UPSC Answer Key: Which Institute Prepares the Most Reliable Answer Key?

Have you cross-checked your answers with the official UPSC Answer Key of Civil Services Preliminary Exam? Which UPSC Test-Prep website or IAS Coaching Institute prepares the best Unofficial Answer Key?

Every year, as soon the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam is over, the internet will be flooded with unofficial answer keys of the exam. Coaching institutes usually prepare quick keys (within 1-2 hours) and handover it over to candidates coming out the exam-hall as part of their marketing efforts!

Considering the fact that the official answer key from UPSC takes a long time (about a year) to be published, aspirants have no way other than to depend on the keys of IAS coaching institutes and UPSC test-prep websites to know the correct answer of UPSC Questions. There is nothing wrong in that. However, how accurate are these ‘unofficial answer keys’ prepared soon after the exam?

Recently, our team at ClearIAS did an interesting experiment.

We tried to compare a few such ‘unofficial keys’ including ClearIAS Answer Key with the official answer key released by UPSC. The results were surprising.

There were variations in the answer keys of most coaching institutes, however, the wrong answers were 5% or less with regarding reputed IAS coaching institutes and UPSC Test-Prep websites. Of course, this includes the ClearIAS Answer Key!

However, most of the ‘soon-after exam’ keys performed poorly. Such keys differed with the official UPSC Key by about 10-15 questions! There was an answer key from a coaching institute which got 18 ‘answers’ wrong when cross-checked with the UPSC Answer Key.

Which institute has the best UPSC Key?

As part of the analysis, we initially compared the answer keys of ClearIAS, InsightsIAS, and ShankarIAS against the official answer key of UPSC (2019).

Later, the analysis was extended to the keys prepared by VisionIAS, Mrunal, and Vajiram and Ravi. The study was further extended to lesser-known institutes as well. The results are discussed in detail in this post.

Sl No	UPSC Test Prep  Website  or Institute	Variation  in Answer Key	Correct Answers
1	ClearIAS	3 Questions	97 out of 100
2	InsightsIAS	5 Questions	95 out of 100
3	ShankarIAS	7 Questions	93 out of 100

As you can see from the above table, among the Answer Keys compared, ClearIAS answer key turned the most accurate. Only 3% of questions were wrong when compared with the Official UPSC Key. InsightsIAS got 5 Questions wrong, while Shankar IAS got 7 Questions wrong against the official UPSC key of Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2019.

VisionIAS too got 95 questions correct and 5 questions wrong just like InsightsIAS. The Vajiram and Ravi Answer Key (which was once updated after its release), still had 5 questions in variation with UPSC Key. Mrunal’s Answer Key performance was also similar. Mrunal’s key differed with UPSC Key in 3 questions. There were also 2 other ambiguous questions where the website gave double answers.

Reason for the variations in private answer key with the official UPSC key

Those who attempt the exam for the first time may wonder why the coaching institutes can’t prepare the correct answer key. They may even ask, what are these coaching institutes teaching if they can’t even set the answer keys for just 100 questions correct.

Of course, lack of knowledge and poor-research can lead to wrong answer keys. However, mostly, the reasons for variations in the key are different.

The difference in the sources referred: First of all, unlike in school exams, UPSC does not ask questions from a single book. Questions can come from any source – NCERT books, Standard Reference Textbooks, Newspapers, Government websites and so on. As there are no authentic sources, different sources may give different answers. For example, for a question, NCERTs may give one answer. A government website might give another conflicting data. For the debatable questions, the final answer depends on what source UPSC refers to (which is not disclosed to the public!).

The difference in interpretation: Loosely phrased questions in the UPSC CSE may get interpreted differently. Those UPSC Test-Prep players whose interpretation and thinking are closely related to UPSC get most answers correct. You can’t blame any coaching institute on the answers given to ambiguous or debatable questions.

How close was the ClearIAS Answer Key with the UPSC Answer Key in 2019?

ClearIAS, every year, release our Answer Keys on ClearIAS Mock Exam platform in the form of UPSC CSE Prelims Re-Take Exam.

ClearIAS does not rush with our answer keys. Usually, we take 3-4 days time to come up with our key (after sufficient research). Still, we caution our test-takers, the possibility of about 5% variation between the key by ClearIAS and the official key by UPSC. This is because some questions set by UPSC will always be ambiguous and debatable. No matter how much research we put into those questions, the final answer can differ based on the stand taken by UPSC on those.

As happened in many of the previous years, this year too, when the final key came out, ClearIAS Answer Key turned the relatively reliable one with just 3% difference with the official answer key. Interestingly, many other popular coaching institutes and test-prep websites (like InsightsIAS, Mrunal, ShankarIAS etc) too differed with the UPSC Answer Key with respect to these questions. The questions mentioned below were the ones our answers differed with UPSC Key.

1. Question on Ramsar Convention and The Wetlands Rules, 2010

[Qn 40 Set A] Consider the following statements :

1. Under Ramsar Convention, it is mandatory on the part of the Government of India to protect and conserve all the wetlands in the territory of India.
2. The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010 were framed by the Government of India based on the recommendations of Ramsar Convention.
3. The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010 also encompass the drainage area or catchment regions of the wetlands as determined by the authority.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A) 1 and 2 only

B) 2 and 3 only

C) 3 only

D) 1, 2 and 3

Answer:

• ClearIAS – (B) 2 and 3 only
• InsightsIAS – (B) 2 and 3 only
• Mrunal – (B) 2 and 3 only
• Shankar IAS – (B) 2 and 3 only
• UPSC – (C) 3 only

2. Question on Legislative Assembly of a State in India

[Qn 53 Set A] With reference to the Legislative Assembly of a State in India, consider the following statements:

1. The governor makes a customary address to members of the house at the commencement of the first session of the year.
2. When a State Legislature does not have a rule on a particular matter, it follows the Lok Sabha rule on that matter.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A) 1 only

B) 2 only

C) Both 1 and 2

D) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer:

• ClearIAS – (A) 1 only
• InsightsIAS – (A) 1 only
• Mrunal – (A) 1 only
• Shankar IAS – (A) 1 only
• UPSC – (C) Both 1 and 2

3. Question on Legislative Assembly of a State in India

[Qn 94 Set A] Consider the following statements:

A digital signature is

1. an electronic record that identifies the certifying authority issuing it.
2. used to serve as a proof of identity of an individual to access information or server on the Internet.
3. an electronic method of signing an electronic document and ensuring that the original content is unchanged.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A) 1 only

B) 2 and 3 only

C) 3 only

D) 1, 2 and 3

Answer:

• ClearIAS – (D) 1, 2 and 3
• InsightsIAS – (B) 2 and 3 only
• Mrunal – ( C) 3 only OR (D) 1, 2 and 3
• Shankar IAS – (C) 3 only
• UPSC – (C) 3 only

Variation with Official Answer Key (2019): Debatable Questions

Click here to refer to the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam Question Paper (2019).

Most IAS coaching institutes’ key was in line with ClearIAS Key with reference to the 3 questions discussed above. However, the UPSC stand was different.

In addition to the 3 questions, the InsightsIAS Key had variations with the UPSC Key on the questions about Five Year Plans and Multi-Drug Resistance.

The revised key of Shankar IAS differed with UPSC on 7 questions like the ones on the Defenition of Liberty, Forest Rights, The Environment Protection Act, Multi-Drug Resistance, Land Reforms etc.

Apart from the 3 questions, Vajiram also differed with UPSC on the Environment Protection Question. The institute had also not mentioned the answer for the Functional Chromosome Question in its answer key.

Mrunal was unsure of the answers of the questions about Liberty and Digitial Signature, hence gave 2 answers for those. The other answers which varied were regarding ‘RNA interference (RNAi)’ technology and multi-drug resistance.

VisionIAS, one of the reliable key makers in previous years, performed relatively better this year too. The institute was just behind ClearIAS with 5 wrong answers.

How was the performance of ClearIAS Prelims Answer Key in Previous Years?

This is not the first time, we did well with our answer keys.

ClearIAS is reputed for the expertise in the Prelims Questions and Answer Keys.

In many of the previous years too, our variations with the official key were very minimal (between 0 – 4%).

This is probably because of the substantial research we put before publishing our answer key.

115 Marks in the Answer Key of “X” Institute, but didn’t clear UPSC Prelims? Here’s the reason!

One correct question in UPSC CSE Prelims can fetch the candidate 2 valuable marks.

However, if he gets it wrong, due to negative marking of -0.66 per each question, he will in effect lose -2.66 marks.

Suppose 7 answers marked as correct as per the key of a private coaching institute goes wrong as per the UPSC Key.

How many marks will the candidate lose?

He will in effect lose 7*2.66 ie 18.62 marks!

Yes, thus his actual score is reduced to 115-18.62 = 96.38

Considering that 98 marks were the actual cut-off score in UPSC CSE Prelims 2019 (general category), the aspirant will not clear Prelims!

We are not against unofficial keys!

We are not saying candidates should not refer unofficial answer keys.

You should always do post-exam analysis.

However, please refrain from making your conclusions based on poorly-researched keys.

Refer 2-3 reputed answer keys. Even reliable answer keys may vary with UPSC by 5-10 marks. Also, make up your mind that your actual score can go 10-15 marks above or below the score predicted by any unofficial key.

NB: Last year trends on ClearIAS Mock Exam platform based on our key was pointing cut-off marks of general category around 105 (plus or minus 2). However, the trends were based on ClearIAS Key, which had 3 questions in variation with UPSC. This probably explains the lower cut-off marks (98) last year as well!

This post is not to portray any institute in a bad light!

Let us make this clear once again.

This post is not created to boost ClearIAS. We don’t believe in growing by pulling down others. We grow by improving our quality. It has been 8 years since ClearIAS is founded. We are here for long-term business, not quick gain. We have our values.  Our growth was solely based on the quality of the services we offered.

This is just an honest analysis of a few reputed test-prep websites and coaching institutes. We feel every mentor in this field who genuinely guides aspirants is doing a noble job. None of the findings in this post makes one player better over the other. There are hundreds of other keys in the market. We haven’t evaluated all of them. Also, this analysis is just based on the answer keys in UPSC CSE Prelims 2019. Analysis with respect to any other year may show a different result.

What we intend to convey in this post is to pay close attention to the official UPSC Key (whenever it is released).

Keys of any coaching institute can go wrong with respect to ambiguous questions which has different answers based on different sources (books) or interpretations. The fact that UPSC has recently started accepting representations on debatable questions also points fingers that the Commission is also open in this regard. Usually, the variation in answers with reputed institutes who invest substantially in good research may be minimal (3-7%). However, be careful with the ‘soon-after-the-exam’ type of keys. Whenever available, always learn from the official UPSC key.

Did you refer the official UPSC Answer Key?

Even though most aspirants eagerly evaluate their possible marks with ‘unofficial keys’, most aspirants forget to pay attention to the ‘real key’ released after a long time (about 1 year) by the UPSC.

However, the official UPSC answer key is a valuable resource for every serious UPSC aspirant.

Even though, the marks of the candidates of Civil Services Examination 2019 will be disclosed only after the final outcome of the pending court cases, UPSC has published the official answer key of the last year exam.

We recommend all candidates to go through the official UPSC answer key before they appear in UPSC CSE 2020 and 2021.

Conclusion

A minor difference between unofficial answer keys prepared by test-prep websites and official answer key prepared by UPC is usually common. This is usually because of different interpretations given for ambiguous questions.

What matters is how closely your institute or mentor understands and interprets UPSC requirements.

Previous year trends show that the expert team of ClearIAS has one of the best accuracies in the UPSC Test Prep Segment.

Re-Take UPSC Prelims Previous Year Questions (2011-2019)

Aspirants who are subscribers to the UPSC Prelims Previous Year Re-Take Exams (2011-2019) of ClearIAS can practise the test in an exam atmosphere with negative marking based on official UPSC key.

This is a service in addition to ClearIAS Prelims Online Mock Test Series.

Click here to buy the ClearIAS UPSC Prelims Previous Year Questions (2011-2019) Re-Take Package. The package is now updated with the official answer key by UPSC.