Civil Services Mains 2020 Results: In or Out ? Way ahead, gratitude and Pain

Hi All, 

After spending some good time in this preparation-few things have become clear to me. This is my perspective based on my experiences and observation. Some of you may agree with some and while some may not. It is only an attempt on my end to soothe fellowmen who couldnot clear mains.

Firstly, the exam has some inherent design flaws and some other procedural issues. 

Design Flaws:

1. Optional subject: Any exam is supposed to test 'n' candidates on a common platform and reward one who performs the best. When we are trying to assess who is the greatest, say Federer or Jordan or Tendulkar, we are entering into a different territory altogether. Forget different sports, even comparing two greats in one sport is itself not a fair one. How can they assess difficulty among different papers(though UPSC tries to sort this through scaling factor) and quantify the marks even when mode of preparation/expectations for each paper is different. Its definitely not on fair terms.

2. Subjectivity involved: Its true that not only UPSC, we have written several subjective papers throughout our career. But what bothers me here is: in Class X or XI, uniformity in paper correction is brought in through a standard key/expectation. So examiner looks at answers, if he finds match between answers between the key and what someone has written, they award marks and if not, they dont. One doesnt know what is the criterion in UPSC and they hardly bother to tell this. All one has to do is: Write the papers and put in a black box. Nobody knows what happens inside, on what basis your answers are judged, who is judging and all. Just write and wait for marks. This absence of standard criteria can mean a bitter truth-If two people have written the same answer ditto, they can still get different marks as evaluators may be looking at different things according to their own perspective

3. Inflating marks of one paper and suppressing another.: This we have seen time and again, where average scores across a paper, say ethics are high for an year but it is suppressed the following year. I understand UPSC does this inorder to prevent a pattern emerging that so and so GS-3 is highscoring etc. and things like that. But what if UPSC decides to inflate marks in one paper where one didnot write well. He stands to lose out that year.

4. Lifecycle of the exam: So literally everybody is in preparation mode throughout the year. This results in fatigue and makes maintaining consistency a difficult thing.

Procedural issues

1. Prelims key and marks: Releasing marks after entire process is over, is nonsense of highest order. If UPSC doesnt release the key right after exam, it shows they dont have confidence in their own key. That may also imply that, they are asking ambiguous questions as well. Its just because they dont have confidence in their key, they fear some may go to court and stall the process

2. Delay in issuing mains marks: This is super important for one to make any course correction. So if this year marks are expected after Prelims exam, where is the scope for one to identify the issues in one's approach. Where is the scope for one to change his optional if he feels so? UPSC projects this as a tactic to avoid court cases and all but this is simply a procedural issue, something like a non-tariff barriers. Its a barrier but a supplementary one, not the core barrier!

3. Added to all this circus, toppers after clearing the exam, instead of putting out the real picture, try to glorify their efforts. Its not fair to blame all toppers but how can aspirants separate the wheat from the chaff? Even if they lay out their strategy in honest terms, there is no guarantee that they themselves will clear the next time using the same strategy

Although we cannot expect everything be according to our wish: atleast the subjectivty factor I stated is a huge troublemaker. 

So my conclusions are:

1. This exam involves large elements of luck. It can be in the form of: difficulty in your optional, which evaluator is checking your copy, what he may like or doesnt like, if the guy in front of you has written a better or worst paper etc. Not to speak about the subjective things in Interview. So dont blame yourself too much if you haven't gotten the expected result. 

2. BUT and this is aBIG BUT.We can talk about Luck aspectonlyafter one gives his/her best performance in the exam. Deep inside we definitely know where we have done well and where gaps are to be filled still. If somebody really feels they couldnt have done any better, I dont think one has to blame themselves. This brings me to the next point

3. Remembering the spirit of Stoicism: We have control over only few things and not many in life, unfortunately. We can only control our emotions, our efforts but not the result and what UPSC and others do........Even if after putting best efforts, exam doesnt reward you, one can only say that UPSC has failed to onboard a good candidate 😀

On a side note,My two cents on what can be done by UPSC(I know they dont hear bt just a thought):

1. Make ethics paper a qualifying one just like language papers rather than deciding fate of aspirants  based on hypothetical scenarios

2. Optionals can be replaced with a paper which deals with day to day activities and procedures of the govt. I think Coaching industry is largely thriving because of optional itself and this can reduce burden on aspirants.

3. Prelims and Mains marks out by the same day results are declared(of not qualified ones so they have a chance to rectify their mistakes)

4. Interview selected candidates be given a weightage atleast in other exams, otherwise its a colossal wastage of time and talent.

5. If they cant do any of these, atleast release criterion of awarding marks or answer sheets of those scoring highest marks in papers.

PS: I dont want to put UPSC completely in a negative shade. They are still a highly professional body in terms of issuing schedule etc unlike SSC. Other things like Essay paper is one good way of testing one's creativity, wholeness of Syllabus etc. are quite appreciable in my opinion.

Although there are other PSC which have subjective elements, I dont think they dont behave as erratic as UPSC does when considering things on a whole and so my reasoning on what they can do to alleviate our suffering

It wouldn't be wise to comment upon strategy without seeing the marks. 

In general, addressing the core demand and writing succintly across all papers helped. I did not attempt to write more to fill pages. I guess that's what is needed to score above average marks.

Suggestion required from forum community friends..

This year i have only filled indian forest service in cse 2021..with foresrty and geology.I am quite confident of clearing pre for IFS(scored around 150 in cse 2020)..I wanted to know Is 5 months will be sufficient to manage 2 optional from scratch? In 2020 i skipped forest mains due to personal reason( marriage)..plz suggest something..

or is it possible for me to clear epfo in 45 days considering i have good command over GS....

+1

Would request@AzadHindFauz and@whatonly as well as others  to elaborate on psir prep

@upender @Rewl1 

Don’t have much I can say for sure this point, but I’m adding a comment on the PSIR thread.

https://forumias.com/post/detail/PSIR-Strategy-resources-discussion-1601965839?page=18#comment_61676

No idea about forestry, but clearing epfo in 45 days needs more than just upsc gs. accountancy, industrial relations code , social Security etc and also gs question asked here have little different touch, so fully focussed 45 days will be required to clear it assuming you have nice command over gs and basic aptitude. 

Paper from 2017 onwards have not a clear pattern, every year prelims pattern is changing and hence the age old strategy of high accuracy and limited attempts has become risky, first of all a broad knowledge base of ncerts and basic books and current affairs is must with multiple revisions (2-3) times and second stage of solving mocks where not only your knowledge base is increasing but also paper solving skills like educated guess ( most important thing post 2017 ) and checking accuracy wrt subjects is must required. Of the two, thirdly that worked for me as I failed twice in pre was keeping calm during exam, exam must be given in calm and light mood, too much tension spoils the game and also increase your attempts , mark  minimum 90+ questions ( but not to be rigid about number of questions, it may decrease as per paper and conscience)  . Rest enjoy the game of luck 🤞. 

@sunnykumarroy658377 kindly share your prelims strategy. It would benefit all of us immensely. 

Last year I was in a similar situtation with no idea what to do.Abhi pata nahi mere marks nahi aaye hain but 1 thing I realized is that people focus excessively on tests and ans writing.What I believe actually helps is not how many tests u write(I have'nt written even a single prelims test and still managed to clear pre both times,this time wrote 1 optional tests and 0 gs tests-but read topper copies) but how many times 1 has revised before exams.Last year I could'nt do well not because of tests but because of failure to recall in exam due to lack of revision.

I believe the open secret is to revise entire gs course in the last 1 month before exam which no topper tells,no coaching tells nobody tells.I read saurabh dixit article on forum and l believe his 1 line sums up the entire prep-If u have'nt read anything tests and ans writing can't save one.Last year also I focused only on revising optional and scored decent there despite writing 0 tests.

Yeh koi kyun nahi bolta hai ki pura course 3 baar revise karo pre and mains ke beech main jahan last revision last 1 month mein hona chahiye.Agar kuch mugged up hai to apne aap jaldi recall hoga exam mein aur paper pura hoga.

I have written 2 mains and even secured interview call this time but I still can't figure out how ans writing helps.If one has internalised something,know how to write intro and conclu,has mugged up data and articles and sdg and arc and punchi one will write that in exam.How will ans writing change anything.It is beyond me.Isliye I to believe mug up 4-5 times entire syllabus and one can write things in exam with decent content and even finish paper.

Baaki abhi marks to nahi aaye hain.Isliye I don't know how much of it is true.Maybe all of it is false and I may be shooting in dark.But this is the change I made between these 2 attempts and result changed to positive.I believe ans writing is a hoax created by coaching to earn money.Nobody knows who check the copies,vision test questions are nowhere close to upsc questions.Agar test series ke question repeat ho jab to fayda ho,wo to hota nahi hai.Vision puchta hai ways to save water,upsc specifically puchti hai storage.How does ans writing helps.Only if 1 has issue in finishing papers 1 should go for tests else one should focus solely on finishin course and mugging it up 4-5 times.

If one has'nt revised laxmikanth 5 days before gs 2 one will not be able to recall articles and judgements.If I have'nt read nolan(which I did'nt last year)I can't figure out how writing tests could help.

All of this is my guess.Baaki aage dekho marks kitne aate hain aur kya hota hai.Best of luck to all of us.Hospital se aane ke baad pehla kaam yahi kiya hai.Best of luck again

Optional mein bhi I don't get why people say take coaching,write tests.These are'nt nasa exams.If I have read entire ba and ma ignou books,read nitin sangwan,read a topper notes,read haralambous,green fat book,ar desai book,yogendra singh book,tusharanu notes.I don't understand how will coaching help ya ans writing help.Marx ki theory sab jagah same hai pata nahi coaching ya ans writing kya karegi.If one has revised marx theory 5-6 times one will write it in exam pata nahi ans writing aur tests kya karenge.

Baaki to marks hi batayenge yeh kitna sahi hai

I concur with you 200%.

I wrote just 4 FLTs in the past year (one each for GS). Focussed on recalling more and more within 7-8 minutes. This would happen only when we've revised the sources umpteen times. 

Once you get the idea of how to write, the goal of writing tests gets fulfilled. Revision follows next. It's with revision the answer improves and not by writing tests after tests. 

I recall 1 analogy of rishab pant and sehwag.

Once sehwag said to harsha bhogle,aap log batting ko bahut complicate kar dete ho.His mantra was to see the ball and hit it,no frontfoot,no still head.Nothing.

When rishab pant was failing 6 month back,his coach told him not to focus on any fancy advise being given by experts and academies.He only told him 1 thing,get your bat swing back,see the ball and hit it with as much power as possible.

I think same thing goes here,mug the course,internalise it and vomit in exam after understanding.No fancy diagrams(other than geography),no coaching notes,no ans writing,no hub and spoke no tests.Test is revision of entire course in the last 1 month before exam be it pre or mains

Baaki to marks hi batayenge yeh kitna sahi hai

Yes please. Also, how did you incorporate current affairs in answers especially for paper 2?