UPSC Prelims: tool for rejection vs merit exam?

[Seema]

This article was published in The Hindu today. It was a good read, so I thought of sharing it with you all. I attempted this year's prelims and failed, and I'm shattered. The writer has pointed out many things I've been thinking about after the exam over the past few weeks.

What are your thoughts on the article? What reforms would you suggest if you could change UPSC?

My recommendations: release a detailed syllabus for prelims, provide explanations for the prelims questions, and publish toppers' mains answer sheets.

And about the question paper - NEVER MAKE THE PAPER THIS RANDOM. Tough questions are fine, but not this level of randomness, for *f*** sake*.

[Laksh]

As a future UPSC aspirant, I would suggest a detailed syllabus and questions strictly based on it.

[Vinay]

Even NEET has become totally unpredictable now!

[Anita]

An article written by someone outside the UPSC circle would have been more credible, but unfortunately the author is a coaching institute director.

[Sonal]

UPSC and its staff should remember that they live on taxpayers' money and are directly accountable to us.

[Pradeep]

Prelims has always been about weeding out candidates. It was introduced in the 70s (or 80s, I'm not sure) to trim the growing number of aspirants. Earlier there were only two stages - mains and interview - and those were based on merit.

[Indrajit]

Every competitive exam in India is essentially a rejection test, not a selection one. Welcome to real‑world 101.

[Gaurav]

Nothing will change for UPSC until people take them to court and expose their opacity. We need transparency - publish the evaluated mains answer sheets, there's nothing to hide. Are there secret intelligence files? Release the marks of candidates who failed both prelims and mains, along with the cut‑offs before mains and interview. Standardise interview scoring - how can one candidate get 120 and another 220 when they scored the same in mains? Reduce this subjectivity. Even state PSCs like BPSC are far more transparent, but UPSC officials seem to need a belt‑tightening before they act.

[Mohaideen]

It has always been a tool for rejection. Sometimes I feel the mains and interview are also just tools.

[Imtiaz]

Feel free to say what you like, but this year's question paper was extremely pedantic and vague.

[Akash]

They only want to reject candidates in prelims, like a squid game; the real prelims is actually the mains stage.