Important tips for IAS 2021 prelims exam. Read and Utilise them in UPSC exam

The candidates should practice with the mock test papers as the IAS toppers and mentors always suggest. There will be anxiety and performance pressure in the IAS prelims exam hall and the candidates can overcome it by effective time management in the IAS prelims exam. Following are some basic things which will help them better utilisation of time.

The candidates need to read a hundred questions and their four answer options. It is very difficult when coupled with anxiety and pressure. In the COVID time, the situation becomes worse because the candidates need to see whether their mask is in place, he or she is not touching the eyes and the likes.

See here: IAS Syllabus

Attempt the IAS prelims paper in rounds

The candidates should attempt the IAS prelims paper in rounds. It means the candidates should read and attempt the questions only when they know the answers in the first round. The candidates should not waste their time thinking about the answer in the first round. The candidate should mark the answers of only those questions which are known to them.

In the second round, the candidates should leave the questions where they have no idea about the question-and-answer options. The candidates must try to solve some questions through the intelligent guess because, in the IAS paper, some question can be answered by analytical thinking.

Tackling Negative Marking

There is a negative marking of one by three in the IAS prelims exam. It means that the three wrong answers will consume one right answer. Naturally, the candidates cannot answer various questions in the IAS prelims. The candidates should not feel panic if they cannot answer ten to fifteen questions. The candidate should keep him calm and read the questions. We are putting a table showing various permutation and combination of wrong answers and right answers.

Based on this table, the candidate will get a rational idea about the number of questions required to be attempted. There will be a hundred questions in the IAS prelims 2020 general studies paper. In the table below, we are showing the result of the negative marking on the final marks of the candidate’s score.

The above table is given only for the representation purpose.

The IAS cut off of the previous year IAS prelims was 98.00. There will be at least 20 to 35 questions which will surprise all the candidates and hence most of the candidate cannot answer them. So the candidates should understand that they need to score from the eighty-five questions only and breach the IAS prelims cut off. In the table below, we are providing more practical marking scores close to the actual answer patterns of most of the candidates.

The above are the various combinations of right answers and wrong answers which can clarify that the candidates cannot afford the wrong answers because it will reduce their final tally of marks. From the above table, the candidate can understand that for clearing the IAS prelims, one must answer at least 60 or above questions correctly while controlling the number of wrong answers.

Elimination method

Intelligent and calculated guesswork can help the candidates in eliminating the options from the others. The intelligent elimination method is natural to come with hard work, practice and deep understanding of the topics. Only studies can help in the guesswork because it can be counterproductive sometimes and can reduce the overall score.

The difficult questions are difficult for everyone hence does not bother for them. The candidate should not mark the simple questions wrong. And if he or she can mark some difficult questions rightly, it will be an advantage.

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