Guys, Essay Paper is over. How was it?
People who've written mains earlier-
1. are optional papers evaluated on a different benchmark as compared to GS papers? To expect decent marks are we supposed to write A level answers throughout?
2. Again in optional, if it was a particularly difficult paper with certain vague questions, do the scores fall or is the marking done accordingly
People who've written mains earlier-
1. are optional papers evaluated on a different benchmark as compared to GS papers? To expect decent marks are we supposed to write A level answers throughout?
2. Again in optional, if it was a particularly difficult paper with certain vague questions, do the scores fall or is the marking done accordingly
It’s very difficult for anyone to answer these authoritatively even with previous Mains experience. It’s almost impossible for anyone write A level answers throughout in Optional and even more so in GS. The expectations wrt answers are higher in optional mainly because of greater predictability in questions & readymade scholarly content. If that changes, scores are bound to fall for everyone or maybe they’ll be normalised. The idea is those questions won’t make a great difference in my humble opinion. Baaki I am no authority at all. UPSC hi ultimate mallik hai
Gaitonde’s Den: https://forumias.com/post/detail/Gaitondes-Den-1727638216
People who've written mains earlier-
1. are optional papers evaluated on a different benchmark as compared to GS papers? To expect decent marks are we supposed to write A level answers throughout?
2. Again in optional, if it was a particularly difficult paper with certain vague questions, do the scores fall or is the marking done accordingly
they probably are bit flexible in optional. you can write side stuff but not in gs
Only for GSAbove Average Answer (50% marks)Average (40%)Below Average (30%)Wrong interpretation of question (0)Most of the answers generally fall in Average and Below average category.Above Average answer should have proper structure, precise points, relevant examples and most importantly meet the exact demand of the question.
And what do people with humanities optional do for the same?
I mean marks awarded are definitely very elastic. For instance, people can get 210-310 in psir/sociology. A person getting more than 280 must be getting 60% marks in many questions.
Does anybody have any idea on how to rate their performance in humanities optional paper (like in GS one can take a conservative estimate)?
@Ant_Man I was confused. "mid 19th century", and "territories" made me interpret it as a World History question, but the word "administrative", "reorganisation" (exact word in GS1 syllabus) and "ongoing process" make a case for Modern history too.I attempted it as a world history question though.
I could recall a pyq spectre of fragmented polity in 18th century india . that must have sub consciously influenced me to limit my answer to indian history. I am sure many aspirants who wrote pyq would be influenced that way without even recalling this phrase spectre of......
but now i realise that they never specifically mentioned india this time. that opens up a hundred thousand such reorganisations and political transformations across the world. but that would also make the question very complex and diverse, requiring a few hundred pages to do complete justice instead of 3 pages.
nevertheless I am beyond doubt that it was a world history question given the lack of specific mention of India. the unification of italy and Germany also started after midnineteeth century so...
Jajantaram Mamantaram