To achieve the hot seat of the civil servant, the first barrier the aspirants have to cross is undoubtedly, the preliminary examination. The UPSC CSE 2024 preliminary exam was conducted on Sunday, June 16, 2024. Millions of aspirants tried their luck to secure their spot in the 1056 vacancies. According to our experts, the difficulty level of the prelims examination was on the moderate side. They pointed out that the candidates who practised the UPSC previous year questions might find the examination very approachable. In this article, you will be engaging with the UPSC CSE 2024 Prelims analysis in detail made by our expert faculties.
A General Overview of UPSC CSE 2024 Prelims
Our experienced faculties believes that the difficulty level of the UPSC CSE 2024 Prelims questions in almost every subject ranges from easy to moderate. Compared to the previous year, the difficult questions appeared less in number. In contrast, the significant portions of the prelims UPSC question paper are primarily focused on factual recalls. Thus, the students were required to conduct a comprehensive learning on various facts.
In the last year, paired questions were given an upper hand in the preliminary examination., However, in the UPSC CSE Prelims 2024, several questions appeared as multiple statement-type questions that need to be solved using elimination techniques. When it is described in factual figures, only 17 pair questions and 43 multiple statement type questions appeared in the UPSC Civil Service Prelims. In addition, following the path of the previous year, UPSC linked the fundamental subjects with current affairs, and sensational issues appeared in the news this year as well.
Subject-wise UPSC CSE 2024 Prelims Analysis
For the UPSC CSE 2024 Preliminary exam, there are 9 subjects, including Polity, Economy, Geography, History, Science and Technology, Environment and Ecology, International Relations, Government Schemes, and Miscellaneous. Every section has its own difficulty level that ranges from easy to difficult. Let’s take a tour of each section by analysing the questions, that appeared in the UPSC Civil Service Prelims 2024 at a glance.
International Relations
When analysing the questions that appeared in the UPSC CSE 2024 Preliminary exam, gives us an insight into the importance of reading newspapers regularly, and following current affairs. There appeared questions that ranged from the economic crisis faced by Argentina and Venezuela to Geopolitical tensions in Africa. Thus, it is recommended to systematically follow the sensational issues around the globe and current affairs.
Polity
Following the footprints of the previous years, UPSC has continued to ask direct questions from static topics, including parliament (Speaker, money bill, prorogation etc), fundamental rights (Right to privacy, writ of prohibition etc), Parliamentary Committees and so forth in the UPSC CSE 2024 Prelims. In addition, there were also questions from the diverse current affairs topics related to Polity, including the ethics committee, Women Reservation Act and so on.
History
By following the trends from the previous years, UPSC gave importance to the questions from the Ancient, Medieval and Art and Culture. They gave more weightage to these topics than, that given to Modern Indian History. In the case of Ancient India, UPSC continues to give significance to conventional topics like Buddhism, Literature, etc. On the other hand, in Modern India, they ask questions related to topics including constitutional reforms and British Administrative reforms.
Geography
Breaking previous year’s trends, this year, UPSC gave importance to the fundamental physical geography questions, including Earth’s atmosphere, Indian Physiography, Drainage and so on. However, many similar questions from the previous year reappeared this year, which points out towards importance of practising the previous year’s question papers for cracking the UPSC examination. Apart from these, the questions from conceptual mapping and human geography secure their spot in the question paper of UPSC Prelims 2024.
Environment and Ecology
In Environment and Ecology, it is observed that questions largely follow the trend of the previous year. However, UPSC focuses predominantly on biodiversity. The questions asked in this section were application-based rather than factual questions. On the other hand, like in previous years, the examiner continued to focus on behavioural aspects of species. However, this year witnessed a reduction in the number of questions from new technologies. To answer such kinds of questions effectively, the aspirant should develop the habit of newspaper reading and develop conceptual understanding.
Economy
The Economy section focuses on the main contemporary topics, including the digital rupee, syndicated loans and so forth. It clearly shows the deviation from the previous question model that focuses mainly on traditional economic terminologies and concepts like inflation, GDP, and so forth. On the other hand, there are a few conceptual questions repeated this year as well from the topics including CSR, NBFC, and financial instruments.
Science and Technology
In UPSC Prelims 2024, the application-based questions from the topics, including the use of radars, hydrogel and so forth, appeared. On the other end, like the previous year, the questions from the topics, including astrophysics and space had an upper hand this year as well. Likewise, the domination of topics from the latest technology, including membrane bioreactors, fuel cells and so on, was visible in the question paper of the Prelims CSE 2024 examination.
Comparison of Subjects at a Glance
In the UPSC prelims 2024 syllabus, the UPSC has given importance to static portions like polity, geography, environment and economics. Among the questions appeared the conventional questions in polity and geography rule the paper. Like last year, UPSC framed only a few questions from modern history. On the other hand, the number of questions from International Relations remain constant this year as well.
The difficulty level of the 2024 UPSC Prelims, is broadly classified into three., i.e., easy to moderate, moderate and moderate to difficult. The sections of the examination, such as Polity, Geography and Environment and Ecology fall in the category of easy to moderate. However, the difficulty level of the History, Science and Technology and Government Schemes falls on the moderate side. On the other hand, the candidates find it difficult to answer questions from the sections Economy, International Relations and Miscellaneous.
CSAT
CSAT or Civil Service Aptitude Test is the Second paper in the 2024 UPSC Prelims. In this year, a few data-sufficient question types seemed difficult for the aspirants. However, most students managed to complete the paper, and they did not feel much pressure in time to complete the paper like the candidates struggled in the previous year. When compared with last year’s questions, CSAT questions that appeared this year were moderately easier than those of last year, especially the questions from the maths and reasoning ability. On the other hand, the questions from the reading comprehension seemed to be tougher when compared with the last year.
Conclusion
The UPSC CSE Prelims 2024 is the first barrier that candidates had to cross to achieve their goal of wearing the cap of a civil servant. Our expert faculty after the UPSC prelims analysis 2024 question paper, put forward certain suggestions for the aspirants to cross the barriers of the Civil Service Examination smoothly and confidently. They suggested that,
- Do not be over-dependent on the unofficial keys.
- Do not wait to start preparation for the Mains examination, until the Prelims results are out. It is recommended to start preparation at the earliest, especially those hopefully crack Prelims.
- For students who were not able to work up to their expectation level or didn’t feel like performing well, it is recommended to analyse their performance in the prelims and find out strong and weak subjects for improving yourself. In addition, it is also recommended to do a microanalysis of the questions and the types you got wrong. The aspirants who fall in this category are recommended to join the repeaters program in a reputable civil service academy in Kerala like Fortune IAS Academy.
- While preparing, the aspirants are not recommended to separate static portions and current affairs. They should devote their time to preparing both sections equally and integrated.
- At any stage of preparation, it is necessary to develop conceptual clarity rather than memorising facts and figures.
The Civil Service examination is the biggest step for a civil service aspirant has to cross to secure the prestigious chair of the Civil Servant. The UPSC CSE Prelims 2024 analysis by the experts at Fortune IAS Academy would give insight to the aspirants regarding the difficulty level of the questions, the faults made by the aspirant while preparing for the examination, the factors they need to concentrate and so forth. Thus, we can conclude that UPSC CSE 2024 Prelims were not difficult when compared to the previous year, especially for those who worked on the previous year’s question papers as well as the Prelims test series provided by the leading IAS Academy in Kerala like Fortune IAS Academy.
All the Best to the Civil Service Aspirants!!