scored poorly in all the papers, a few things which I think were blunders were -
1. Missing conclusions in many questions.
2. Ugly looking answer scripts - mains answer sheets were little broad and being a lefty has disadvantages keeping a line straight
3. Less number of points written in answers.After writing paper 1 I thought it went well, paper 3 went really miserable but the marks difference is not huge. Also people generally score less in GS 3. What might be the reason behind this?
I will just add to what @Neyawn had to say- please start your prep from zero base. Don't ever think you will get more than this, next time. Don't ever think "Arre 1st hi toh mains tha, next time improve ho hi jayega". Focus on "How?".
Following is my marksheet for ref-
'22; '23
E: 126; 119
1: 82; 70
2: 112; 97
3: 60;80
4: 101;106
M1: 96; 91
M2: 96; 105
After failing 2 mains consecutively, I think the missing pieces have always been lack of mocks, a proper strategy, and less emphasis on PYQs (for Maths). This is true for almost everyone. If you do not know how to tackle a question on frequently asked topics then you are going to write a terrible answer for sure. Thanks to several online initiatives, people already know the IBC and the SPECIEL-H format. That has become the basic norm. So if you are missing conclusions or a proper intro (like in your case), you are bound to get low marks.
For me, I am a history nerd with immense love for polity too (apart from Maths). This year, these three areas were the reason for my downfall simply because instead of practicing, I enjoyed "reading" more about them. I really thought knowledge matters but I think it is much about how well you present your content and how easy you make your answers to be evaluated by the examiner. It is about strategy to achieve it. For ex- In GS3, I saw a jump of 20 marks even after writing terrible answers in Economy section. The reason was simple, I took my friends advice to make proper facts and figures. In S&T, I had anticipated Chandrayaan and wrote an answer using technical terms with a proper flowchart.
If you know your mistakes then just take remedial measures and start focusing on implementing them. Talk to people who scored well in GS.
I think the golden triangle of UPSC is mocks, PYQs and revision. I am honest enough to say that I neglected mocks and revision for a very long time and as a consequence I have paid the price with my attempt.
