How to Solve UPSC Prelims Practice Question Papers?

The UPSC has released the notification for Civil Services Exam 2023. Preparation for the IAS prelims 2023 should be in the last stages now and it is a good time for candidates to revise UPSC Study Material and practice using Prelims Practice Question Papers.

The Prelims exam for UPSC 2023 is scheduled to be held on 28th May 2023, which gives candidates ample time to focus on their revision and plug any gaps in preparation. In this article we bring you suggestions on How to Solve UPSC Prelims Practice Question Papers.

Download UPSC Previous Year’s Question Papers Here

UPSC 2023 Civil Services IAS Prelims Exam: What to do?

Given the qualifying nature of the prelims papers and the high competition for the IAS Exam, candidates need to focus on two main areas for the Prelims Exam:

1. What to Prepare for IAS Prelims 2023?
2. How to solve UPSC IAS Prelims Practice/Mock Question Papers?

What to prepare for IAS Prelims 2023?

Focus should shift to basic study material like NCERT Books for UPSC and they should be covered systematically at least once. This is the most conventional and stress free approach.

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Candidates should focus on the following areas:

• Read the Union Budget, Economic Survey of India and Current Affairs Notes for UPSC thoroughly. These have been important in the UPSC Exam in the last few years and are expected to be important in UPSC 2023 given the nature of the job of IAS Officers.
• Read Daily News and Analysis for coverage of ongoing Current Events for IAS and stay updated so that any last minute additions to the UPSC Prelims paper does not come as a surprise.
• Brush up on your quantitative aptitude for CSAT paper by learning to use shortcut methods for solving aptitude questions.

List of Books for IAS Prelims exam

For candidates who are certain about preparing on their own, it is recommended to solve daily and weekly tests like our Current Affairs Quiz to boost their preparation.

How to solve UPSC IAS Prelims Practice/Mock Question Papers?

The change in the UPSC Exam Pattern in 2016 made the prelims exam even more dynamic that it already was. Due to this, it is difficult to attempt all questions with 100 percent certainty. The UPSC Civil Services Prelims practice or mock papers can be solved in two methods and this will help you while solving the actual UPSC prelims question paper.

If candidates are not well prepared, it puts them in the position of having to take calculated risks. To avoid such situations, here are a few tips to help candidates solve IAS Prelims papers easily:

First method

You know the answer

Know your subject well. This means doing comprehensive revision so that you can answer more questions with certainty.

• Read the questions and solve them in the order given below:
• Tick the questions on the question paper for which you are 100% sure about the answer.
• Questions for which you are reasonably sure about the answer, circle them.
• Questions for which you do not know the answer, leave them.
• Now count the number of questions you have ticked.

If you know the answer to enough number of questions that will get you beyond the cut-off, then you need not take the risk of answering the rest of the questions.

Aspirants interested to appear for UPSC 2023 can go through the following links to prepare for their exams even better-

Second Method

You know which is not the answer and that will indirectly lead you to the answer.

Based on your self-evaluation, if you think you have not reached anywhere near the cutoff, you would need to solve more questions to get nearer to the UPSC cutoff marks. For this the following steps may be useful.

If you feel the number of attempts in answering the questions is less, then this situation calls for taking a calculated risk.

• Choose the questions that you had circled and were reasonably sure of the answer, read the question thoroughly and the options and see whether you can eliminate one or more options and mark the answer of which you are confident about from the left out options.
• Try the same for the rest of the circled questions and evaluate again. This calculated risk will lead you to scoring above the cut off. As for the rest of the questions for which you don’t know the answer, it is advised not to take any risk to avoid negative marking.

Being confident and positive while preparing for the UPSC exam will help as this will allow you to analyse your strong and weak areas and help you refocus your efforts. This will make you a certain success in the IAS exam.

IAS aspirants should head to our Comprehensive News Analysis section for coverage of current affairs.

To read more on UPSC Preparation, please visit the following links: