When I started preparing for UPSC Civil Service Examination in 2014 after leaving my job in a professional architectural firm, little did I know how much difficult it would be for me to write around 2500 words within just 3 hours as I spent my 9 years in creative world – where you write less and sketch or draw more!
Still I managed to fetch comparatively good marks in Essay paper in my both attempts – 2015 and 2016.
I did not get time to practise writing essay before mains. Much of the time was sacrificed for optional (which was Geography) and GS papers.
Also I was not satisfied with my writings in Essay paper in both years – that unsettled my focus for GS 1 and 2 papers also.
I got 134 in 2015, and 154 in 2016.
The key to get good marks in Essay paper is very simple – be creative.
But this doesn’t mean one has to play with words or use floral language while writing essays. It is best to avoid using hard-to-find-in-dictionary words to show the prowess in vocabulary. The speciality of this paper which makes it so different from other papers – GS and optional, is that only in this paper the examiner gets an opportunity to test your capability to analyse various unpredictable scenarios. This is why the topics in Essay paper seem to be so vague.
I will tell you how to fetch good marks in this paper.
(1) Read non-fiction books outside the syllabus as much as you can read. This habit will give you more knowledge than others who are just mugging NCERT books. I had read COSMOS by Carl Sagan and was able to write analytically (yet with the flow) in any paper. Also, reading science based non-fiction books give you an edge as you will be able to provide supporting evidence for any analysis or proposal or conclusion.
(2) Write in simple English. Many UPSC aspirants showed me their answer sheets and the very first thing I noticed is – use of difficult jargons and floral languages. Watch any TED talk and you would understand why using of simple English is a tool to catch attention of reader (here, the examiner). Remember that the examiner reads piles of answer sheets within very short time. So to catch the examiner’s attention one needs to write easy-to-understand language. But of course this doesn’t mean you have to write in spoken English which is to be avoided at any cost in an examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission !
(3) Provide examples as much as you can. The examiner wants to check whether you are ‘bureaucrat-material’ or not ! A bureaucrat needs to keep an eye on different incidents which give idea of solution to the persisting problems. I remember giving the example of railway officers who used Bollywood memes for the public awareness in the railway platforms. I gave more examples in all possible scenarios discussed in essays. (Yes, I used this same technique in GS-3,4 papers also which are ‘exploratory’ in nature). Also, if you give an interesting example in your essay that will make your writing enjoyable to read ! That’s how you will establish mental connection with the examiner.
(4) Make the start of essay intriguing. While going through massive number of answer sheets, the examiner come across many essays which have similar pattern of introduction ! To make your answer sheet different from others’, it is best to provide some unexpected start. Here is what I wrote in the introductory part of an essay ‘Lending hands to someone is better than giving a dole’ (I don’t exactly remember the words but those were more or less like these)-
“Just a few months back there was public outrage over a photo posted in social media site. It was a boy with his girlfriend, clicking a selfie on the occasion of Valentine Day while an old crying woman was visible behind them…”
Apparently you will not find any connection between the start and the topic. That was a surprise for examiner. From this I started to point out the psychology of lack of empathy towards the needy by individuals, by society as a whole. This is like unknotting the topic bit by bit, with an investigative mind. Essay is also like a story-telling, not just a way to dumping facts or saying gibberish in an attempt to beating the bushes.
(5) Spend at least 5 minutes before starting the essay. I brainstormed both essays and spent overall fifteen minutes to make the ‘plot’ on last page of answer sheet. This ensured the flow of writing for next 2 hours 45 minutes. It is best to choose second essay at the very first to avoid the ‘ten minutes in tension’ after finishing the first essay – that eats more minutes when you fumble in the middle of writing of second essay.
(6) While making the plot of the essays i used keywords and arrow signs which you see in power point presentations. Often examiners watch those to get the idea of your thinking path. For this reason I wrote as much keywords, sidenotes as possible on the last pages of answer sheets. Apparently the diagrams gave me extra marks!
(7) It is always best to make your essay simple by using lesser number of topics, sub-topics. The more topic headlines (which are to be written in uppercase letters, better if you box them) you write, the more complex the essay becomes and the examiner loses enthusiasm to read further. For example, in the same essay I have mentioned in para 4, I wrote only a few topics including psychological, socio-economic viewpoints – not more than four or five !
(8) Underlining a few keywords also helps in retaining the attention of examiner if any paragraph becomes too long or written in comparatively bad handwriting due to faster speed of writing.
(9) Don’t spend much time improving your handwriting. There are many aspirants whom I have seen worrying about their poor handwriting. The examiners are the most experienced ones. Only one needs to do is to write in legible handwriting.
‘Thinking out of the box’ is what you need to do while writing any paper in the civil service examination conducted by UPSC. Always try to be innovative in your answers. It should be ‘fun to read’ – and that gives you better marks.
All the best.
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