SUGAM:  Best Mains Answer Writing for UPSC

Written practice is the single most important factor in your success on the Mains exam. You may have read all the books, but without the practice of writing you would be nothing without practicing UPSC Mains answer writing.

The writing practice should take place in two phases.

First Phase

This is from the beginning of your preparation to the preliminary stage. After an initial few months of preparation, you should aim to post at least 1 answer per day.

Sources of the questions can be:

Documents from the previous year.

Questions about the test series.

Question posted in Insights

Students often hesitate to practice writing because they think that their knowledge is not up to par and they need more time to gain knowledge. Remember:

The magic day when you know enough to answer the UPSC question never comes!

You should start with the knowledge you currently have. Initially your answers would be very off the mark and hardly worth 1 or 2 points.

Many of us leave our practice at this point (myself included) because we don’t want to see our initial poor performance face to face. However, if you tolerate this phase well, you will see a big leap in your performance.

How to assess yourself?

You are the best judge of your writing skills. Write an answer and read it from a neutral perspective.

2nd phase

After passing the preliminary examination, you should concentrate on registering for 1 to 2 test series in addition to your daily writing practice.

In the test series, the first results can also be disappointing. I only got 38 out of 250 on my first tests. Again, if you follow the comments and stay calm, you’ll soon be among the first.

A common characteristic of students who pass the exam on the first try or in a relatively short time is that they recognized the importance of writing practice very early in their preparation.

Limited reading with more writing practice is always preferable to possession of encyclopedic knowledge  but little writing practice.

Writing practice for the main exams is probably the second most important factor determining selection (after passing the preliminary exam). I would recommend students with relatively weaker writing skills to start as soon as possible (probably 3-4 months after preparation and at least 8 months). of the power grid).

There were several elements that I explain here:

When to start

Start after you’ve covered some GS in detail and have some basic knowledge of current affairs/static parts of GS. For example, if you’ve covered some politics and GS 2 topics and you have a good idea about that part, you can at least start writing answers about GS 2 topics.

In general, students wait until the pre-exams are completed. This is a mistake. For those of us who don’t have great writing skills, it’s important to start at least 8 months in advance to develop those skills. These skills take time.

Personally, I started writing answers on a piece of paper every day in the month of November to December and practiced for up to 1 month before the preliminary rounds. After the preliminary rounds I started again.

Where to start

You can start using online platforms like Eden IAS to ask questions. 8-10 questions on current topics every day.

My personal routine was to write 1-3 replies a day (about 40 minutes) for these websites. First, I chose the questions I liked. to answer questions about which you have less knowledge. Over time, I noticed a noticeable change in the speed and sharpness of the responses. Also draw diagrams, flowcharts, etc. and time each response according to UPSC.

Getting Started

Make your plan for the next 3-4 months. Decide how many questions will be asked per day (2 or 3 per day is more than enough).Also decide how many samples per month (usually 1 per week is enough). Also subscribe to some test series that you are scheduled to write every 1-2 weeks.

Early Responses

It’s always a good idea to look at early responses, but don’t treat them as sacred. You will always have your style. Just make sure you cover the basics like GOOD STRUCTURE, CLARITY OF THOUGHT, ADDRESSING THE KEY POINTS OF THE QUESTION, SIMPLE LANGUAGE, SUPPLEMENTING WITH APPROPRIATE VISUALS like flowcharts, etc.

Read more about What is the correct way to start the Daily Answer Writing practice?