[ Official ] How was the Prelims 2021 paper?

Hi everyone!  After reading all your comments I see so many of you leaving or thinking of leaving something your prepared for years and something you loved with all your siddhat and the fault is not yours. Yesterday's paper was a exam of elimination and not of selection. CSAT particularly I believe has become a exam which selects only the elite among the masses. My centre was in TN, I saw many people who had backgrounds of not from these convent and other schools, having issues with english. The kind of passages which were given I was sure this is a exam of elimination. 

I was utterly disappointed after the paper. Questions like sports awards? So many random science and tech questions? Why UPSC why? No questions on buddha, seas ? There was a complete change of pattern. Random medieval India question. Who so ever says we could have done well in calm conditions, I agree we could have , but when an unexpected question paper comes in front of us , most of us become a little hesitant in guessing answers, I was hesitant in most of them - I am scoring somewhere b/w 85-95 and I don't think I would be able to clear and one of the reasons I was sad because I did not go with my gut for some questions whose answer was actually correct. But then it was not my fault, it was exam situation and I could make limited guesses which I did and I just have to move on with it. 

UPSC has become unpredictable and lowered its standards. Its right to move on , not entirely though, I would be giving other exams, picking up jobs and then side by side prepare. Gone are the days when result was proportional to the hard work. 

@LetsGetThisBread I was really effected with what you have said to me! I really hope you clear, you have given so many years and you really deserves this girl. Mine was first attempt, and I still have lots of energy in me so will keep working hard. 

And to everyone who is calling it quits , right decision to move on but if any way you feel you might regret it later, then I would humbly suggest giving exam side by side, because now I think you don't need that dedicated prep considering the randomness rather you need some good observation skills ( cooker question , mosquito repellant ) and of course god's luck! 

All the very best everyone :)

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I personally feel upsc should reduce weightage of CSAt to 100 marks and count the marks for qualification. This way they will have the leeway to keep both the papers less random. Randomness of prelim is a very unsettling thing, entire year preparation can go waste for not knowing some random fact. 

hello all. ive a very weird doubt. I'd be great if someone could share their thoughts on it:

after the paper got over, i have ticked marked some questions on the questions on the right side and not the left side and in some others in which i've done my brainstorimg and i have eliminated an option and reached at the solution but didnt mark the questions.

This is contrary to what I normally do. ie mark a question on the left withthe option.

However in both these types of questions i CLEARLY REMEMBER having solved them. Logic dictates that i for sure wouldhave marked them too. But there is an unnecesary doubt since yesterday about these questions as to whether ive marked this or not. I think is a trick my mind is playing on myself. I did the paper in 3 rounds, so its a good possibility that ive marked those questions. but again its my mind raising these questions.

plz someone tell that does this happen to anyone else too. i.e basically remembering having solved a questions but raising a doubt later on because on the question paper, it doesnt look like that now.

Answer for Definition of State is B because the option A defines Sovereign State and not only "state". A state can be sovereign or non sovereign. For copper smelters it must be D, because workers are exposed to lethal doze of CO sometimes and statement says "may release", for mosses and lichens, it is both mosses and lichens because mosses can grow on bare rocks you can check on internet. Other questions too differe among answer keys but I am not sure of answers. Further, for pressure cooker too D seems correct.

Exactly. I hadn’t seriously prepared since Mains 2020, and I feel I might have cleared prelims. I might not have also, but I would have definitely come close. Paper was random, not hard. That’s worse than it being hard. When it’s random, most of your focused preparation goes for a toss. Your selection often depends on the off chance that you had read something somewhere at some time in the past, distribution pattern of questions from various subjects, or in many cases, on sheer dumb luck.

Especially when it’s a small sample size of 100 questions, 25-30 of which almost all serious candidates will get right, and roughly 35-40 of which most candidates would know very little about at the time of the exam (even though they would vehemently try to prove their reasoned answer correct later), it will just leave a rank list of thousands of students near the border. And any of them could have cleared prelims on their day. And vice versa. Quite cruel. 

If you’ve given over a year and a half to this, I would strongly urge you to find a job. It is hard work, persistence and all that jazz that goes along with it. But, if the sun doesn’t shine on you, it simply doesn’t shine on you. And there’s not always a lot you can do about it. That is the truth, harsh as it is. 

Behind the paywall, can you share the point you wanted to convey? 

Which key is feeling most reliable one so far?

If I had stopped studying a month earlier, toh bhi same marks aate. 

Lost 2 questions to mis-reading. RBI governor wale mein didn’t read second statement said “constitution” and suba-pargana wale me descending kardiya. Ah. 😑 Upar se CSAT.