UPSC Prelims 2025 Analysis Highlights: Here’s how aspirants, mentors rate CSE Pre?

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Here are some of the tips Mudit Gupta, a UPSC mentor, provided in the run up to CSAT.

1 LEAVE BIASES OUT OF THE EXAM HALL

There is a widespread misconception that CSAT is all about tough mathematics questions, and students from a humanities background cannot solve them.

2 DON’T SEARCH FOR QUESTIONS FROM A SPECIFIC TOPIC

Each one of us has certain strong and weak areas in a subject. However, to clear the exam, we cannot just attempt the questions only from our strong areas. The weightage of every chapter is limited, and to be able to clear the cut-off comfortably, we need to attempt the questions from across the spectrum.

3 SKIPPING > NEGATIVE MARKING

Whenever you encounter a question that you think is partially solvable or you’re not very confident about its answer, it is always better to skip that question.

4. TIME FOR EACH QUESTION

Ideally, to attempt 80 questions in 120 minutes, you need 1.5 minutes per question. However, the requirement of CSAT is such that we don’t need to attempt all 80 questions to be on the other side of the cut-off.

The UPSC CSE prelims exam will be held in two shifts — first from 9.30 am and the next from 2.30 pm.

"The golden rule for attempting questions in the Prelims is simple: attempt every question where you have confidently eliminated at least one option. Once you eliminate even a single choice, your odds improve significantly — with three options left, you now have a 1 in 3 chance, which statistically leads to a net-positive outcome," Rohit Pande, a mentor of UPSC aspirants, told The Indian Express.

"If your logical reasoning and elimination skills are sharp, you can take calculated risks and attempt more questions. But if you are not confident in your techniques, it is smarter to play it safe. In that case, keeping your total attempts between 88 and 92 is often a sweet spot," he added.