1. Vs. CSAT-2013
  2. Vs other exams (CDS, CAPF)
  3. Science Difficulty level of CSAT-2014
  4. CSAT-2015: How to approach Science?
    1. Step1: NCERTs topicwise
    2. Step2: After NCERT: competitive books
    3. Step3: Science-tech current affairs
  5. CSAT-2014: Answer key for Science portion
    1. Q1: Chemistry
    2. Q2: Public health- Diseases eradicated from India
    3. Q3: Public health- Nutrients
    4. Q4: Scitech- Biometric identification
    5. Q5: Scitech- NASA spacecraft

Vs. CSAT-2013

Cover CSAT 2014 Science Questions

Now even Dexter wants to appear for CSAT!

CSAT-2013 Science CSAT-2014
13 Questions 5 question- although good number of science-related questions under

  • Agriculture (e.g. transgenic crops),
  • Environment (e.g. carbon cycle, photosynthesis).
5 questions on physics Physics gone with the wind.
nothing from chemistry 1 MCQ
4 questions on public health 3
asked about disease Chikungunya, Hepatitis B and HIV-AIDS Diphtheria, chickenpox and smallpox
minerals vs muscle constriction vitamin deficiency vs diseases

Vs other exams (CDS, CAPF)

Some continuity, same change
CAPF, CDS (2014) CSAT-2014
CAPF 2014: Which of the following are not chemical changes?

  1. Tempering of iron
  2. Conversion of iron piece into an electro-magnet by passing the current around the iron
  3. Melting of iron
  4. Rusting of iron
 Which of the following is/are the example/examples of chemical change?

  1. Crystallization of sodium chloride
  2. Melting of ice
  3. Souring of milk
heavy focus on science

  • CDS-2014: 22%
  • CAPF 2014: 12%
 hardly 5% because they had to make space for Agriculture & environment
CDS: significant weightage given to physics, chemistry just 1 MCQ
CDS: asked questions from class 11,12 Science NCERT
  • nothing from physics.
  • in agro.portion they asked even higher level questions above 11,12 NCERT
CAPF-2014: atleast 3 questions about public health, relatively easy same

Science Difficulty level of CSAT-2014

Easy questions
Example of chemical change given directly in NCERT class7
Diseases eradicated from India? solved quicky through smart eliminationĀ  and common knowledge that diphetira and chickenpox still prevelant
vitamin deficiency disease school level GK, also given in Lucent and GS Manual
biometricidentificationmethods
  • as such easy
  • medium: if mind develops doubt about ā€œretinal scanningā€ vs ā€œiris scanningā€

 

Difficult question
NASA spacecraft mission
  • As such ā€œspace-techā€ questions were not asked in last three prelims so most players would have ignored this topic in preparation
  • besides, even if it was prepared- hard to memorize and recall five dozen NASA missions during actual exam

CSAT-2015: How to approach Science?

Step1: NCERTs topicwise

Preparation must begin with NCERTs
Class PHYSICS Chemistry Biology
7 4, 13, 14 & 15 5 & 6 1,2,10; 11 & 12
8 11 to 16 3 to 6 2, 8, 9 & 10
9 8 to 12 1 to 4 5,6,7 & 13
10 10, 12 & 13 1 to 5 6 to 11
11 1,5,8 1,14 2 to 5
12 15 14,16 4,5 then 7 to 16
  • Iā€™ve uploaded the NCERTs in topicwise manner, Ā zip files available under Mrunal.org/download
  • @non-science graduates: you may skip yellow colored cells (if you find them too difficult) but must prepare green colored cells- because those chapters have relevance with environment and agriculture.
  • @science graduates: must go through all chapters of class-11, 12 IF youā€™re aspiring for Combined Defense services (CDS) or Railway apprentice (SCRA).

Step2: After NCERT: competitive books

  • NCERT alone not sufficient for UPSC prelims because:
    • Biology: they donā€™t cover all diseases, nutrient deficiencies etc.
    • physics and chemistry: they donā€™t cover all real-life examples of various physics principles
  • Therefore, after NCERT, you should augment preparation with help of following
  • Mrunalā€™s public health compilation
  • Mrunalā€™s Space tech compilation
  • any ā€œcompetitive bookā€
    • Lucent GK OR
    • General studies manual
    • Or similar book on science-tech.
  • India Yearbook Chapter on science technology- although cost:Benefit seems to be declining.

Step3: Science-tech current affairs

  • Till few years, Hinduā€™s Thursday edition used to the prime source of questions in UPSC. But it has lost its former glory in since 2013ā€™s prelims and mains- hardly anything direct coming from it. And If you begin ā€˜researchingā€™ further on each topic mentioned in there = no time will be left to prepare for other topics.
  • It doesnā€™t mean Hindu science tech is useless- but only focus on major developments in in environment, agriculture, public health, space-tech, defense, electronics and IT.
  • Donā€™t get fixed over running commentaries on research. For example
  • This California research institute developed new technique to extract special compound xyz from tomato thatā€™ll cure xyz cancer by acting on xyz enzyme that prohibits xyz thingā€¦ā€¦= useless, very bad cost benefit, even If asked.
  • But xyz institute developed vaccine for Ebola / other major disease = important.
  • Anyways, letā€™s being solving the questions:

CSAT-2014: Answer key for Science portion

Q1: Chemistry

Q1. Which of the following is/are the example/examples of chemical change?

  1. Crystallization of sodium chloride
  2. Melting of ice
  3. Souring of milk

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. 1 and 2 only
  2. 3 only
  3. 1, 2 and 3
  4. None

NCERT science Class7 chapter 6 page 64

  • Crystallization is an example of a physical change.
  • Therefore all options involving #1 are wrong. This eliminates A and C.
  • As such we all know that souring of milk is a chemical change. But just for the sake of “proof”,
  • ICSE Class6 page 52: Souring of milk is an example of Chemical change.

Therefore, answer is B only 3.

Q2: Public health- Diseases eradicated from India

Consider the following diseases

  1. Diphtheria
  2. Chickenpox
  3. Smallpox

Which of the above diseases has/have been eradicated in India?

  1. 1 and 2 only
  2. 3 only
  3. 1, 2 and 3
  4. None
CSAT-2015 how to prepare science with Akshay Kumar

After failing to give a single hit movie in the entire decade, even Tushaar Kapoor is giving UPSC as “career-backup”!

1.Diphtheria Last year, Government introduced Pentavalent vaccine which also fights Diphtheria.Ā  It means Diphtheria is also prevalent. But still Hinduproof
2.Chickenpox Chickenpox is still prevalent. This is common knowledge. Still here is the TheHindu-proof.
3.Smallpox Smallpox has been eradicated from India. Ref: Mrunal’s [Public Health] article series part 2

Therefore, answer B only 3.

Q3: Public health- Nutrients

Consider the following pairs :

Vitamin Deficiency disease
1. Vitamin C Scurvy
2. Vitamin D Rickets
3. Vitamin E Night blindness

Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?

  1. 1 and 2 only
  2. 3 only
  3. 1, 2 and 3
  4. None
TMH General Science section, Page 140 Table 16.5
1. Vitamin C Scurvy is right.
2. Vitamin D RicketsĀ  is right
3. Vitamin E Night blindness is wrong. Vitamin A causes Night blindness.

Therefore, Answer (A) only 1 and 2. Additional sources

  • Lucent GK Biology section page 561-62
  • NCERT Class 6(NEW), Science Textbook, Chapter 2, Page 16. Night Blindness is caused by deficiency in Vitamin A. But it doesn’t have list of other diseases.

Q4: Scitech- Biometric identification

1. In addition to fingerprint scanning, which of the following can be used in the biometric identification of a person?

  1. Iris scanning
  2. Retinal scanning
  3. Voice recognition

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 and 3 only
  3. 1 and 3 only
  4. 1, 2 and 3

All three are correct as per common knowledge. But, Just for the sake of proof: Biometrics in a networked society: Anil Jain Page 14 has a table, which lists all of them.

Q5: Scitech- NASA spacecraft

Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched?

Spacecraft Purpose
1. Cassini-Huygens Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth
2. Messenger Mapping and investigating the Mercury
3. Voyager 1 and 2 Exploring the outer solar system

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 and 3 only
  3. 1 and 3 only
  4. 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

As per NASA website, Cassini is for Saturn. Therefore, #1 is wrong, this eliminates option A, C and D. we are left with final answer B only 2 and 3.