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Was going through some old threads on the community page where people had shared their mains marksheets and so many of them seemed discontent with their marks not because they lacked preparation rather, they felt they've gotten much less than what they deserve (especially in GS papers), Ik coaching papers mein aur actual marking mein thodi disparity hoti hai but itni significant, there has to be some explanation for this?@GaneshGaitonde @tedmosby @Neyawn and anyone who has appeared for mains in the past and shares a similar feeling, your thoughts?
I do not think any mains appearing student with more than one attempt expects a correlation with test series marks.
What you should look for if you are able to score among top scores.
Treat like 5 years upsc gs papers as 5 test papers of upsc coaching.
Every year marking pattern will be different. In past years people are getting 90s in gs paper 3. And everyone is getting 120+ in gs 4.
That is marking range of that year. It keeps changing. Upsc may scale up some papers or may have a strict marking in some papers. So a 105 score in gs 3 is an exceptional score ( which maybe 1-2 people may have or none may have ). A 105 score in GS4 is a poor score.
Similarly for prelims, some years paper will be tough and cut off may be 77. Immediately next year it will be 92. Someone expecting that I have got 92 in test series means I will get so much is coming from a banking / ssc thought process. There is much more subjectivity there.
Anyone with two mains realises that.
The disparity in score will happen between multiple attempts in upsc itself, leave alone test series.
So of you have score 135 in essay in one year does not mean you will get that much or more next year. It will depend not only on your essay that year, but overall marking in essay that year.
Look for percentile as a better measure of your performance. Both in test series and in upsc.
If you have got 95 in gs3 in last mains, you are not poor. A similar score in gs 4 means you are not even in game.
@GaneshGaitonde @Neyawn yes sir I've read about this scaling thing a lot. Actually I was pretty curious since I stumbled upon a reddit postwhere a guy predicted his mains marks (days/weeks before the final results were to come) - he expected that his essay score would be amongst the top 10 in the country and he went on to score 147(didn't make it to final list tho)!! Assuming that he did not make any edits to his post later, its pretty crazy to near that degree of objectivity (I can provide the link to that post if you want). Moreover, i've met a friend who's appeared for 2 consecutive interviews - again, there has to be some standard operating procedure, given the fact they're able to mechanically clear the mains. Full disclosure -I've never appeared for mains so I don't really feel that I am positioned to pass a judgement (that too an armchair analysis) - so please excuse me for any comment of mine that smells of ignorance.
@tedmosby I've been following you since your mains 2023 results post, you've had quite a love-hate relationship with Maths optional - do you really feel that efforts put especially in the optional may not always reciprocate in the form of marks? I mean I understand your PYQ issue but, is this the magnitude of impact PYQs can have in case of optional (I have Sociology optional - yes, I know PYQs are a sine qua non, Have I committed myself to doing PYQs - Not yet, done the reading + revision + note making of Paper 1 tho) I was wondering if I could proceed to join a test series or should i stick to solving PYQs (i have read the PYQs multiple times (not internalized), joining test series, getting proper evaluation adds accountability and thoda serotonin boost bhi milta (not so much in the case of PYQs) On a side note, how did you prepare Gs2 and with the benefit of hindsight do you feel that you could've performed/revised/written better in case of the GS papers?
Contrary to thePre-Covid years, aajkal there is so much noise ki how UPSC is so unpredictable/unfair and how it is a game of luck and how the aspirants are affected disproportionately by getting stuck in this cycle (even I plead guilty of this) But, ever since I started my preparation back in 2021, this number has only increased - so much so that it has created a hysteria which in turn has created a market (especially on YT), these UPSC Quacks are cashing on this hysteria, almost entirely echoing the sentiment (if the market says UPSC is pure luck they say the same, if the market says coaching mocks are useless they say the same and so on..) - creating a positive feedback loop(have a look at the podcasts these influencers attend - matlab nobody is ready to give their unfiltered opinion, sirf market-conditioned opinion). How to deal with this madness, I never let this negativity come to me but i think, subconsciously it may be stopping me from putting in my best efforts? Even some people I know who are extremely capable of clearing this exam left the process midway after some initial setbacks (acknowledging the significance of mental health) - there are more and more people falling in for this negativity, with a large chunk of people with a deteriorating mental health - that's criminal, no one should deal with this, especially because of something said by someone on youtube. I am not encouraging reels motivation wala josh but, optimism and the child-like positivity required for this exam should be there (not to confuse this with delusion). Idk what led to this, but this has to change.
PS: Sorry, if I unintentionally offended anyone, that was never the objective of the post, really wanted to pen down my thoughts (incoherent but important) - sorry i digressed from the initial query,@GaneshGaitonde @tedmosby @Neyawn rightly addressed my queries, tho some I'll only learn with my own experience xp
