The first level of the Civil Services Exam – Prelims is considered as the major hurdle in the entire process. Many candidates struggle to crack the Prelims stage because of the tricky nature of the questions asked in this stage.
The aspirants can know more about the updates regarding UPSC Prelims, its preparation from the linked article.
An Overview of UPSC Prelims
The Prelims stage is one of the three stages of the CSE Exam, and the first obstacle in the journey of the UPSC Exam. This stage has two papers, which are conducted in a single day and two shifts. Both the papers contain only the objective types of questions and an OMR sheet will be given to the candidates to fill in the answers. Unlike many other competitive exams, UPSC conducts the Civil Services exam in offline mode.
| UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern | |
| Paper I (General Studies) | 100 Questions – 200 marks (Merit marking) |
| Paper II (CSAT) | 80 Questions – 200 marks (Qualifying) |
The exam structure or the pattern is tabled below, and paper II is merely qualifying in nature and the aspirants need to achieve only 33% marks to qualify.
To know more about the CSAT Syllabus and Strategy, check the linked article.
However, Paper I of the UPSC Prelims has 100 questions and the aspirants have to attempt questions to achieve the cut-off marks set up by the UPSC every year. Depending on the difficulty level of the question paper and the competition level, the cut-off marks vary each year.
In general, the candidates are expected to aim for 140+ marks in the prelims to be in the safe zone.
Strategy to Crack UPSC Prelims in the first attempt
- Cover the entire syllabus – Don’t leave any subject out of choice. Even if there were no questions asked in a particular subject, don’t omit to revise or learning that subject.
- Expect the Unexpected – This is the trend followed by UPSC every year. In the 2021 prelims paper, 2-3 questions were asked from the sports section, which never happened in the last decade. Some year, more questions come from art & culture, the other year, environment questions were more. Therefore, the candidates have to be prepared for anything and everything in the exam hall.
- Analyse Previous year question papers – At least analyse past five-year question papers. Read the question with the options and compare it with the answer key. By doing this, the aspirants can understand the mindset of the UPSC question paper setter.
- Practice Mocks – Since the prelims level involves MCQ type of questions, practising a lot of mocks will help in making the candidates stronger analytically.
- Allocate time for CSAT – Even though it is enough to qualify in the CSAT (Paper II of the UPSC Prelims), few candidates miss out on this paper due to poor preparation and practice. Allocate sufficient time to practice CSAT questions at least one month before the exam.
To solve Sample Papers for CSAT, check the linked article.
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