UPSC prelims this year seen to be tougher

Hyderabad: The Preliminary examination for UPSC Civil Services examination was held on Sunday. Of some 46,118 aspirants who had applied this year from Hyderabad, 20,705 aspirants appeared for Sunday’s exam at centres in the city.

The paper was much more difficult than last year, aspirants said. Paper-I, was loaded with current affairs, with emphasis on Indian politics and governance. As per the schedule released by the UPSC, the main exam is scheduled for October.

Twenty four-year-old  aspirant A. Nitish said, ‘’I found the exam difficult. There was a lot of focus on current affairs like last year. Earlier, it used to be a mix of everything. So I can say that UPSC is shifting towards current affairs. This is my second attempt and I hope to clear the prelims this year.’’

Gopala Krishna, director, Brain Tree said, “Hyderabad has the highest number of aspirants for civil services but the slight decrease from last year in the numbers taking the exam here can be attributed to the fact that some aspirants preferred to write the examination in centres outside the city but which were closer to their area of residence.”

“Over the last two years, the number of aspirants from the two Telugu-speaking states has registered an increase of 25 percent. This is on account of both the ‘push factor’ of fewer opportunities in the private sector and the ‘pull factor’  of government service becoming more attractive in terms of service conditions,’’ he said.

“Last year, the qualifying mark was about 58 percent. We can expect it to be lower, at 54-55 percent this year. Paper-I had many questions on current affairs and the questions in the core areas were in tune with the UPSC’s objective of testing the ‘Governmental Sense’ of the aspirants’’, he added.