UPSC Paper Analysis: What experts said about Civil Services Prelims Exam 2024

According to Basav Uppin, Faculty-Economy, IAS Study Circle, Rau, the preliminary exam had 18 questions from the Indian economy. Out of the 18 questions, 7 were from banking and finance, 3 were related to government schemes and the rest were from other topics like taxation and infrastructure.

In pictures: Candidates appearing for UPSC Civil Services Prelims Exam 2024

He said out of the 18 questions, about 12 were “easy to moderate”.

He said, “Overall, the Economy section was on expected lines in terms of overall weightage of Economy (18 questions) and weightage of themes (most questions are from Banking and Finance). Most of the questions are asked from static/core part and only a few questions are asked from current affairs.”

He said, “Under the theme of banking and finance, the focus has shifted from the chapter on monetary policy to capital market/money market. UPSC has continued its previous pattern of asking questions related to schemes (Digital India, PM-SYM, Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan), key concepts (sectors of economy, types of physical capital), significant economic developments in other countries (Venezuela crisis, US debt crisis).”

According to Uppin, most of the questions in the Economics section required students to identify “Which statements are correct?” rather than “How many statements are correct?”

He said that an average well-educated student can easily answer 10-12 questions out of 18 questions through the elimination method.

Arun Bhardwaj of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the same institute said that most of the questions related to science and technology were of easy to moderate level.

He said around 11 questions were asked from this topic, which was in line with the trends of recent years. He said students having a basic understanding of the key areas should be able to answer these accurately.

Indrajit Bariyar of the Geography Faculty of the institute said that this year the preliminary examination paper was easier than last year.

He said, “The questions were mostly concept-based…most of the questions could be answered through basic understanding of the subject.”

Gajanan Dwivedi, history faculty at Rau’s IAS Study Circle, said, “The history questions are moderate compared to last year, with some repetition of topics. Like last year, this year too, art and culture have more importance than modern history. Elements of current affairs are evident in the culture section, such as questions on UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage.”

Anubhav Sharma, Political Science faculty, IAS Study Circle, Rau, said, “On reviewing the question paper, I found that the Political Science section had 15 questions. Of these, 10 were easy, 2 were of medium difficulty and 3 were difficult. Notably, 10-12 questions were taken from the last two years. Impressively, 13 out of the 15 questions were directly covered in my classes. While the difficult questions were more challenging than last year, the remaining 12 followed a predictable pattern.”

Ankit Kaul, who teaches international relations at the institute, said that nine questions were asked on the subject of his interest.

Akshay Vrat of the Environment Faculty said that there were 14 questions on environment and ecology.

According to him, most of the questions were of moderate level in terms of difficulty.

He said, “Except for two questions, the rest of the questions are either inspired from current affairs or from class notes and compass. Overall, the question paper seems easier than last year, mainly due to the commendable changes made in our study material and teaching methodology.”

According to Jaykrit Vatsal, head of academic operations of the institute, the general overview of the paper was that it was simpler compared to the past few years.

He said, “Overall our assessment is that the cut-off for prelims will increase this year. The paper is on the lines of 2021-22 and the expected cut-off should be between 95 to 100.”