Why many upsc aspirants fail in ias exam mains general studies paper 1 (mains gs paper 1) - pravinnath/upscpreparationguide GitHub Wiki

Before answering the second part, i want to ask you what makes a paper tough?there are only 3–4 questions which can change the degree of toughness in the paper.

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If you see the paper there were some questions which were pretty much strait forward and didn't even require much thinking -

Failure of moderates Coal mining impact on environment Cultivation of pulses and advantages ( covered in detail in current affairs compilations, economic survey etc) Decline of traditional artisanal industry Ocean salinity Monsoon climate Women position and reform in 19 th century Religiosity and communism

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These questions could have been handled by every serious aspirant as everyone who has read any standard book or source must have come across these topics in detail.

Now there were some questions which required some thinking :

Gupta numismatic excellence decline( this question apart from culture part required knowlege of history of gupta period i.e political and economic reasons like wars by huns and decline in trade with roman empire, which made gupta empire weak so decline in gold content in coins also---- any one reading ancient history ncert could have attempted to a fair extent) Framented polity — again modern history ncert first chapter deals with it in detail Major legal initiatives for STs - not very difficult Spirit of tolerance and love — anyone can write something in it New objectives added to vision of independence — requires brain storming but anyone reading spectrum or modern ncert could write decent answer Regions are Cultural units than states —- these questions can't be prepared as such and only existing knowledge is used to cater to the demand of question —- for example i started this answer by talking about dhar , jvp Commission which recommended states should be administratively and economically viable so from the start we never created states on the basis of culture … then proceeded further. Petroleum refineries and developing countries — in this question, basic knowledge about location of refineries is must which can be gathered by reading ncerts and then one needs it to link problems of developing countries which location of refineries can solve. Again can't be learnt beforehand so you have to link existing knowledge Floods and irrigation & inland navigation — no standard source but anyone can write 3–4 points. Growth of I.T hubs — it was like a standard question from urbanization topic, general problems due to urbanization and some points specific to IT could have done the job Now come the bouncers —-

Malay Peninsula Juno mission ( however it's not very difficult questions, one has to write as to how the evidences gathered or processes monitored on another planet or in space can be used to predict earth's evolution - 2–3 general points could have been written) Cryosphere — question itself was not difficult if one knew the meaning of cryosphere but since most of people including me didn't know the meaning itself so yeah it was a bouncer. These bouncers will always be there every year( last time it was about west Africa decolonisation). These can't be prepared and one can only rely on luck but the good thing is that they are difficult for everyone.

So basically, out of 20, 17 were fairly doable out of which 8 questions were a must attempt and almost everyone who will clear mains would have attempted them really well, so it is about those 9 questions which were doable but required brainstorming which require reading the standard books throughly and linking with the demand of the question.