The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducted the Civil Services preliminary exam on August 7, this year. According to published sources almost 11.3 lakh applicants registered for the exam. The preliminary exam is conducted in two objective type papers; Paper I is covering General Studies, and Paper II is an Aptitude test.

With Paper I over at 11:30 a.m., candidates now frantically await Paper II, which is from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. PaGaLGuY spoke to a couple of UPSC aspirants about their exam. They said, “The pattern for Paper I was quite unexpected, where the questions were straight-forward, it was the options that confused us.” There were a total of 100 questions in Paper I, where each correct answer is of two marks, and each incorrect answer will cost 0.66 marks. 

Vaishnav Mudbhatkal, waiting in a restaurant trying to beat the humid weather of Mumbai, said, “Paper I was full of current affairs, with some questions from Economics. Questions from History and Climatology were minimal.” 

The overall exam was quite easy. Akanksha Singh, a UPSC candidate from New Delhi, said, “Paper I was different and interesting. Overall there was no theme in the paper. I spent so much time studying History, but there were only a handful of questions.”

Singh continued, “Candidates who were updated with the recent current affairs, will clear Paper I with good marks. I was very nervous about the exam because this is my first attempt, but after seeing the questions I felt I could do it.”

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