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[ Official ] How was the Prelims 2021 paper?

I feel sorry for the people who do not learn from their mistakes. If there is one thing worse than coaching institutes, it has to multi level marketing. It is the greatest scam ever not only for those spend money for materials, test series and what not, but also for those who download this for free somewhere and think they are gaining something. Tomorrow you will see institutes post an analysis about how their notes has helped aspirants. They way they try to link their articles and compilations to the question paper will make newbies watch those videos/text in awe. Veterans would know that these people are scam artists. UPSC tries it level best to make you understand this year after year. Whatever tips and strategies become famous and they will counter it. Ignore statements with words like "only, no other, always" and you will come out in flying colours or so goes the popular wisdom. It was all over the YouTube last week, I kid you not. What did you see in the exam? No sentences, sentences with these words which are correct. I know exactly why Dronavapa as a word was there in 2020. And true to form, they asked Mitakshara and Dayabhaga this time. In Lakshmikant the 1919 act mentions only sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo Indians and Europeans. I am not going to give a full explanation of that, it is for you to put the jigsaw puzzle together. UPSC hates guides. Your Lakshmikanth's and Ramesh Singh's are just that. Anything with the title "For Civil Services" is infinitely worse than academic book in the current scenario. The examiner wants you to be well read. You can't really read Chetan Bagat and call your self a reader, right? Another famous "attend many questions especially if you eliminate two options". Doesn't work from 2020 onwards. Here is the deal, nobody is supposed to prepare without a job. Those who prepare should prepare as if the exam is in 10 days for a whole year. NCERT is useful but now, going beyond NCERT is in fashion. UPSC wants you to attend as little questions as possible. Both in GS and CSAT. You cannot cram the whole of internet for one year. Heck, Global Ocean Commission is defunct. Coaching compilations do more harm than good and UPSC wants you to ignore these questions. They want you to attend 60 questions with 95% accuracy. Imagine the level you have to be in. As for CSAT, at one point they made it qualifying to " make it fair for the rural aspirants". Yeah, all the rural folks are capable of those passages and as for math, they have to be good, they are all simultaneously preparing for GATE and CAT from rural area, right? (Rhetorical sarcasm). It is done. This government wants you to serve India differently, by earning money and paying your income tax. If you get in, good for you. Others, please give up or make this IAS game one of your hobbies. I did it a while back and extremely happy now. I may clear this time, but that is not the
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not the point*
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"I know exactly why Dronavapa as a word was there in 2020. And true to form, they asked Mitakshara and Dayabhaga this time." - Can you shed light on this why/ how you know? 

My dear friend, if I explain this to you I will be coaching and you will be the one who is getting coached. The whole point of the post is not allow this to happen to you. Put your own jigsaw pieces together yourself. The clues are in the post. Keep your eyes open. The two others friends who were pointing to the current affairs as a means of answering this have got 20% of this right. But no newspaper in the past two years ever had those terms.

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I have no clue right now. And to add to that, being from a non tech background, it’s not like I have many (or any) fallback options either :/ 

Quite a pickle. ☹️

And.

State PCS requires a lot of rote memorisation so I have never been interested in that. Aur upar se, I want to join the IFS so state PCS makes no sense and doesn’t excite me at all. But abhi it’s like I might have to take up something unwillingly 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

We underestimate human memory. There is definitely overlap of UPSC syllabus with state PCS. IFS requires a top rank in the final list. No harm at all in having high aspirations, just saying. If you are to take up something unwilling, state PCS would definitely rank higher than most other things you may do in life.

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Cheera (My girlfriend's cat): Standing near the door meowing wanting to be let out to another room.

My girlfriend: Everyday this poor thing does this knowing very well that the door will not open. He has great perseverance.

Me: It is not perseverance, its just that cats and dogs have very short term memory.

My girlfriend: I think that door is UPSC and you are the cat.

Me: :neutral_face:

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There are a few math questions in CSAT, which I cannot solve even now, without help. Is it just me?
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The production quality of this Insights ad and playing the emotions card though. Lol. 

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