Writing answers that get you a rank

Anyone writing (or even preparing for) the mains exam would know that answer writing is easier said than done. As mentors, we have been seeing some issues emerge year after year in MGP papers written by aspirants.

Students struggle to complete their papers on time, and even when they do, often the quality of their answers is compromised.

The mains exam demands of us, in the words of the commission itself, “orderly, effective and exact expression, with due economy of words.” Achieving this through trial and error alone takes too many trials and leaves too much room for error.

What one needs is to see how it is done.

Sifting through thousands of pages of toppers’ copies would take forever. To save your (extremely valuable) time, we have done that handpicking for you.

Here are the best answers, arranged by topic and theme, written by officers who were once mains-writing students like you.

GS 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qqa7f4j5NhElnpxKZViLaDKT_BjQnjAg/view?usp=sharing

GS 3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FqfYFCpLr7j4snsEjPWnQkKpWuhxXutT/view?usp=sharing

Pay attention to the phrasing of the arguments, the structuring of paragraphs, and the examples and diagrams that add value. These are good answers, no doubt, but do more than admire them. Learn from the best, emulate, and then show us your answers to see if they have that “officer-like quality.”