UPSC 2024 final result out.

First Attempt First Mains

I had started my preparation last year September after leaving corporate job and I had never thought that I would be writing my first mains within a year. So it felt amazing getting a chance to write mains. Few things were new - like the size of actual QCAB and verifying that you actually have to tear the question paper apart from QCAB XD.Time management in exam remained my problem till the very end and except for GS4, in all other papers I attempted 19 questions. Sort of satisfied with the content I had provided in my papers. Overall it was a fun experience. All the best everyone!!

this is very user friendly and neat. i noticed the results also include terms from options and that's super helpful. thanks for sharing! 

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WordleMastersaid

In recent days, I've noticed two types of people when it comes to preparing for the Mains exam. One set (we'll call them Group A) says, that Mains requires average content with good answer writing practice. They don't have the best content. If you read their answer scripts you'll find nothing special, yet you find some of them clearing this exam. The other group of people (Group B), are the ones who are usually in their senior attempts and who have gone above and beyond and prepared their own 1-2 pager notes for the entire syllabus, list of special keywords, written multiple tests etc. They, too, clear the exam, usually with very good ranks, but not always. We have seen many brilliant candidates (from forum community itself) not getting through despite their efforts.

And here lie aspirants like myself. This person who is very weak at answer writing, is struggling to complete the paper, or has not yet revised his own notes multiple times assumes that once he reaches the level of Group A, he will get through mains. He convinces himself that mains is easy, by following the perception built by Group A. But, slowly, a fear grows inside them, too. A fear of losing out to Group B. And, so they too end up collecting more value addition, nicer keywords, attending specialist module courses, current affair classes etc. This, of course, comes at a cost. 

And therein emerges a set of aspirants who are not even at the level of Group A but aspire to be like Group B. They are what I'd call half-baked goods. Not good enough to fight alongside Group B, and not even skilled enough to keep pace with Group A.

In my opinion, such candidates are the ones who do not stop and introspect. And they are a lot. And so they take a bite so big that they can't even chew it. And so they end up throwing up that unchewed bite onto their Mains paper, and then they wonder why they didn't get rewarded. Or if they do get rewarded for that big bite, they get it only after they have chewed and digested it all, which is only after a couple of attempts and when their head is slightly greyer than before.

So, in the opinion of the esteemed readers of this post,@Neyawn @Rashmirathi  @Ganesh_Gaitonde @tedmosby and others, do you resonate with the above line of reasoning? Will it be better to block out Group B from our minds, and try to become as good as Group A? Or is Mains really that difficult that we have to reach the level of competence of Group B, to even stand a chance at winning this race? 

I want to ask one thing: By doing answer writing, what exactly do people learn? 

How does answer writing lead to better marks? I just want you to ask this question. 

The idea behind answer writing is to

1. See how you are able to put the things you learnt on paper 

2. Whether you understand and address all parts of Q

3. Whether you write dense keywords oriented answers 

4. Presentation is neat or not 

5. Good Intro and conclusion 

6. Some value addition

7. Lastly, Time management 

Now, I might have missed some goals above but broadly I could think of the above. Let's Use common sense, is answer writing some magic pill that automatically boosts scores without application of mind? 

I mean people say do answer writing! And then? What exactly happens? Is it some spell that automatically makes you a great student? 

Whatever helps you in delivering above goals should be the path you must follow. Don't underestimate the power of short notes that higher attempt people make. If you see them just before the real mains, they can create a MASSIVE difference. If you have written Mains before , You must be knowing this. 

For essays, answer writing will help you hone your organic expression and write straight from your heart. 

Hence you must chose your path accordingly as per your strengths and weaknesses. I would suggest a Madhyama Marga of doing both. 

1. Prepare short notes for EACH topic (Base notes) 

2. Write answers from topper copies & compare answers (Exact same questions in 7-9 mins or 11-13 mins for now) 

3. Add some pointers that you feel are relevant. Don't add everything because you might have some value addition that a topper might not have. 

4. Also go for some real time based simulation near the Mains examination. 

Once you do the Vision Abhyaas kind simulation, you'll automatically understand what is needed and what is practical in those end days. You can't remember everything and everything gets reduced to keywords and basic common sense in GS. 

I just want all of us to use COMMON SENSE and ask the WHYs please! Don't run after some magic bullet that everyone talks of until you understand the reasoning behind it. 

The issue is we don't have handholding mentors. Even if there are some, a lot of people don't have good communication skills. In UPSC preparation, the role of mentorship is paramount but sadly we have a great deficit of it. You need constant feedback loops to keep the candidate in check and on the right path. People like me had to do everything through hit and trial and then maybe learn a thing or two. 

There is huge noise in the UPSC world. A method in the madness can make a huge difference. So keep talking to your mentors and even show your higher attempt seniors, your notes. Keep seeking that guidance again and again especially in this period where Mains has to be prepared.

For people who are giving Mains 2025, you have absolutely no time to kill. 8-10 hours daily right now is the path to success given that Mains is in August next year. Nothing should be left for post prelims days

I will say that don't classify people. Everyone has their own set of circumstances and the reality is quite complex. People don't understand a simple fact that it is one thing to "know" and another thing to "write and reproduce" in the exam conditions. For ex- everyone knew that CAG was from PYQs and they have asked about the body twice. But the twist is- you have to write the content in such a way that it will fit the demand of the question under 7-9 mins for 10M and 9-11 mins for 15M while having good presentation. Answer writing is important for this very reason. 

For the diligent aspirants, they know that the content is essentially coming from the PYQs and nothing else. The need is to do PYQ brainstorming "properly" and write answers from forum for PRACTICE. But still out of sheer FOMO, people start reading mountains of content to get that "unique edge" over others. I believe knowledge is like an infinite ocean and what you know is just a drop. So how well you use that drop of knowledge is the thing that matters the most. How well you express your knowledge matters. 

In my opinion, being logical and having a broad perspective matters more in GS rather than specialised content. 

Next, people want external validation for their preparation a lot so they think that scoring in mocks is an absolute indicator of that. In reality, it is only partially true. If you give a mock and do not analyze it, it was a waste of your time. Getting a 100+ score is irrelevant. It doesn't matter how much you scored, it matters how well you strategized after overcoming the mistakes you felt during that mock. But still aspirants are running behind "guarantee" which doesn't exist in real life. There's no guarantee for anything in life. We are trying to introduce objectivity in an exam which is based on subjectivity. 

Everyone learns all of these things at their own pace. Developing a logical mindset is not everyone's cup of tea which is why you would see very knowledgeable people not being able to crack this exam in their 6th attempt while some people are able to crack it in their 1st attempt. 

Again, that's how I view the aspirant community and demand of UPSC. It is subject to interpretation. 

Hello everyone. This was my final attempt at the exam and I second to the aforementioned view about the futility of classification. For us veterans(a term I thoroughly dislike) we have the content, the ‘value addition’ and years of accumulated knowledge. Does all of it transform into results? No. The ratio for the first timers vis-a-vis veterans is more or less some. Yet most of us, mindlessly, run after new materials, the extra edge and what not. Few realise that the key is in doing the ordinary things extraordinarily.

"People are saying optionals this year were quite easier". 

I don't know about other optionals but I can say that Maths opt was very tough. PYQs were scarce. Unconventional themes were present everywhere. There's a small debate regarding one question too. 

All in all, both the papers were tough. 

To conclude, paper 1 was on the lines of GS Standard but paper 2 was difficult 

Hindi Literature Paper-1 was perhaps the toughest in past 10 years.

@siddharthdwivedi9418851 Yuval Noah Harari's new book "Nexus" talks about Information networks over the years and AI (I know opt is not just about reading books but still :P) plus AI has been a dominant theme in the past year. In GS4, we had Ethics of AI too. So I think the topic was predictable to a reasonable extent for you Anthro guys? Did any TS cover it beforehand?