 Analysis of Prelims 2012
If last year Paper 1 focussed more on Environment and Ecological questions this year UPSC adopted a
more balanced approach and questions from conventional topics were asked in plenty; something which
wasn’t seen in the last three Prelims. In fact, I’ve broken down the number of questions topic-wise so
you get an idea of the overall trend of 2012 Prelims. Although please note that not all questions can be
neatly categorized as many are combination of 2 or more topics like Current Affairs + Science, Economy
+ GK and so on. But for purpose of this analysis I’ve categorized them in the topic which I felt was
primary in the concerned question.
Topic No. of Questions Marks
G.K 14 28
Current Affairs 8 16
History 19 38
Polity 16 32
General Science 16 32
Geography 7 14
Environment and Ecology 11 22
Economy 9 18
TOTAL 100 200
As you can see from the table above, while 22 GK and Current Affairs based questions were asked, 66
questions were asked from the conventional topics like History, Polity, Geography etc. Candidates who
prepared Polity and History well should score good marks in these topics. In addition, the questions
from Polity and History were from easy to moderate difficulty level which means easy marks if you hadprepared these topics well.
The Economy questions were also not very difficult except a few based on the latest economic
developments. Continuing the previous year’s trend UPSC asked as many as 11 questions related to
Environment, Ecology and Sustainable Development. This will become a routine since these are pressing
issues of our times so you cannot neglect this all important topic either in the Prelims or IAS Mains.
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Paper 1 was more Tricky than Difficult
Yes, what made paper 1 tricky to attempt were the 1,2,3 and 4 (all of the above) are right type
questions. These questions end up confusing the candidates since you cannot use elimination method
with confidence in these questions. The doubt that maybe all the options are correct always lingers in
the mind if one is not sure about the combinations listed in the answer. And UPSC asked as many as 64
questions having ”all are correct” type option.
This is what made Paper 1 tricky and will ultimately decide the cut off in this year’s Prelims. Many
candidates who selected an option based on hunches or selected the “all are correct” option simply
because it seemed most “common sensical” will be in for a few surprises since there’s a negative a
penalty of 0.66 marks for every wrong answer.
Prelims 2012Paper 2 Analysis
Paper 2 was quite easy, although lengthy. In fact I feel paper 2 will pull the cut-off upwards while Paper
1 will moderate it. Since there were only 80 questions like last year, I assume each question carries 2.5
marks. Also as in previous year, this year too UPSC showered passages upon passages in Paper two; 11
to be precise. And they were quite simple to attempt provided you went through them once or twicecompletely before attempting the questions that followed.
Also like last year the 7 questions on decision making carried no negative penalty so I hope you must
have attempted them all. Coming to the logical reasoning and mental ability part these questions were
quite easy as well. In fact if you went through the questions and options with a calm mind you should
have got most of the logical reasoning questions correct.
But since paper 2 was comparatively time consuming I assume most of the candidates couldn’t have
attempted all the questions even if they wanted to.
Expected Prelims 2012 Cut Off
So finally after all the analysis we come to the cut off part, for some the most interesting and exciting as
well. Before I get to the CSAT 2012 cut-off please take a moment to read the disclaimer below.
Disclaimer: This cut-off is for reference purpose only. I don’t have any links with any ‘uncle’ in UPSC who
has ‘secretly revealed’ the cut-off to me. So take it with a pinch of salt and don’t fuss if the predicted
cut-off falls below or above your expectation Also I strongly believe there’s No Individual Cut-off in
Prelims, so read it before moving forward. Also while I speak of a minimum score in individual papers I
don’t mean it as minimum qualifying score in each paper. The minimum score is only valid for paper 1
and 2 marks combined.
Based on the difficulty level of paper 1 and assuming an average attempt of 80 questions out of 100, a
minimum score of 90 marks out of 200 in paper 1 after deducting 1/3rd negative penalty. In paper 2assuming an average attempt of 70 questions out of 80, a minimum score of 130 marks out of 200.
Combining the 2 papers the Cut-off score for Prelims 2012 comes to 90+130=220 marks out of 400. In
fact, I predict the cut-off marks will be in the range of 215-230 marks simply because of the easy nature
of paper 2 and not-very difficult level of paper 1.