Civil prelims: Questions Focussed on Ecology, Say Aspirants

HYDERABAD: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducted the Civil Services Prelims exam 2023 on Sunday in two sessions — forenoon from 9.30 am to 11.30 am and afternoon from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm. Of the 45,611 aspirants who had applied from Hyderabad district, 27,132 students appeared at the examination, recording 59.49 per cent attendance.

At an all-India level, more than five lakh people appeared for the exam that was conducted in various centres across the country. In Telangana state, centres were at Hyderabad and Warangal, while in Andhra Pradesh it was held at Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, and Anantapur.

The number of notified vacancies this year is 1,105, higher than the previous years. The paper in the first session had questions from all the areas but a predominant emphasis was laid on current affairs and ecology.

Candidates said that questions were also based on India’s role in the world.

“Questions indicate that a long-term foundation and broad-based preparation along with the presence of mind is expected out of a prospective civil servant. The options were very close and luck would play a role in identifying the answer," said a director of an IAS academy.

The forenoon paper had 13 current affairs, 11 from Economic and Social Development, 12 from History & Culture, 3 from General Science, 17 from Indian Polity and Governance, 20 from Environment and Ecology, 15 from Geography and about 9 questions from General Knowledge.

One of the aspirants, Suma K., who chose political science and international relations as her optional subjects said that both papers were difficult in their own ways.

“The amount of unpredictability in the paper was shocking. It’s nothing compared to papers over the years. There’s no reference point to look back to check how it must’ve gone, at this point, it's safe to say it's more a game of luck rather than knowledge.”

She added that the papers were more concentrated on certain topics like permutations, combinations, and probability, which students from non-engineering and non-math backgrounds would’ve found difficult to solve.

Even students who usually have enough time to go through, found the paper to be lengthy and hard to get through in time.

The results of the examination are expected to be out after June 15, 2023.