Mains 2019 Preparation and Discussion Thread

@zombielandIn rajasthan,obc ppl are not eligible for general seats... they r strictly considered only for obc.
But in other exams,normally the cutoff is initially decided meritwise....so if an sc candidate is clearing the general category cutoff thn he will be considered in general category. In this manner all the general category seats are filled. Only after that,the sc category seats will be filled....thus in any case general category cutoff will be highest.
If strict separation will be followed then the result will be disastrous for ews category candidates as the definition of ews is very wide and almost 80-85% population becomes eligible for it but the seats r jst 10% for them. This is however not the case as general seats r filled first and only after that ews will be filled and if ews category ppl qualify in gen cat cutoff then they will be considered general thereby the cutoff for ews will always be less than general

@Shubzthere can be a slight increase in cutoffs for sc,st,obc bcuz previously they were eligible for 50% general seats as well but now bcuz of ews they will be eligible fr only 40% general seats

@Shubzwat u r saying is good for one stage exam but not in multi-stage exam.
Take the case of Tina David. She cleared prelims under SC category but secured rank1. She is still considered as SC candidate.

In case of EWS, they r general category students only (8lakh criteria is too high to consider them as poor). There is not much difference between ews and general category students.

In prelims a relaxation of 1 marks is a big boost. These ews candidates who will benefit from this relaxation will compete with general category students n may score more than them. Still they will be considered as reserved category students. So there is no guarantee that cutoff of general will b always more than reserved ones

@Shubzsee the cutoffs of engineering services exam wo bhi upsc ka he hai,
the thing is reservation is for last stage, phle se obc ko obc mein consider nhi kia to agar last mein usne obc se cadre le lia to last obc ko allocation nhi milegi n so on
due to demography of upsc cse abhi tak kam ata h cutoff, aage ka sure nhi ho skte ho,
kbhi2 cycle esa ata hai ki obc ki seats thodi kam hoti h total proportion se and agar kisi k marks gen se uper h usko obc mein he count krte h till last allocation ,han agar cadre etc k baad b gen ki mil rhi tab gen ki allot krnge n picche wali seat ko extended merit list m include krdnge, thats why hamesga vacncies se kam final shortlist hote h, wo difference utna hai jotna obc/sc/st gen cutoff se uper hote h

@ajit_kdRajasthan pcs is an example....they restricted obc candidates to 26% reserved seats only and the cutoff for obc went way ahead of general.....i'm not sure of the internal asjustments they make in a multi staged exam but for sure general category seats are considered as open for all in each stage and filled first....otherwise ab tak atleast ek baar toh upsc ke exms me obc ka cutoff general cat ke upar jana chahiye tha considering their huge population and the fact that they are almost equally competitive like the general category

@Shubzbut for seat allotment post final result why would a candidate with rank 101 opt for general when he would be getting ias in ews but not in General category.. so there are chances that people with opt for ews(in prelims too) which pushes ews cut-off higher than UR in multistage exam

@ajit_kdi agree.. moreover in prelims since 90% of general candidates opted for ews with only 10% seats.. chances are high that 90% ppl competing for 10% seats would have higher cutoff than 100% general candidates fighting for 40%.

@pra7009055

Bro, how useful were those 32 vision tests you read for mains ?

Koi question aaya unmein se ?

1. ESE(Mech) for OBC cut off was higher than Gen last year.
2. EWS can't go to the level of SC/ST as the candidates falling under it are erstwhile Gen candidates only & many will score good(myself getting 105-110 in pre).
3. Exams were EWS cut off went too low are regional exams were many states did not issue the certificates(ex- an exam in Telangana)
4. In All India level exams, EWS cut off is between Gen & OBC, almost equal to Gen(check SBI PO final results).

PS- secretly hoping EWS cut off to go low
PPS- personally against this reservn, but since the govt, in it's wisdom, has come up with it, so will take benefit of it( also secretly hoping for SC to strike it down as wont be eligible next year)

@zombielandHypothetically it can happen, but reality me hardly 4-5 hi SC honge in top 100. When SC will start scoring more than general overall to push cutoff for them higher than gen, tab India me sach me discrimination over ho chuka hoga and the reservation won't be required.

@ranahere999Thats what i am telling....jab tak uske marks itne hai ki vo general category me qualify ho raha hai he will be considered as a general category student. Now coming to the point that 101 rank pr he wont get ias in gen cat but would get ias in ews....this is when ews will come in picture fr him as he is not getting ias in general cat....
Restricting ews ppl in 10% seats and making them ineligible for the remaining 40% goes against the philosophy of reservation. Agar aisa hai toh sbse zyada fayda unreserved categ ko hoga as only 15-20% population will be left in the remaining 40% seats iska mtlb sbse kam cutoff general ka jana chahiye...but this is not the case.... reservation policy states that unreserved seats r oprn for all...thats the reason why general categ cutoff is always the highest

Rajasthan hc quashed the merit list where obc cut off went higher....it ordered that even in multistaged exam if a candidate isn't qualifying as general in mains ( even clearing as general in prelims) he will be given reserved seat if he is a reserved candidate

Recently in Rajasthan Assistant Engg Prelims
Cutoff were as follows
ST- 121
OBC- 115
Gen- 101
SC- 49
All candidates of st and obc were declared qualified by the High Court stating that, reserved cat. cutoff cannot be higher than Gen. This happened for prelims result. Total no. candidates eligible to write mains were increased so that Gen cat. seats are not affected.

@Shubz
U r right...
obc cut off may increase.. these hindu article also explains this...https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/10-quota-faces-several-legal-and-political-challenges/article25943750.ece

And

www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is-there-a-problem-with-the-10-quota/article26785615.ece

@abhishek_p
Yes, this happens. In upsc capf 2014 too, obc cut off was higher than general.

The main reason is age relaxation provided to obc, sc and st candidates. There is almost 7-10 years age relaxation to SC and 3-4 years for obc. And those who claimed age relaxation will not be considered in general merit list but rather only for their reservation category list..

But, since EWS donot have benefit of age relaxation anywhere, their cut off will be lower than general in any case, be it the difference of 1 mark.

N.B. - This is my humble submission as per my information. Please donot bombard me for any misinterpretation.

@Nalandathats why there was an uproar in the opposition when the ews bill was passed as it restricted access for sc,st,obc to jst 40% unreserved seats instead of 50%

@zombieland
Yes. due to multi stage it can happen because they r no longer general candidate.

@Shubz
No. no affect on other category, they are still getting their share say 27%. But their will be less chance of reserved category like obc to quality as general as now only 40% general seat would be available for them. This would be d impact. No impact on reserved category cut off.

@RavsNo question as such. It just gave me hangs on practice of how to deal with questions. Some questions like pds, food processing, USA, Myanmar etc were though linked to some extent from mains 365.

@pra7009055i am stunned to see how vision guys missed UNESCO, UAPA and a few other important topics.

Those who depend hugely on vision magazines (including me) are at a disadvantage this time.