Marks for English not to be counted in CSAT grading: Jitendra Singh

The government Monday said that marks in English language comprehension skills in CSAT would not be included while preparing the merit list for the UPSC civil services exam.

"The government has studied the matter very deeply and tried to handle it sensitively," Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh informed the Lok Sabha.

The government thinks that the English language comprehension skills should not be included for gradation or merit in the civil services examination, he said.

The minister also said that the government felt that candidates who appeared in 2011 should be allowed one more attempt in 2015.

The CSAT-II paper in the UPSC preliminary exam carries questions on comprehension, interpersonal skills including communication skills, logical reasoning and analytical ability, decision-making and problem-solving, general mental ability, basic numeracy and English language comprehension skills (of Class 10 level).

The aspirants for the examination have been demanding the aptitude test (CSAT-II) be scrapped as they term it discriminatory to those from Hindi-speaking states as well as humanities students.