Analysis of Last two years UPSC Prelims

Hello Friends, Today Im here to give an analysis view on Last 2 years UPSC Prelims i.e.; 2011 and 2012. We all thought UPSC is somewhat ahead of our thoughts but when paper came to us in 2011 we realized that it is far ahead of what we think about it. When notification for Prelim 2011 was out in December 2010, it made us astonished with a exclusively new syllabus and with a new trend of a common Aptitude Test. Firstly I got surprised seeing 100 ques in Paper I and 80 ques in Paper II in 2 hours each. Both the papers were of 200 marks each and with a one-third negative marking i.e.0.66 ve marks in Paper I and 0.83 ve marks in Paper II for each incorrect answer. Time of 2 hrs is quite sufficient to finish the exam if you well manage it.

PRELIMS 2011
Paper I After going through Paper I, I was thinking where are the questions from current affairs? Even a veteran IAS aspirant predicts a plenty questions from CA. There was only a single question from CA was of START TREATY and one question from Budget 2011. Second thing there were no. of questions from Environment and Ecology topic. Nearly 25 questions were on Bio-diversity, climate change, global warming related issues in Paper I. One could score well if he/she prepared this topic. But it doesnt mean that you should wholly rely on Environment topic to score well in paper I, may be next time you will be overwhelmed with questions on current affairs because UPSC is somewhat uncertain, no one can predict about it. So we cant ignore any subject or topic. Covering all the topics is main mantra to get success. The questions were lengthy in paper I, no. of questions was consisting 3-4 statements to answer which made a candidate in trouble. It was very difficult to choose a right answer as all statements or options were looking correct in the context of question. Paper II There were total 80 questions in paper II including last 8 questions of decision making without any negative marking giving reward to one who can take best decision in a right time. Mostly questions were passage based in paper II but not that too complex, one can easily answer those questions if he/she has a decent understanding of English.

There were some questions from Data Interpretation (4-5), Syllogism (6-7) and few questions from Mathematical Ability, Logical Reasoning and mathematical puzzle too.

Cut-Off Cut-off marks for Prelims 2011 was 195-205 marks out of 400 marks without any individual cut-offs.

PRELIMS 2012

Paper I Analysis In year 2012 prelims as we were predicting same pattern as in 2011 but Paper I in exam of 2012 was quite balanced. There were many questions on Environment related issues like in 2011 but there are questions from other topic in an equal manner. While 22 GK and Current Affairs based questions were asked, 66 questions were asked from the conventional topics like History, Polity, and Geography etc. continuing last years pattern UPSC asked around 11-12 questions on Environment, Ecology and Sustainable Development related issues.

Again the pattern of asking questions have been repeated, there were only 7 one-statement questions in paper I, Around 65 questions with All are correct option. All options seemed nearly correct in the context of questions that made a candidate in a fuzz to answer correctly. There was no elimination method worked. Paper was more tricky than difficult. We need to be more precise rather than knowing something about everything.

Paper II Analysis Once again a similar pattern came to us with more challenging attitude. This year also there were 8 questions on Decision-Making with no ve marking having almost all right kind of actions in options. Again it is beneficial for a good decision-maker. Now when we talk other questions in paper II we saw more no.of questions on passages than last year. Only 3 questions from mental ability and few questions on Syllogism type Logical Reasoning and there was question on DI this year. So we can say that Paper II was quite unbalanced this year with the monarchy of passages (Reading Comprehension).

Cut-Off Cut-off would have gone approximately 210-225 marks out of 400 this year (no individual cut-off).

Conclusion I can suggest you not to be selective about any topic. Cover as much as you can with all topics. Try to Know everything about any topic you are reading. Practice more and more for paper II and manage your time efficiently. Definitely youll succeed. All the best. Wish a Happy Learning!!

--Regards, Rekha S. EYK Team