UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2017 Difficulty Level Raised! Fewer Current Affairs Questions
- UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam was conducted on June 18, 2017.
- The exam comprised fewer current affairs questions as compared to 2016.
- There were more conceptual questions instead of fact-based questions.
UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam was conducted on June 18, 2017. UPSC never fails in introducing a surprise element for Civil Service aspirants. According to reports, there were fewer questions from current affairs.
UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2017 comprised more conceptual questions instead of fact-based questions. This was the major change in the exam pattern this year as in the previous years more factual and less conceptual questions were asked. Very few questions were asked from the field of General Science.
Most of the questions asked in the exam tested the student’s ability to retain relevant and precise information. Atul Roy of Gradeup – an online tutorial centre – said that the difficulty level of the exam has increased in 2017 and this is going to affect the cut-offs as well.
Here is a Basic Analysis of UPSC Civil Services Prelim Exam 2017:
Exam Section | Number of Questions | Details |
Environment | 15 | Questions were related to environmental impact and public health. |
History & Art & Culture | 12 | 6 questions were asked from modern history and another 6 were asked from ancient history, culture and art. Questions based on art and culture were quite diverse and difficult. |
Geography | 70% of the questions were based on the map of India | Questions asked were closely related to the map of India. Some of the questions were tricky and difficult to answer for those who are not thoroughly familiar with the map. |
Economy | 7 to 8 | A good number of questions in this section were related to current affairs. A lot of fact-based questions were asked and the section was quite difficult. |
Science & Technology | 4 | Most of the General Science questions were application based, whereas, questions from technology were from current affairs. |
Polity | 22 | This section comprised of more conceptual questions than fact-based questions. Candidates who knew the constitutional structure well would have been able to tackle this section fairly well. |
Current Affairs | 27 (including govt. schemes, law and policies) | The paper was not dominated by current affairs this year but was fairly balanced with the other sections. This section was also focused on latest government schemes. |
Students who aim to score good marks through current affair were disappointed with the decrease in the number of current affair type questions. Another aspect that raised the difficulty level was that the answer options were very close to each other.
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The exam also comprised questions that required very precise details and asked minute details. UPSC Civil Service Prelims 2017 were designed to not only test the extensive reading of students but also analyse their eye for minute details.