The prelims exam is the primary written test of the UPSC Exam. Candidates who are eligible to appear in the exam fill up the application. Later on, they appear in the Prelims exam along with the hall ticket. As you know that UPSC has a separate craze among youths who want to get a government job. Every year more than 2 to 3 lakhs applicants fill up the application and appear for UPSC Prelims exam. It is the first and only barricades to appear in the Mains exam.
There is no cut-off system for the Prelims exam. Candidates have to score 33% marks in Prelims to qualify for the Mains exam. It is the minimum required score. Candidates who appear in the Prelims exam face only objective-type questions. There are two papers in the exam, GS Paper 1 and GS Paper 2 (Civil Services Aptitude Test). Both papers are mandatory to pass. Candidates who have appeared multiple times in the exam create a strategy for the prelims exam as they create their strategy. Problems arise for beginner candidates. This blog will be helpful for aspirants who are going to appear in the Prelims exam for the first time.
Tips For Beginner UPSC Aspirants
According to the Prelims exam syllabus of this year, Current Affairs 2022 is the most important topic. A large number of questions in the General Studies Paper 1 exam are related to current events. Apart from this, most aspirants underestimate the CSAT paper, and it harms them. Below, we have provided some tips for first-time candidates to pass the Prelims exam easily.
- Start Now – You are competing with lakhs of aspirants who’re aged between 21 to 32 years or 42 years sometimes. Wasting your time can be harmful to you. Start your preparation as soon as possible. As a beginner, you need at least one year to be fully prepared for the Prelims exam. In that time span, spend more time on common subjects of Prelims and Mains exam.
- Create a Study Plan – Have a study plan and work on building a strong foundation for preparation. Stay dedicated to your strategy, and keep tracking your performance.
- Syllabus Analysis – Download the pdf of the UPSC Prelims syllabus from the official website of the Union Public Service Commission. Do an analysis of the syllabus and prepare a list of strong and weak topics for you.
- Focus on Current Affairs – Read newspapers daily that have good content to offer, like The Hindu or The Indian Express, and listen to podcasts on a regular basis. Every day 1 to 1.5 hours is enough to create notes on current affairs. Few candidates give more time than required to current affairs and end up having no time for other subjects.
- Practice CSAT Question– Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) is a separate paper that has 80 questions to solve in 2 hours for 200 marks. It is mandatory to score at least 66+ marks to pass the exam. Practising its questions is the best approach to practice for this paper.
- Previous year Question Paper – Tracking your performance is an essential step. At the time of solving papers of recent years, you get to know various things about the exam such as patterns, question trends, missed topics of the syllabus, etc. If you are easily solving the paper, give your time to other subjects and weak topics.
These are the essential tips for beginner applicants. If they follow these tricks dedicatedly, then it will become easy for them to pass the exam. Keep in mind that there is no fixed cut-off for the Prelims exam. Just getting minimum qualifying marks is enough to qualify for the Mains exam.
