Paper 2 in the Prelims is the yet another critical paper to stand a chance to appear in the mains Exam. Although there may be some ambiguity regarding achieving high marks in Paper 1 but getting high marks in Paper 2 is comparatively easily with consistent practice, a fair idea of the questions asked and how to tackle those questions in limited time.
Paper II
Marks 200 (2.5 marks for each question – 80 question)
Negative Marking: Yes (1/3rd marks deducted for each wrong question)
Duration: Two hours
Paper 2 of IAS exams mainly test the following skills of a candidate:
1) Comprehensive skills
2) Reasoning skills
3) Numerical skills
4) Decision making skills
The syllabus for Paper 2 is as follows:
1. Comprehension
2. Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
3. Logical reasoning and analytical ability
4. Decision making and problem solving
5. General mental ability
6. Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)
7. English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).
Paper 2 consists of 80 questions where yo get 2.5 marks for each right answers and 0.83 marks is deducted for each wrong answer from your total score. Getting a 130+ in Paper 2 is very much possible as the questions asked in are not very tough comparatively. Time is what is the main constrain over here. You are given only 2 hours to solve around 80 questions. This means that you only get 1.5 minutes to solve a particular question. Thus, time management is what works for you while attempting for this paper.
Looking at the past questions papers, the paper would seem to be very easy, But due to paucity of time, candidate find it difficult to cross 130+. The long passages given and the elaborate questions would eat up much of your time that you would not find sufficient time to solve all the questions. Thus prior practice is needed to fair well in this paper.
For the sake of simplicity, let us divide the question paper into 3 parts:
1) Comprehensive skills
You would be given a paragraph to read and based on the paragraph some questions will be asked. Usually the number of question will vary from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2. The more the questions, the difficult will be the paragraph. There would be several paragraphs given in the questions paper and you would find that most of your time is being spent just reading those paragraphs. Thus there are two things that you must concentrate:
a) Increasing your reading speed
b) Ability to comprehend the ideas quickly.
These two ideas can only be developed when you practice enough. There is no shortcut to it. If you don’t practice, you will still be able to solve all the questions but with more time consumption.
2) Reasoning skills, Numerical ability and aptitude
This part can also be commanded with consistent practice. The best book to start with is : Verbal and Aptitude by R.S Agarwal
However, there are several other books which are available in the market which are worth noting.
3) Decision making
The last 5-6 questions are the decision making questions. The good part is that there are no negative markings for decision making questions. So, a candidate must attempt these questions. Basically, the questions are not very tough in nature and a slight analysis of the situations given in the question will lead to the answer
Strategy for preparation
One good way to have a command over this paper is to set aside 20-30 minutes daily to practice one comprehension and numerical ability. Try to put a time frame to see how much time you are taking to answer or solve questions. With dedicated practice, you will soon observe that you are able to solve much questions in less time.
How many marks should I secure so that I have chances of appearing in the Mains?
Paper 2 being comparatively easy than Paper 1, students fetch good enough marks something more than 130.If you are able to get something between 140 to 160 you have a fair chance. Candidates even surpass 170+ in this paper and clear the prelims even when the Paper 1 marks falls somewhere between 70 to 80. However, there are 2 possibilities in which this might not work for you:
1) The questions paper was too easy.
2) You screwed yourself a lot in Paper 1.
Apart from these 2 reasons, the experience and pattern of past year have show that students who are able to get around 140-160 marks in Paper 2 have a very good chance to clear it.
Note:
It is to be noted that UPSC takes the sum total of both the papers and then declare the results on the total marks attempted by the candidate. There is no individual marking as such which is considered while declaring the results. However, a minimum 60-70 mark is expected by a serious candidate since the Mains paper is General Knowledge based.