Methods to Deal With the Two Marker Questions in the IAS Main Exam

Two marker questions are equally important to score well in General Studies in the UPSC Civil Services Main Exam. Just because these questions are of two marks and they are supposed to be written in 20 words only, students generally think and take it for granted that they can do well in the two marker questions without any strategy. But when you actually sit in the Main Exam and practically you are to write on the two marker questions you will realize that it seems more difficult to deal with these questions. These questions are to be written in 20 words only and the topics asked do really have depth. Thus you need to plan and practice properly to answer these questions in 20 words. You might know a lot about a topic asked in the exam in the two marker questions section. But the real challenge is how to compress the concept of the topic and present it in 20 words only. While writing you need to keep in mind that you can not exceed the word limits prescribed by the UPSC.

Prepare your own strategy to answer the two marker questions. Following are some tips on how to prepare for the two marker questions.

•    Go through previous years question papers and try to write on the topics asked, so that you develop the way to present a topic’s crux in 20 words.

•    Make a list of the tow marker questions and keep trying to write on them.

•    While reading newspapers you would come across some new personalities, places and terms. Try to write on them about in 20 words at home.

•    Exchange your answers with your friends’. This will help you comparing your answers with others and finding out the loopholes in your answer and improve them according to the need.

•    First time you may end up writing in 100 words, but with practice you will be able to fix it in 20 only. Word limit set by the UPSC is 20, but it does not mean that whatever it is you have to stick to the word limit of 20. You can take a liberty of a word range of 17 to 23.

•    Following the word limit you must write on the topics to the point. Questions are generally asked from Indian polity, Indian economy, history, culture, science and technology, geography, personalities etc.

•    Once you practiced well you will be able to write on any topic in 20 words if you just know about the topic asked.