Importance of Previous years’ question papers in IAS Exam Preparation

Serving the nation in the capacity of a civil servant is the dream of a large number of youths in India. Each year, lakhs of aspirants take up the UPSC Civil Services Examination, conducted to recruit candidates for the prestigious Civil Services such as the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Revenue Service etc. Among these aspirants only about a thousand make the cut and realize their dream of serving the nation. UPSC 2019 Civil Services exam is fast approaching. If you are one of the aspirants wanting to make it to the final merit list in this year’s attempt, it is important you don’t miss out on a few simple tricks that toppers follow. One such secret is to solve the previous years’ question papers. Here is why solving the UPSC question papers of the previous years is an essential practice for clearing the IAS Exam:

1. Gives an idea of the UPSC Exam pattern:

It is a very well-known fact that the UPSC Exam syllabus is vast. It becomes a tedious task to prepare for the examination without understanding the pattern of the exam. A thorough glance into the previous years’ papers helps you get a clear picture of the examination pattern.

2. Helps in understanding the requirements of the exam:

While preparing for an exam that is considered the toughest in the country, aspirants often waste their time on studying what is not necessary for the exam, missing out on precious time for the most important topics. Previous year question papers serve as a guiding light for your preparation. It helps you get into the minds of the paper setters and understand the requirements of the exam. With practice, you will know how to approach a topic from the examination perspective.

3. Helpful in Trend Analysis:

Though it is considered highly impossible to predict the questions that could be asked in the IAS exam, an analysis of the question papers from the recent past will help you analyze the trend in the topics that have been given more importance. For example, it is explicit from the trend analysis of recent question papers that current affairs segment has assured greater significance in the UPSC question paper.

4. Understand the requirements of UPSC:

While answering the questions in the Mains examination, one has to be very careful about the directives mentioned in the question. UPSC uses directives such as comment, explain, critically analyze, etc. in each of the questions and your answer must be written in a manner that will fulfill the requirements as stated in the directive

5. Great materials for Practice:

As clichéd as it may seem, practice makes you perfect. And there can be no material better than the question papers set by the UPSC itself, for practice. Solving these question papers will make you more confident to take up the exam and will also help in time management. Solve as many papers as possible in order to stay ahead of your peers and make it to the final list with a good rank.

Simple changes to your preparation strategy can take you a long way in your preparation. For more guidance and tips & tricks to crack the Civil Services Exam, subscribe to our BYJU’S YouTube channel – One stop destination for all your IAS needs.