Importance of essay test series in IAS examination
eliteiascoaching June 26, 2021
IAS is considered one of India’s highly reputed and most challenging exams. It comes under group A of the central civil services of the executive branch of the Government of India. Like other civil services, you have to prepare for the CSE conducted by UPSC, through which the IAS cadre is filled.
Essay writing in CSE examinations–
- For the essay paper in CSE, two essays have to be written in under 3 hours, where the word limit is 1000-1200. Each essay carries 125 marks for a total of 250 marks.
- The essay paper is divided into two sections- A and B, each carrying a choice of 4 essays each, and the student has to choose only one essay from each section.
What is an essay writing in UPSC?
While GS papers in UPSC are designed to test your knowledge of various subjects, essay papers emphasise the student’s thinking process. The interlinked chain of ideas and theories, when portrayed through words, gives an idea about the individual. According to M.H. Adams, “Essay is any short composition in prose that undertakes to discuss a matter, express a point of view, or persuade us to accept a thesis on any subject.” In Upsc, we concentrate on formal essays and not informal ones that include factual elements, quoted statistics from governments, reports regarding any development, etc.
Attributes teachers check-in students while dealing with UPSC papers-
- The thought process on critical matters
- Clarity in thinking
- Ability to explain their viewpoint
- Ability to coherence
- Putting ideas in a concise manner
- Solution making ability on different crisis
- Creating and arranging statements in an orderly fashion
Importance of essay test series in the current scenario–
- Evaluation of preparation- Any test series taken offline or online can be best used to interpret your progress or preparation. It provides you with time-bound subject targets. It also helps to evaluate your stronger and weaker areas based on the marks you get and your rank among competitors.
- To get familiar with the trend- Any exam generally contains a pattern of giving topics or questions. Essay test series gives you an overall idea about the toughness of exam and which topics contain requires utmost priority. The frequent you take exams, the more you adapt to its pattern.
- Increase the speed– Tough exams such as UPSC requires some quick decision moments. Sometimes choosing the right question and giving the right amount of time can save you from disaster. The essay test series helps you increase your writing speed and gives you time for an extra revision. This also gives an idea of how much time you can allot to a particular question.
- To feel confident- The best way to go through such an examination is to be calm and confident. Practising essay writing through test series makes you confident about your grip on the subject. Also, it helps to gather a more profound concept on your topic. So in case of indirect questions, too, you can solve them efficiently.
- To sharpen memory- As teachers say, revision is the key. Through essay test series, you can do more and more revision. You can test how much information you retain while writing your essay and how much height your imagination can touch. It sharpens your memory on the topic and the pattern, formatting, crisp keywords, etc.
Conclusion-
So to give yourself an extra edge over your competitors or to take your UPSC preparation one notch higher, you should go for the test series. This can be either offline or online. You will be more confident or poise while writing those 1000-2000 words frequently, and thereby it will push your rank higher than your competitors.
