Answer Writing- Is it really the Quintessence of UPSC CSE Preparation?

I improved my Mains Marks by around 100 from 666 (CSE 2020) to 761 (CSE 2022), hence appeared for Interview. Almost the whole of marks improvement was in GS, with optional scores remaining similar.

These are my learnings based on the same:

  1. Regular Answer Writing is Necessary a fad: People who are doing regular answer writing just for the sake of it can't expect significant improvement in marks. Unless you know your gaps and take actionable steps to fill them up, you can't improve your marks in CSM.
  2. People are NOT doing Mains Syllabus Properly: UPSC Mains syllabus is very very well defined. And unlike Prelims, it's actually limited. You have limited topics on which there are limited subtopics. If you do those subtopics properly, mains gets a zillion times easier.
  3. Revision and Recalling is THE MOST IMPORTANT and yet The MOST IGNORED Part of the Mains Preparation: People are mindlessly reading mains material from not one, not two but sometimes even from three or four sources. Instead, if they'll spend time revising and recalling what they have already studied, it'll pay off much better dividends.
  4. Answer Writing Need of Different Subjects is Different: Answer Writing is more important for certain subjects such as Ethics, Essay and Optional. I ignored answer writing of Ethics and it led me to missing out on 3 case studies (60 marks), costing me a place in CSE 2022 rank list.
  5. Mains Test Series Evaluation in Their Present Form Has Very Limited Utility: No mains test series in the market is focusing on the actual needs of the student. They are killing creativity, are promoting homogeneity and pushing a herd mentality. They are either too long in duration like MGP or too short like AWFG. Similarly, they forget that essentially homogenization of copies is going to further reduce any candidates' scores since their copies will get lost in the sea of copies being evaluated by any UPSC examiner.
  6. Limited and Strategic Answer Writing is the way to go: First finish the syllabus properly with adequate revision and recalling. If you're comfortable with the syllabus, then do brainstorming of at least 4 FLTs each of GS1, GS2, GS3 each and answer writing of GS4, Essay and Optional. Then give 2 FLTs each with a gap of 14 days, with relevant feedback taken from First Set of FLTs and applied on the Next. This much will be more than enough for effective answer writing.

So yes, the above were my major learnings. There are MANY MANY OTHER Learnings too. But those for some other day. Hope it helps!