“डेमोनेटिज़शन, कर चोरों को मोड़ने और विधायी संशोधनों के माध्यम से उच्च दण्डात्मक दरों का भुगतान करने के लिए आय की राशि को जमा करने पर ध्यान केंद्रित कर रहा है।” विचारात्मक रूप से जांच करें।
Mains Marathon 2017 has started. Daily answer writing practice is very important. The key to prepare for Civil Services Examination 2017 is Reading Current Affairs on a daily basis and continuous answer writing practice. For Reading Current Affairs on a daily basis, we have Must Read Articles from Newspaper, The 9 PM Brief and Daily Editorials. For Answer writing practice, start answering in Mains Marathon 2017.
Read the Article below on how to start Answer-Writing Practice and avoid mistakes:
Answer writing
Answer writing is the main tool & practicing is the key for perfection in mains examination. The article below addresses some of the Unanswered Questions of every aspirant regarding Mains Answer writing.
How is it different from answering our university papers?
What should be done to score high?
How should we start as a beginner?
How to balance our approach in answers?
Lets see the above questions one by one.
How is it different from answering our graduation papers?
WORD LIMIT
In University theory papers one can write as much as he/she can. But in CSE-Mains, there is a fixed word limit and it is expected from you that you would not cross that limit. The trick is that in UPSC, You have to touch every aspect of the question and have to frame it within that limit. Though this will be difficult in the beginning good practice will help a lot.
QUALITY OF ANSWER
In university paper, both matter but in CSE -quantity is fixed and quality only rules.
DYNAMISM
In university exams questions are quite repetitive but in CSE ,No one knows.
MOTIVE OF THE EXAMINER
University is better of passing you and sending you out … less work load, better statistical image.Government is better of keeping you out … coz if you are not knowledgeable and you get through you turn into a long term liability
What should be done to score high?
Answers should be multifaceted.
Try and keep the introduction and conclusion very short.
Avoid reiteration of the similar thoughts
Use as many concepts as possible especially for your optional papers. For example:-While writing about top down model of globalization or modernization One can use Durkheims concepts of Anomie or Ogburn’s concept of Cultural Lag. Or say while answering a question on grassroots democracy, one can write about Ambedkar and Gandhi’s debate
Give as many examples as possible to support your view. Try to have a contemporary relevance to you answer.
Write in very simple English, Academic jargons is not appreciated by UPSC.
Your answers need to be more dynamic and holistic. As UPSC says “The candidates must give relevant, meaningful and succinct answers.
Write answers directly; do not beat around the bush. Some punctuation marks like this one (;) play a crucial role.
How should we start as a beginner?
As a beginner starting from point zero one can buy previous years question paper module and attempt some questions daily, moreover the questions from NCERT too will help.
Start writing answers as and when you study, don’t wait for the whole or even sufficient amount of syllabus to be finished.
Say you are studying polity and finished President, soon after, check previous years’ papers on this topic and try to answer as many as you wish, you could pick a single question that is the easiest for you and start answering on a piece of paper.You might not be able to answer questions that involve president and the prime minister as you wouldn’t have covered the latter yet. You can skip such questions for later.
How to balance our approach in answers?
For a balanced answer that too within the specified word limit -you first need a reasonable level of knowledge base.
First read and learn a topic. Attempt simple questions, Commit mistakes again and again while practising. Practice makes it perfect.
When a Question is asked to present your views try to give a generalist’s view. Sometimes you need not to give your suggestion, but you are expected to present existing facts in the present context. For e.g. Instead of writing ‘I feel’,it is better to write ‘it is felt….’.
If they are asking what innovation means, then a simple definition with one relevant example will be better rather than explaining it with lot of jargon/theory/models.
Also while writing for a particular paper do not think that you can write points from that particular syllabus only. Take a holistic view, broaden your outlook, Use relevant concepts/knowledge from other subjects also.
Communication skill, command over a language etc are known as SOFT Skills. A good vocabulary is needed to articulate your thought in a precise manner.
As promised, we bring to you the Weekly Winners for Mains Marathon 2017 🙂
We have seen active participation of ForumIAS members in the Mains Marathon 2017 Initiative. While coming up with the winners list, we have given priority to: consistency, answer quality and participation.
It was a difficult task for us. It was hard to choose the top contributors. Most of the members participated with zeal. We might not be perfect while coming up with the winners list. But, we have tried our best to come up with the deserving winners. We finally decided upon 5 winners.
As promised, we begin with Civil Services 2017 Preparation. And the key to preparing for Civil Services Examination 2017 will be based on following things:
Reading Current Affairs on a daily basis
Writing Answers Based on Current Events
Covering the GS Mains Syllabus holistically to some extent before Prelims
Attempting Daily Current Affairs Questions
Find all Mains Marathon Questions at the bottom/end of this page. We only need consistency from you 🙂 Kindly review each others answers, so that everyone improves
Reading Current Affairs on a daily basis
We already have two initiatives for covering Current Affairs on a daily basis:
The 9 PM Brief – The Only Current Affairs Digest You Ever Need – published at 9 PM
The Mains Marathon – Your Answer to Daily Answer Writing Practise that does not compromise on your existing preparation
The big problem we all are facing, that there are simply too many questions – a lot of them meaningless – around the Internet. You can either do those questions, or clear the Civil Services – but not both. At least that is what you said in the Survey.
And you wanted these things from us
Limited Number of Questions that can be actually done.
Some feedback on answers.
Mains Marathon Suggested Answers.
Plan for covering the static part – for those who want to do Self Study
We have tried to address some or all of these through our FREE initiatives. We also have a paid MGP Plan with Top Mentors and email and telephonic support, but we can only have a limited number of people join that, as we are small and cannot take up many people as of now.
Daily Questions on Mains Marathon
We will be posting Daily Questions for Mains Marathon in the first half of the day. About the questions:
They will be limited to 3 to 4 questions on a daily basis
You are expected to spend not more than 10 minutes on each question – in essence limiting your answer writing time to between 30-40 minutes
Links will be provided – which should be read and digested in another 30 -40 minutes. In essence, the exercise, even when done at a slow pace, should help you do a meaningful Answer Writing Practice in between 1 hour to 90 Minutes, but never more than that.
We will try to keep all questions meaningful and relevant to the examination
The questions posted on MM 2017 will cover the current affairs part of GS Paper 3, 2, 1 and anything that is relevant for GS – 4 too.