GS - Felt tougher than last year (which is the new benchmark).
For once my strategy has left me far away from the likely cut-off so i don't have to waste a month: attempted only 73 and mostly getting between 58 and 60 right as of now.
Taking the day off tomorrow to catch up on work and then get started!
1. Static, factual polity; felt straightforward even if answers were written in a lengthy manner.
2. Tough Econ (and I just submitted my Econ mphil!) - you had to really stop and think on the questions. So even if you got the questions eventually right, it would eat into time.
3. IR very current heavy, and the option choices didn't help at all. I had to sit and visualise the map + draw on World history to answer the turkey/Afghanistan questions, didn't even bother with Chad wala.
4. Environment a mixed bag - good if you memorised wetlands and stuff from 2020, bad if you skimmed or were hoping on answer options to save you. Pollution stuff was straightforward though!
5. Modern history RIP.
6. Ancient/mediaeval/current was just gross, and now Lucent etc will come back sigh. I have a feeling they'll scrap the Arthashastra question because of the content of it, but who knows.
7. Sci tech a saving grace, mostly applied stuff. But again - have to keep a calm mind while answering.
Csat:
Quant was tougher - lengthy if you don't know the tricks and then easy to make a small mistake.
Reasoning questions were easier but presentation of the answers was trickier, and also interspersed between tougher quant questions so it becomes tricky.
Verbal again - questions were easier in the sense that more answers were right in the passages. But the passages were lengthy, and it isn't always straightforward (especially when giving in the exam hall).
Attempting more than 50 is not easy for people who don't have a good mix of quant and verbal ability or haven't practiced.
Not just you. It was tougher under exam conditions. Without knowing the math tricks you can still get to the answers, but at the cost of time. That has an impact.
