UPSC Answer Writing Practice
Major advantage of answer writing practice is that you will be able to retain the answers in mind for a longer period of time by writing. Writing helps in internalising what you have read. This assumes greater significance when you have to read a huge syllabus (and the UPSC syllabus is huge!). Also, writing helps in organising your thoughts.
Why should you practice answer writing for the IAS exam?
The obvious reason is to save time in the examination hall. In the revised pattern of UPSC exam (post 2013), you have to write around 20-25 questions with each answer demanding 200-250 words for the nine papers of the IAS Mains exam.
In three hours which you get for each paper, it is no mean feat to draft and frame answers for the questions and be able to finish it. You need to take care of the presentation while ensuring that there aren’t any filler sentences that diverge from the topic at hand. Each answer requires a format in that it should have an introduction, body, conclusion, subheadings, etc. Quality of the answers matters a lot as it is for one of the most prestigious posts that the candidate is appearing. Ask yourself: Should you waste time thinking about all this in the exam hall (whose result can alter your life) or should you practice it beforehand and concentrate only on what to write for the questions in the hall?
Your answer should be:
- Relevant
- Correct
- Crisp
- Neat
- Adhere to the word limit
- Coherent
