UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2015 IAS Exam Analysis August 23, 2015 : UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2015 Paper 1st & 2nd Exam Papers Analysis, Morning & Afternoon Exam, UPSC Civil Services 2015 Prelims Answer Key – Download UPSC Prelims 2015 Answer Key / Question Paper Solution All sets – UPSC Civil Services 2015 Prelims Answer Key – Paper 1 and Paper 2.
The Union Public Service Commission(UPSC) has successfully conducted the UPSC Prelims exam on Sunday 23rd August 2015 at various examination centres across India. A huge number of candidates had appeared for UPSC Prelims 2015 Exam. Now the candidates are eagerly looking to download UPSC Prelims 2015 Answer Key.
UPSC Civil Services 2015 Preliminary Exam is an objective type exam divided into two papers. UPSC Civil Services 2015 Prelims Paper 1 and UPSC Civil Services 2015 Prelims Paper 2, each of two hours. Each of papers – Paper 1 (GS) and Paper 2 (CSAT) – carries maximum 200 marks. Questions come from General Awareness, English Language, Numerical Aptitude and Reasoning, etc.
UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2015, August 23, 2015, Exam Analysis
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Previous Year Papers with solutions and exam analysis
UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2014 : Exam Analysis
The 2014 CSP Paper 1 was easier than the 2013 CSP Paper 1. Geography, Ecology and Environment constituted almost one-third of the paper. In a significant departure from the norm, there were only 6 questions from Economy this year - past years’ papers typically had 15-20 questions from this section. Similarly, belying the popular belief among Civil Services’ aspirants that there would be a good number of questions from Modern Indian History, this time there were just 4 questions from this section.
Questions from Science, especially from Biology, Ecology & Environment were conceptual in nature. Questions from Art & Culture have been increasing in number over the last three years. This trend continued this year too with 13 Questions asked from this area.
The difficulty level of questions ranged from moderate to difficult. There was a preponderance of fact-based questions this year which was not the case during previous years. This again highlighted the importance of studying basic textbooks thoroughly, particularly NCERT books of Class 6 onwards.
| S.N. |
Subjects
|
2014
|
1.
|
History
|
8
|
2.
|
Art and Culture
|
13
|
3.
|
Polity
|
13
|
4.
|
Geography
|
15
|
5..
|
Economy
|
6
|
6.
|
Science and Tech
|
17
|
7.
|
Ecology and Environment
|
17
|
8.
|
Social Welfare Schemes
|
04
|
9.
|
Current Affairs
|
07
|
|
Total
|
100
|
Sixty-three of the questions were either matching-pair based or multiple statement based and thus needed more than a single piece of information to solve them. Though these questions looked simple at first glance, the options were quite close and hence, the questions were not easy. Questions such as those on ‘Mundako Upandishad’ and on ‘Saka era calendar’ were asked by UPSC in previous years too.
Overall, the paper was moderate to difficult. A score of around 100 to 110 in this paper would be considered a good attempt.
Analysis of GS Paper II (CSAT), CSP 2014
The 2014 CSP Paper II had quite a few surprises in store for aspirants. First of all, Decision Making questions were completely absent from this paper. Last year’s CSAT paper had 6 questions (worth 15 marks) from this portion. These were comparatively risk-free marks since these questions did not have any negative marking. Further, two of the options for these questions fetched full marks. The absence of these questions certainly made the paper slightly tougher.
Questions in this year’s paper were also lengthier than last year’s questions. This year not many questions were direct; most questions required at least some inference/logical thinking.
Quantitative Aptitude questions and Reasoning questions in this year’s paper were tougher than last year’s questions from these areas. The options given were relatively close and this also added to the amount of time required to solve the question.
The Verbal Ability section was also tougher this year. Twenty-six questions from Reading Comprehension were present in the paper. Compared to last year’s paper, fewer RC questions were fact-based; a greater proportion of these questions were inferential in nature.
Reasoning questions were significantly tougher than those in previous years. Questions were no longer direct and/or simple. Most of the questions required aspirants to make some assumptions in order to solve the question.
Two of the questions in this year’s paper contained errors. This too would have caused some confusion to aspirants.
Breakup of this year’s GS Paper II (CSAT):
| S. No. |
Topic |
No. of questions |
| 1 |
Reading Comprehension |
26 |
| 2 |
Critical Reasoning |
6 |
| 3 |
Analytical Reasoning |
16 |
| 4 |
Quantitative Aptitude |
16 |
| 5 |
Data Interpretation |
6 |
| 6 |
Non-verbal Reasoning |
4 |
|
Total |
74 |
Overall, this paper was tougher than last year’s GS Paper II (CSAT). Considering this, and the difficulty level of this year’s GS Paper I, it is expected that the cutoff for clearing prelims this year will range from 210-220 (for general category candidates). The cutoff is likely to be 190-200 for OBC candidates, 185-195 for SC and 180-190 for ST candidates.
UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2013
The Prelims Paper I for the UPSC Exam 2013 was held from 9:30 to 11:30am on Sunday, 26th May, 2013. The paper did not throw up any major surprise. As far as the difficulty level of the questions is concerned, the paper was along expected lines. A major point to note is that the paper was fairly balanced, featuring about 20 questions from each of the major topics- History, Indian Polity, Indian Economy, Geography and Science and Technology. The fallout of this is that unless the candidates were well versed with each of these topics they stand to lose. This is one of the factors that could be said to have raised the level of difficulty of the paper.
Another feature to note is that the questions were quite lengthy in their content and thus required more time to read. This can be understood from the fact that the 100 questions in the paper were spread over 21 sheets, averaging less than 5 questions per sheet. There were 55 questions in the paper that required candidates to check multiple combinations of statements to arrive at the correct answer. These questions took more time and effort to solve, and were prone to errors.
The topic wise break up of the questions in Paper I is as follows:
| Topic |
Number of Questions |
Difficulty Level |
| History & Culture |
15 |
Easy |
| Polity |
19 |
Moderate |
| Geography & Ecology |
27 |
Moderate to Difficult |
| Science |
21 |
Moderate to Difficult |
| Economy |
18 |
Moderate |
A score of 85 to 95 in this section can be considered a good one.
Paper II of the UPSC Prelims Exam - CSAT - was held from 2:30 to 4:30pm. The overall difficulty level of the paper was similar to that of past years’. The most noticeable change was that there was a substantial increase in the number of questions from Quantitative Aptitude. This increase in questions was partly set off by a significant DECREASE IN THE NUMBER OF Reading Comprehension questions - from 40 last year to 23 this year. The Reading Comprehension passages, though easy, were slightly lengthy this time around. Also, the number of questions asked from individual passages varied from 2 to 5. The three passages from English Language Comprehension had 8 questions asked from them. All these questions were very basic in nature and could have been answered after a single reading of the passage. The number of questions from Decision Making came down to 6 as compared to 7 last year, and these were not very difficult to manage.
| Topic |
Number of Questions |
Difficulty Level |
| Reading Comprehension |
23 |
Easy |
| English Passages |
8 |
Moderate |
| Data Interpretation |
6 |
Easy - Moderate |
| Quantitative Ability |
12 |
Easy - Moderate |
| General Mental Ability |
7 |
Moderate |
| Analytical Reasoning |
18 |
Easy - Moderate |
| Decision Making |
6 |
Moderate |
A score of 135 to 145 in this section can be considered a good one.
The likely category wise cut offs for CSP 2013 are as follows:
| Category |
Score |
Total Score |
| General |
230 - 240 |
400 |
| OBC |
220 - 230 |
400 |
| SC |
210 - 220 |
400 |
| ST |
200 - 210 |
400 |
UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2012 : Exam Analysis
The Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2012 continued from where it left on 12th June 2011. The test followed the pattern of the last year. There were 100 questions in the paper-I (General Studies) and 80 questions in paper-II (CSAT). The marking pattern was also same as that of last year. Both the papers were of 200 marks each. Two marks are awarded for every correct answer for the paper-I and each incorrect answer invited a penalty of minus 0.66 marks. For paper-II (CSAT), a correct answer fetched 2.5 marks and an incorrect answer invited a penalty of minus 0.83. UPSC, in 2011, introduced a full paper of aptitude testing (CSAT), which is named as the General Studies Paper-II. UPSC also introduced few other changes as well like reducing in the number of questions of general studies, putting both general studies and aptitude at the same level (in terms of total marks of both the papers) etc.
General Studies Paper-I
The General Studies Paper-I maintained its flavor of last few years. There were 100 questions and each question was of 2 marks each. A negative answer invited a penalty of 0.66 marks. This year questions were primarily asked from Science and Technology, Ecology and Environment, Geography and Economics. Also, the number of four statements, three statements and two statements based questions was close to 55. This made the paper a little tougher and more time consuming for the test takers. This year most questions were from Science and Technology, Ecology, Environment and Geography and Economy. The number of questions in history and polity was 18 and 15 respectively and this shows that the UPSC wants the test takers to get ready for more surprises. The questions of current affairs were there but they were asked within the domain of a particular subject. The overall difficulty of the paper of the paper was from moderate to tough. A good candidate should attempt 65 to 75 questions with an accuracy rate of over 80%. A score of 80+ marks in this paper can be considered a good score.
General Studies Paper-II (CSAT)
General Studies Paper-II was in line of what was there in the last inning. This year again more than half of the paper consisted of verbal ability. Reading comprehension was the mainstay of the verbal ability section. There were questions of syllogism, critical reasoning, decision making and interpersonal communication as well. Most of the reading comprehension questions were multiple-statements based questions. A good understanding of passage was required to solve the questions correctly. The length of the passage varies from approximately 300 words (two questions) to 600 words (four questions). One of the most interesting aspect of the paper was that number of questions of quantitative aptitude was only 2 and DI was absent. Most of the questions were of deductive logic and analytical reasoning. Overall the paper was of moderate level of difficulty. The decision making questions were little tough and it required a good understanding of situation to get the correct answer.
Overall Analysis
The General Studies Paper-I was factual in nature and covered a wide range of topics. The paper was little tough to cover and hence, it was not easy to score. General Studies Paper-2 was little tough from it was last time. It was also more time consuming. In a nutshell, a cumulative score of 200+ would be sufficient to get a call for the main examination.
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