UPSC conducts CSE #Prelims2019: Paper analysis and more details here
What's the story
Every year, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the Civil Services Examination (CSE) for recruitment to various Civil Services like IAS, IPS, IFS, and IRS among others. The three-stage CSE comprises Preliminary examination, Main examination, and Personality Test/Interview. The 2019 CSE Preliminary examination has been conducted by the UPSC. Here's more on the UPSC Prelims exam and the paper analysis.
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CSE Prelims exam conducted in two sessions
The CSE Preliminary examination has been conducted in two sessions. The Paper I (General Studies) was held in the morning session - from 9:30-11:30 am. Later, Paper II (CSAT) was conducted in the afternoon session - from 2:30-4:30 pm.
Paper I
Difficulty level and other details of Paper-I General Studies
The UPSC CSE Prelims Paper I (General Studies) consists of 100 questions; the duration is two hours. The paper was conducted in the offline mode across more than 70 cities. While each question carried 2 marks, there was also negative marking of 1/3rd mark for each wrong answer. The overall difficulty level of the Prelims exam was reportedly "moderate to difficult".
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Paper I: Section-wise analysis, difficulty level
Coming to the section-wise analysis of General Studies Paper I, while the current affairs, history, and science & technology sections were "moderate to difficult", the geography, polity, and economy sections were "difficult".
Paper II
Difficulty level of CSAT Paper II this year
The CSE Prelims Paper II Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) comprises questions covering topics like Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation, English Comprehension, etc. The paper consists of 80 questions and each question carries 2.5 marks; this paper also comprises objective multiple choice questions. The overall difficulty level of the CSAT Paper II this year was "difficult".
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CSAT Paper II: Section-wise difficulty level
This year, in the CSAT Paper II, some Math questions were reportedly very difficult. The section-wise difficulty level of the questions was "moderate" for English Comprehension and "difficult" for Quantitative Aptitude and Logical Reasoning.