UPSC Prelims 2018 GS Paper I Short Analysis

The UPSC civil services prelims exam was conducted on 3^rd June. Lakhs of candidates have taken the exam which consists of two objective-type papers namely, the General Studies I and General Studies II (also known as the CSAT).

The general opinion of students who took the UPSC 2018 prelims was that the paper was not along expected lines (but then the UPSC is predictably unpredictable!). For instance, polity featured the most number of questions in the last year’s prelims while this year, history had the maximum questions. Moreover, many questions were from the economy and environment section. That the UPSC doesn’t want candidates who are merely bookworms is evident when you take a look at the number of “applied” questions. Some students were of the opinion that many questions were indirect and not straight-forward particularly in the environment segment.

In the GS paper I, candidates need to score at least the minimum qualifying marks prescribed by the UPSC. In the GS paper II (CSAT), candidates need to score at least 33% which is 67 marks.

The following table gives the break-up of the questions subject-wise in the 2018 IAS Prelims:

Now, let us take a look at another set of figures. The following pie chart shows the distribution of questions as static, dynamic/current affairs and a mix of both.

We bring you another graph – one which shows the subject-wise distribution of questions as static, dynamic or a mix of both:

As evident from the above graph, history had the most number of static questions while the section of international relations had the most dynamic questions.

The UPSC will reveal the UPSC prelims results 2018 was announced on 15th July 2018. After that, the 2018 mains exam was be held in the month of October. The exam was spread over five days.

The UPSC has released its annual calendar for 2021. UPSC Calendar 2021 can be checked at the linked article.

Also read-

• UPSC 2019
• UPSC 2020