Uses of UPSC Previous Years Question Papers

The dream of lakhs of aspirants to crack the Civil Services Examination turns into a reality after due hard work and perseverance. Aspirants read multiple books; go through various test series and even take up periodic revisions. Here, we are going to talk about one of the sources which are too significant to miss in the UPSC journey and that is the old question papers. Uses of UPSC Previous Years Question Papers.

Uses of UPSC Previous Years Question Papers

When an aspirant starts his/her UPSC preparation journey, it is always advisable to go through the syllabus first. Secondly, aspirants should have UPSC Previous Year Question Papers with them to help them know the trend of the examination. There are multiple uses of the old question papers and those are explained below.

Why are UPSC Old Question Papers important?

As the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination is one of the most desired ones, it takes a lot of determination to crack it. The IAS Exam takes place in three stages – Prelims, Mains, and Interview; and the process runs through a span of almost a year.

Prelims have two examinations while the Mains stage has nine theory papers. For an examination this vast, it is very important to strategize well in advance, and analyzing the previous year’s question papers will help:

• Learn the pattern of the examination – The prelims examination is of objective type. It has two papers with 100 questions and 80 questions respectively. Both the papers carry 200 marks and for each wrong answer, there is a negative marking of 1/3rd of the marks assigned to each question. Now, the candidates who refer to old question papers get familiar with the exam pattern of both Paper 1 (General Studies) and Paper 2 (CSAT.) Similarly, mains has nine theory papers and candidates can easily understand the pattern of the papers with UPSC old question papers.
• Test your knowledge – It is a challenging task to cover the entire syllabus and retain most of the information unless there is an avenue to test what you have learned beforehand. The civil service examination’s old question papers bring that opportunity to all the candidates without any bias. As the saying goes, “In order to succeed you must fail so that you know what not to do the next time.” Here, failure means a lesson from your mistakes that you may commit while taking up old question papers. And with every mistake, you will give yourself a reason to not repeat it during the actual examination.
• Learn about your strengths and weaknesses – There are of course our favorite subjects and then there are some subjects that give us a nightmare. Most of the candidates from non-technical backgrounds find subjects like the Indian Economy tougher than other subjects. However, if one analyses the CSE old question papers, they will learn the types of questions asked from this subject and as a result, they can prepare smartly. This way, it is possible to turn your weaknesses into your strengths. Similarly, the topics where a candidate finds his/her expertise can be brushed up with the help of the same past year question papers.
• Analyze the hidden trend – While UPSC frequently surprises aspirants by asking more questions from subjects from where it was less expected, yet the types of questions more/less remain the same. For example, in history, aspirants might see the shift of importance given from ancient to modern history yet the questions that are asked from these subjects are frequently focused on society, art, and architecture, eminent personalities, etc. Hence, with candidates opting for more old question papers, it will be less difficult for them to adjust to UPSC demands. 
• Get familiar with Smart Guessing – It is not unknown that 50 percent of the questions are analytical types where an aspirant would be required to smartly eliminate a few of the options to boil down to the correct one. However, it comes with practice. The more you practice your smart guessing in old question papers, the fairer the chances are that you survive in prelims. 
• Improve your answer writing – One has to go nowhere but to the past year papers to find questions and practice answer writing. That is how you kill two birds with one stone. One, you get to improve your answer writing, and two, you get to revise the topics that are important for the examination. 

Conclusion | Uses of UPSC Previous Years Question Papers

There are hundreds of aspirants who clear the examination every year and while sharing their strategies, they don’t miss sharing the importance of  UPSC Previous Years Question Papers. Hence, amid the plethora of resources available in the market, one must choose the old question papers as the key source.

Candidates who are preparing for UPSC Mains 2020 (8th January 2021 onward)  and Prelims 2021(29th June 2021) have ample time to go through the past year papers and undo the mistakes and prepare to win.