GS Prelims Paper II Interpersonal Skills/Communication & Decision Making up to 2013

Civil Services Examination 2013

Directions for the following 6 (six) items:

Given below are six items. Each item describes a situation and is followed by four possible responses. Indicate the response you find most appropriate. Choose only one response for each item. The responses will be evaluated based on the level of appropriateness for the given situation.

Please attempt all the items. There is no penalty for, wrong answers for these six items.

1. You are the head of your office. There are certain houses reserved for the allotment to the office staff and you have been given the discretion to do so. A set of rules for the allotment of the houses has been laid down by you and has been made public. Your personal secretary, who is very close to you, comes to you and pleads that as his father is seriously ill, he should be given priority in allotment of a house. The office secretariat that examined the request as per the rules turns down the request and recommends the procedure to be followed according to the rules. You do not want to annoy your personal secretary. In such circumstances, what would you do?

Call him over to your room and personally explain why the allotment cannot be done.
Allot the house to him to win his loyalty.
Agree with the office note to show that you are not biased and that you do not indulge in favouritism.
Keep the file with you and not pass any orders.

2. While travelling in a Delhi-registered commercial taxi from Delhi to an adjacent city (another State), your taxi driver informs you that as he has no permit for running the taxi in that city, he will stop at its Transport Office and pay the prescribed fee of Rs. forty for a day. While paying the fee at the counter you find that the transport clerk is taking an extra fifty rupees for which no receipt is being given. You are in a hurry for your meeting. In such circumstances, what would you do?

Go up to the counter and ask the clerk to give back the money which he has illegally taken.
Do not interfere at all as this is a matter between the taxi driver and the tax authorities.
Take note of the incident and subsequently report the matter to the concerned authorities.
Treat it as a normal affair and simply forget about it.

3. A person lives in a far off village which is almost two hours by bus. The villager's neighbour is a very powerful landlord who is trying to occupy the poor villager's land by force. You are the District Magistrate and busy in a meeting called by a local Minister. The villager has come all the way, by bus and on foot, to see you and give an application seeking protection from the powerful landlord. The villager keeps on waiting outside the meeting hall for an hour. You come out of the meeting and are rushing to another meeting. The villager follows you to submit his application. What would you do?

Tell him to wait for another two hours till you come back from your next meeting.
Tell him that the matter is actually to be dealt by a junior officer and that he should give the application to him.
Call one of your senior subordinate officers and ask him to solve the villager's problem.
Quickly take the application from him, ask him a few relevant questions regarding his problem and then proceed to the meeting.

4. There is a shortage of sugar in your District where you are the District Magistrate. The Government has ordered that only a maximum amount of 30 kg sugar is to be released for wedding celebrations. A son of your close friend is getting married and your friend requests you to release at least 50 kg sugar for his son's wedding. He expresses annoyance when you tell him about the Government's restrictions on this matter. He feels that since you are the District Magistrate you can release any amount. You do not want to spoil your friendship with him. In such circumstances, how would you deal with the situation?

Release the extra amount of sugar which your friend has requested for
Refuse your friend the extra amount and strictly follow the rules.
Show your friend the copy of the Government instructions and then persuade him to accept the lower amount as prescribed in the rules.
Advise him to directly apply to the allotting authority and inform him that you do not interfere in this matter.

5. You are in-charge of implementing the Family Planning programme in an area where there is a strong opposition to the present policy. You want to convince the residents of the need for keeping small families. What would be the best way of communicating this message?

By logically explaining to the residents the need for family planning to improve the health and living standards.
By encouraging late marriages and proper spacing of children.
By offering incentives for adopting family planning devices.
By asking people who have been sterilized or are using contraceptives to directly talk to the residents.

6. You are a teacher in a University and are setting a question paper on a particular subject. One of your colleagues, whose son is preparing for the examination on that subject, comes to you and informs you that it is his son's last chance to pass that examination and whether you could help him by indicating what questions are going to be in the examination. In the past, your colleague had helped you in another matter. Your colleague informs you that his son will suffer from depression if he fails in this examination. In such circumstances, what would you do?

In view of the help he had given you, extend your help to him.
Regret that you cannot be of any help to him.
Explain to your colleague that this would be violating the trust of the University authorities and you are not in a position to help him.
Report the conduct of your colleague to the higher authorities.

Civil Services Examination 2012

Directions for the following 7(seven) items:

Given below are the seven items. Each item describes a situation and is followed by four possible responses. Indicate the response that you find most appropriate. Choose only one response for each item. The responses will be evaluated based on the level of appropriateness for the given situation.

Please attempt all the items. There is no penalty for wrong Solutions for these seven items.

1. You have differences of the opinion regarding the final report prepared by your subordinate that is to be submitted urgently. The subordinate is justifying the information given in the report. You would

Convince the subordinate that he is wrong
Tell him to reconsider the results
Revise the report on your own
Tell him not to justify the mistake

2. You are competing with your batch-mate for the prestigious award to be decided based on an oral presentation. You have been asked by the committee to finish on time. Your friend however, is allowed more than the stipulated time period. You would..

Lodge a complaint to chairperson against the discrimination.
Not listen to any justification from the committee
Ask for withdrawal of your name
Protest and leave the place

3. You are handling a time bound project. During the project review meeting, you find that project is likely to get delayed due to lack of cooperation of the team members. You would.

Warn the team members for their non-cooperation
Look into the reasons for non-cooperation
Ask for the replacement of the team members
Ask for the extension of time citing reasons

4. You are a chairperson of a state sports committee. You have received a complaint and later it was found that an athlete in junior age category who has won a medal has crossed the age criteria by 5 days. You would...

Ask the screening committee for a clarification
Ask the athlete to return the medal
Ask the athlete to get an affidavit from the court declaring his/her age.
Ask the members of the committee for their views

5. You are handling a priority project and have been meeting all the deadlines and planning your leave during the project. Your immediate boss does not grant leave citing the urgency of the project. You would...

Proceed on leave without waiting for the sanction
Pretend to be sick and take leave
Approach higher authority to reconsider the leave application.
Tell the boss that it is not justified.

6. You are involved in setting up a water supply project in remote area. Full recovery of cost is impossible in any case. The income levels in the area are low and 25% of the population is below poverty line (BPL). When a decision has to be taken on pricing you would....

Recommended that the supply of water be free of charge in all respects
Recommended that the users pay a onetime fixed sum for installation of taps and the usage of water be free
Recommended that a fixed monthly charges be levied on the non-BPL families and for BPL families water should be free
Recommended that the users pay a charge based on the consumption of water with differentiated charges for Non-BPL and BPL families.

7. As a citizen you have some work with a government department. The official calls you again and again; and without directly asking you, sends out feelers for a bribe. You want to get your work done. You would...

Give a bribe
Behave as if you have not understood the feelers and persist with your application
Go to the higher officer for help verbally complaining about feelers.
Send in a formal complaint

Civil Services Examination 2011

Directions for the following 8 (eight) items:

Given below are eight items. Each item describes a situation and is followed by four possible responses. Indicate the response you find most appropriate. Choose only one response for each item. There sponses will be evaluated based on the level of appropriateness for the given situation.

Please attempt all the items. There is no penalty for wrong answers for these eight items.

1. You have been asked to give an explanation for not attending an important official meeting. Your immediate boss who has not informed you about the meeting is now putting pressure on you not to place an allegation against him / her. You would..

send a written reply explaining the fact.
seek an appointment with the top boss to explain the situation.
admit your fault to save the situation.
put the responsibility on the coordinator of the meeting for not informing.

2. A local thug (bad element) has started illegal construction on your vacant plot. He has refused your request to vacate and threatened you of dire consequences in case you do not sell the property at a cheap price to him. You would

sell the property at a cheap price to him.
go to the police for necessary action.
ask for help from your neighbours.
negotiate with the goon to get a higher price.

3. You have to accomplish a very important task for your headquarters within the next two days. Suddenly you meet with an accident. Your office insists that you complete the task. You would..

ask for an extension of deadline.
inform Headquarters of your inability to finish on time.
Suggest alternate person to headquarters who may do the needful.
stay away till you recover.

4. You are an officer-in-charge for providing basic medical facilities to the survivors of an earthquake affected area. Despite your best possible effort, people put allegations against you for making money out of the funds given for relief. You would

let an enquiry be set up to look into the matter.
ask your senior to appoint some other person in your place.
not pay attention to allegations.
stop undertaking any initiative till the matter is resolved.

5. You have been made responsible to hire boats at a short notice to be used for an area under flood. On seeing the price mentioned by the boat owners you found that the lowest price was approximately three times more than the approved rate of the Government. You would..

reject the proposal and call for a fresh price.
accept the lowest price.
refer the matter to the Government and wait.
threaten the boat owners about a possible cancellation of the licence.

6. You are the officer-in-charge of a village administering distribution of vaccine in an isolated epidemic hit village, and you are left with only one vaccine. There is a requirement of that vaccine from the Gram Pradhan and also a poor villager. You are being pressurised by the Gram Pradhan to issue the vaccine to him. You would

initiate the procedure to expedite the next supply without issuing the vaccine to either.
arrange vaccine for the poor villager from the distributor of another area.
ask both to approach a doctor and get an input about the urgency.
arrange vaccine for the Gram Pradhan from the distributor of another area.

7. You have taken up a project to create night-shelters for homeless people during the winter season. Within a week of establishing the shelters, you have received complaints from the residents of the area about the increase in theft cases with a demand to remove the shelters. You would

ask them to lodge a written complaint in the police station.
assure residents of an enquiry into the matter.
ask residents to consider the humanitarian effort made.
continue with the project and ignore their complaint.

8. You, as an administrative authority, have been approached, by the daughter-in-law of an influential person regarding harassment by her in-laws on account of insufficient dowry. Her parents are not able to approach you because of social pressures. You would

call the in-laws for an explanation.
counsel the lady to adjust, given such a circumstance.
take action after her parents approach you.
ask her to lodge complaint with the police.