Ignite Your IAS Dreams: Tips for Writing Effective Answers

The 2011 UPSC Civil Services Main Examination is scheduled to be commenced on October 29, 2011. When only a few days are left for polishing up your preparation, you need to relax and revise the already prepared topics. Generate plans on how you answer to the questions in the exam. Here are some important tips to be kept in mind while writing the Main exam of the UPSC Civil Services.

Read the UPSC instructions carefully before you start writing the answers. Strictly adhere to the word limit as prescribed at the end of the question to the extent possible. The marks you acquire will not be increased even if you exceed the word limit. On the contrary, your marks may get cut on the basis that you failed to follow the instructions set by the UPSC.

Give importance to your handwriting; write in clear and legible handwriting. This will simplify the examiner’s task so that he can read your answers properly.

Highlight or underline the important points, which you feel are important enough to get the examiner’s attention.

Short paragraphs are easy and comfortable for the examiner; if you write in monotonous way without breaking the idea in different paragraphs the examiner may not find your answers interesting and may not read your whole answer, which may finally result in fetching less marks. Writing in points increase the visibility of your answers.

Keep sufficient space between two lines. The answer sheet needs to look neat.

Be careful about spellings. Spellings errors will give a bad impression about your answers.

Try to maintain uniformity in your write-ups throughout the paper. Many candidates spend unnecessary time in the initial pages to get a good impression and later because of shortage of time they write in bad handwriting and they fail to maintain an overall nice appearance of the pages. This does irritate the examiner which may result in fetching poor marks.

Set an idea about the word limit. You must know in advance how many pages contain how many words in your case. Don’t start counting the words after every answer in the exam hall. This will be confusing and time taking.

Give space and divide by a dividing line between two question-answers. Do not give a sudden end to your answers. Conclude the answers in simple and lucid language.