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3.
4.
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7.
Assumption / Inference?
8.
Assumption?
9.
Inference?
The (original) authors who write for newspaper columns, books, journals- have a habit of using
very lengthy and complex sentences, full of passive voice and sentence connectors.
Either your vocabulary is low and or you dont read English regularly. Therefore it takes you quite
some time to pause and grasp each statement.
#2: Nature of question:
In SSC/Bank type exam, one RC question is followed by four option A,B,C,D. for example:
2TF
4TF
2 Statement true/false
4 Statement true/false
a.
Only 1
b.
Only 2
c.
Both
d.
None
a.
Only 1 and 2
b.
Only 2, 3 and 4
c.
Only 1, 2 and 3
d.
Only 4
So in a way, youre solving four question and yet getting marks for only one question. (similar
thing is happening in the General studies paper.)
This makes the RC-exercise very time consuming. Youve to re-read several sentences again and
again to verify/eliminate those 2 or 4 statements.
Therefore, in the light of these two issues (Nature of sentences + nature of question), your first rule / task
while solving RC is: Remove the garbage.
How?
While reading the passage, Do any one of the following:
1. Underline the important stuff using a red or green ballpen/gelpen or highlighter. (dont use
pencil/blue ballpen for underlining because then Important stuff is not easily distinguishable from
garbage). OR
2. Cutdown unimportant phrases/lines/words (=garbage) using a ballpen/gelpen.
For example
Original text
Cutdown
Underline
^as you can see, after cutting down, we are left with important part only: This leads to an enabling state.
Government doesnt deliver everything, instead it creates ethos for market.
^This habit helps because
If you just keep reading without doing anything (with your hand), then you might miss an
important phrase or word while reading the passage.
But when youve to underline/cutdown some part of text= you need to pay attention to each and
every phrase/sentence.
So next time while youre scanning through this passage (for looking 2TF, 4TF answers), it takes
less time to wade through the data.
To see this rule in action: go through earlier article containing solved passages from 2011s paper click me
Rule#1 (A):
Make a table, if there are questions on assumption / inference.
Ill elaborate on this rule, in the later part of this article.
Rule #2: Leave Nothing for later
You take 6 minutes to read passage and 30 seconds to solve each question. =total 10 minutes.
And You decide ok, Ill come back to this question later, after finishing the paper=problem
Because
When you leave question for later= it unnecessarily creates pressure on your mind. One part of
your brain is now occupied in thinking yaar Ive to come back to that question again. It affects
your performance in other remaining question of the paper.
When you come back after finishing the paper, the passage wont be in your memory. The
momentum/understanding of the passage is lost or partially evaporated.
So youve to once again read or atleast glance through the whole data one more time.
When the papers timelimit is about to finish, your mind starts playing dirty tricks on you (out of
the fear of imaginary cutoffs). So, if earlier you were feeling 50:50 between two options, now your
mind will tell you to pick one option under that pressure.=youre pushing your luck=negative
marking may dig your grave.
Therefore, whenever you read passage do all questions at once, dont leave anything for later.
If you cant solve a particular comprehension question then leave it for good. Dont put it on Ill
come back later list.
Same advice for data interpretation question- youve to re-study the graph/chart/table.
Rule #3: Dont push your luck
Similarly in UPSC , you dont have to tick 80/80 questions in paper-II to clear the prelims exam.
(besides, marks of prelims are not counted in final merit list)
So please dont have this board exam mentality ki comprehension kaa har sawaal tick karnaaa
hi hai (I must tick every comprehension question because it is a comprehension question!).
If you cant decide an answer, then dont tick it. Move on to next question.
Trying to solve RC questions with Gut-instinct = Youre throwing good money after bad money
via negative marking.
Please bear in mind: negative marking plays a huge role in all UPSC prelims. So never walk in
the exam hall with cut off mindset.
Rule #4: Verify every option
Often the RC question-answers are set in such way that the moment you read option A,
immediately your mind thinks ahathis must be the right answer.
And you tick it without actually going back to the passage to confirm/verify that answer.= big
mistake.
You must verify all option A,B,C and D. dont tick answer without verifying / confirming them with
the original passage.
Because when youre in stress and haste, sometimes your eyes see one thing but your mind
reads it as something else. For example
Actually given
In those years, Dev Anand worked as a surveyor, before that he was a clerk but
Bollywood was his ultimate destiny.
Dev Anands career path= surveyor > clerk > Bollywood hero.(actually
given clerk> surveyor>Bollywood hero).
Now if there is a question on Dev Anands career path, youll end up ticking the wrong answer (if
you dont confirm/verify every option with the given passage.)
CSAT: P2: 2011 vs 2012
In UPSC CSAT paper II (Aptitude), youll face the Comprehension in two sectors
1. Passages to test your Comprehension power (the difficult ones) =passage+questions given in
both English + Hindi.
2. Passages to test your basic English knowledge (easier ones)= passage+questions given in
English only.
2011
2012
Passage
Qs
Words Approx
Passage
Qs
Words Approx
Right to Education
250
Education
150
Inclusive growth
250
Western liberal
200
Creative society
100
Pesticide
400
Foreign domination
200
Climate
300
Keystone species
250
Exotic species
350
Ecosystem
150
Democracy
350
Moral Act
150
Collectivities
150
FDI
200
Total
28
1350
Total
32
2100
Ok so in 2012, UPSC added only 4 more questions in comprehension (32-28=4), Then why is there so
much hue and cry about comprehension?
Three factors:
1. From 2011 to 2012, while the number of comprehension questions increased by just 14%, but
the size of passages has increased by 55% [(2100-1350)/1350]
2. Many of the questions are of 2TF, 3TF, 4TF type (=you are solving 2,3 or 4 sub-questions and
getting marks for only one question= time consuming exercise.)
3. 2011, the questions were straightforward. 2012: Now youre also asked to identify assumptions,
inferences, implications and themes of the passage. And in such answers, more than one choice
appear plausible. Often you find yourself in 50:50 choice.
Combination of these three factors, makes CSAT passages difficult.
To put this bluntly: CSAT comprehension section looks tough because it is copying the structure of higher
level aptitude tests like CAT and GMAT. (although with UPSCs own peculiarities).
English language test
These passages are given only to test your knowledge of English language. (hence difficulty level
easy compared to previous comprehensions) Hindi translations not given for these passages.
2011
Qs
2012
Qs
Jail
My toothbrush
Camping
Polar bear
Hero
Total
Total
Anyways, back to the discussion: what to do when Assumption / inference type question comes in the
passage?
Assumption / Inference?
Gist:
Body1.2.
Pro
Con
1.
2.
1.
2.
3.
Please note: you dont need to fill all cells. Just fill up some keywords/ data as per the situation.
Every passage follows this patterns
Assumption(s)==> Passage (body, text, pros, cons) ==> inference, implication, conclusion
Assumptions
Inference/implication/conclusio
n
They are above the table (Therefore not given in the passage
explicitly.)But the passage is based on them (assumptions). If the
assumption is taken away then whole passage/argument/case will
collapse.
Theyre below the table. They are based on the passage.
Pro
Con
As you can see, all of the given answer choices seem logically valid according to the given
passage. But which one of them is the assumption?
And if assumption is taken out of the equation, whole thing will collapse.
You must give an argument thatll completely destroy his entire premise/case. Thus the negative
of your argument, will be his assumption. Lets check
Negative.
a.
The negative of this statement = Nuke power will not lead to improvement
in IIP/GDP.But This is just a filler dialogue. It doesnt totally ruin authors
case. So this answer choice is wrong. Move to next choice.
People think/trust that nuclear plants are safe.Ya but this statement doesnt
help us destroy authors passage/case/argument. So this answer choice is
wrong. Move to next choice.
Pro
Con
Assumption =above the table and Inference is below the table. (Meaning Inference is derived from the
given arguments/case) hence Inference should stay close to table.
Lets check
a.
While this may be true as per our General Knowledge, but this is
not given in the passage. (table)Inference must be close to the table.
Inference must be derived from the table.
Hence, This is not a valid inference.
It contains saved webpages of Pagalguy forums RC threads for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012
respectively. (in three separate folders)
Total about 290 webpages, if we assume two passages are given per web-page, these are more
than 500 practice passages!
The zip file also contains one PDF file: 35 RC Passages with answers.pdf = basically it is a few
selected passes from 2012s Pagalguy RC Thread. Neatly formatted and arranged for practicing
(the Foxit PDF highlighter/text-strikethru feature will help you apply Rule #1).
You can also use this following site for practice: http://codecoax.com/grerc/
Booklist for CSAT paper II?
CSAT is still in a nascent stage (UPSC has conducted only two papers so far.)
There is not enough databank of previous-questions / trends so that authors / publication houses
can come out with decent books exclusively written for CSAT. (like theyve for CAT or SSC type
exams).
So, Whatever books/ material are available in the market right now are either
Watered down version of CAT/GMAT books (For example, Arun Sharmas book for CSAT (by
TMH publication.)
Since CSAT (Aptitude) = newly opened door so lot of publishers are trying to capture market and
in that haste, quality is not maintained. (Books often have printing, typing mistakes.)
UPSCs aptitude is (again) like Kungfu= You can use variety of booklists/studymaterial combo and
yet succeed.
In this context: CSAT Paper II booklist = you should pickup based on your career-backup plan.
1.
UPSC + CAT/CMAT as
backup
Maths
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Comprehension
Reasoning
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Maths
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NCERT class 7 to 10
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1.
2.
Comprehension
Reasoning
1.
Maths
1.
NCERT class 7 to 10
2.
Comprehension
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3.
Reasoning
3.
In CSAT 2012, the paper contained some peculiar problems on Assumption, inference, syllogism
and logic.
MK Pandeys Magical book on Reasoning, contains some good basic foundation material in that
regard. So if and when youve time and mood, go through it.
Article on How to approach Maths and Reasoning for CSAT= will be covered