The UPSC Civil Services Exam has always a few surprises up its sleeve. This article talks about the trend analysis in polity in the UPSC prelims exam.
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Polity Trends in UPSC
A look at the past five years UPSC prelims GS I question papers reveals that the number of questions on polity has been on the wane. But come 2017 and the number shot up to 23 from a mere 7 in 2016. This only goes to show that you cannot afford to skip any section which is considered important. The following table reveals an interesting picture.
| Year | Number of Polity Questions |
| 2013 | 18 |
| 2014 | 11 |
| 2015 | 12 |
| 2016 | 6 |
| 2017 | 22 |
| 2018 | 13 |
| 2019 | 13 |
| 2020 | 15 |
In fact, with 23 questions in 2017, polity is the section from which maximum questions have been asked so far!
A look at the questions would indicate that there are a few subsections which you must study no matter what. They are the first few chapters of standard polity textbooks like Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Parliament and the Executive.
Other not-to-be-missed topics are mechanism involved in passing of Bills, and any current affairs topics related to polity.
For a better understanding of the importance of each subtopic in polity, we give you a detailed break-up of the polity questions from GS Paper I of the UPSC Prelims from 2013 through 2016.
| Year | Topics | |||||
| Executive/Legislature | Ministries/Bodies | Local Bodies | Bills/Acts/Schemes | Basic Constitutional Features | Judiciary | |
| 2013 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | – |
| 2014 | 6 | 1 | – | – | 3 | 2 |
| 2015 | 5 | 1 | 1 | – | 6 | – |
| 2016 | 3 | – | 1 | 3 | – | |
The questions from polity in 2017 prelims were direct and mostly straightforward. Anyone who had studied the basics well could sail through it. In fact, owing to the large number of questions from this subject, anyone who had paid attention to polity would have done well in GS paper I. Constitution and governance were the key focus areas this year.
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