CSAT Marks Will Not Be Included While Calculating PCS Merit

In deciding the merit of the candidates who clear the Combined State Upper Subordinate Services Examination- better known as PCS- the marks obtained in civil services aptitude test (CSAT) will not get included any further. The merit list decides which candidates will move to take the mains examination and thus this move has been made by the body. CSAT will now be done by only a qualifying examination from the next recruitment of UPPSC.

The directive was given keeping in mind the demand of majority of students to the state government to make CSAT a mere qualifying paper and not give prominence to make it a paper whose marks affects the prospect of the students. The commission received a fax regarding the matter from the government recently. The secretary of UPPSC, Suresh Kumar Singh admitted that the certain communication has been made from the state government to the commission and they are negotiating about the matter.

This will be winning streak for all the candidates who have for long been fighting to make CSAT ‘qualifying’ in nature for the candidates. They have also demanded that those candidates who have been affected by the CSAT marks inclusion in the merit list for the past four years be given two additional chances to clear the examination. This demand has not yet been granted by the government.

In the year 2012, the UPPSC introduced the CSAT in the PCS (Pre) and other lower subordinate recruitment examinations. This move had resulted in sharp decline in selection of the Hindi medium students and it was alleged that this model was introduced to favor English medium students. In 2014, with growing agitations and movements against the CSAT, the UPSC decided to make it a ‘qualifying paper in which a candidates had to score at least 33% marks to become eligible for the next round, but the marks were not added to decide the merit of the final selections. However the UPPSC continued to include CSAT marks in deciding the merit of main examination of PCS (pre) and the lower subordinate (pre) recruitments.