UPSC Civil Services Mains 2013 Changes and Surprises!

UPSC Civil Services Mains 2013 has brought lot many changes and surprises! Freshers and experienced players are equally bewildered with the new pattern in Question cum Answer booklet.

But it’s a welcome move by UPSC, and as mentioned in the syllabus, a well educated person can answer these questions as most of the questions were very general in nature. The main area where students faced difficulty was managing time.

Changes and surprises so far in UPSC Civil Services Mains 2013…

1. 25 page and 2500 word limit for essay paper.
2. 25 questions and 5000 word limit in total for GS1 and G2 papers.
3. All questions were compulsory for GS papers. No choices! For essay there were four choices.
4. The booklet had 80 pages + rough sheets for GS1 while 72 + rough sheets for GS2. (Each to be filled in 3 hours!)
5. The 5000 word limit is a much higher expectation from UPSC for 250 marks when compared with the earlier word limit of 3000 words for 300 marks.
6. The compulsory English paper was much tougher than previous years. Here too there were no choices.
7. No 1 markers or 2 markers so far in GS.
8. A few 5 markers formed part of 10 mark questions in GS1.
9. Space was never a constraint for writing answers. The only constraint was time.
10. It was mentioned that it is not the length of the answers which matters, but the content of the answers.