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Sample Questions
Solutions to Sample Questions
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In our last article, we had briefly outlined about Mock Exam Series that we are going to conduct for Preliminary Exam 2014.
Now in this article we will explain in detail the design and schedule of our Mock Exam series.
Number of Tests: 20 Full Length
Number of Questions in Each Test: 100
Date of Commencement: January 10, 2013
Schedule: Weekly
Design of the Exams
Conventional tests are designed to test your knowledge assuming you have read everything – from basics to advanced level. Some tests emphasize more on facts and some tests still follow old trend where stress was more on rote knowledge.
During last 3-4 years, there has been a massive change in the way Preliminary exam is designed. Now the emphasis is on testing the understanding of basic concepts of topics given in the syllabus. Aspirants are specifically tested about their conceptual clarity. If you do not have clear understanding of a specific topic, the questions are difficult to answer.
Another trend is that questions appear easy outside but once you ponder over them again and again, they confuse you a lot. This is again because of improper understanding of concepts.
UPSC no more is interested in famous personalities, places, awards, or any other facts. Some argue that UPSC is doing this to hurt coaching centres. But it is wrong. UPSC is clearly moving towards selecting candidates who genuinely understand our society, economy, polity, geography, environment and every day events of importance.
How do we fulfill this requirement in our tests?
Let us resort to time tested Bottom-Up approach. Instead of imposing ‘difficult’ questions chosen from unknown standard text books, we will move up the difficulty level starting from basic books.
NCERT texts are sine qua non for any serious IAS aspirant, yet most of them neglect them and they neglect them because of the very basic nature of these books. They like to read big fat books. NCERT or NIOS texts are designed to help students understand ‘concepts.’ If concepts or fundamentals are not clear, there is no use in knowing advanced information.
In our Mock Exams, we would like to take you along with us i.e. we will let you know before hand from which text books and newspapers/magazines we are framing questions so that you can read them with a keen interest and purpose.
It is like Secure-2014, only difference is that, apart from The Hindu, you will be reading text books with Preliminary exam questions in mind. (Have you observed that when you read, you JUST READ! you won’t visualize questions and answers while reading; nor you ask yourself any questions; your focus will be on ‘COMPLETING’ the syllabus at any cost – This approach is fatal)
So, we will start our tests from framing questions exclusively from NCERT and NIOS textbooks. (If you ask most aspirants who have written Prelims/Mains that how many of them have REALLY completed studying all important NCERTS’s, you will draw blank look)
Let us first build a strong foundation, then talk about advanced questions.
First Four Exams:
During first Four Weeks, we will cover all important NCERT text books – starting from Class VI to Class XII.
Each test will have 100 questions and there will be following sections:
- 20 Questions from History Textbooks
- 20 Questions from Geography Textbooks
- 20 Questions from Economics Textbooks
- 20 Questions from Political Science and Science Textbooks(environment, biodiversity and climate change).
- 20 Questions from Current Events (including environment, biodiversity and climate change)
Here, current events would be Constant for all the twenty exams.
In current events, we won’t ask questions on persons, places, awards etc instead our priority would be ‘issues‘ – environmental, diplomatic, science and technology related, legislative, judicial, welfare schemes, new initiatives and other issues of national and international importance.
- Issues are Important, not Facts
Questions on current events will be framed from The Hindu, PIB, Frontline, Yojana, Busines Standard, PRS website and Science Reporter.
Above Four tests are intended to make you read NCERT texts at any cost.
Next Six Tests:
Moving ahead, assuming you sincerely read all NCERT texts and attended our tests seriously, we will start framing questions from Standard Text books.
They include:
- History – From Plassey to Partition – A History Of Modern India (yes, it is a good book. Later we will move to Bipan Chandra)
- Polity – Indian Polity – Laxmikant
- Geography – Goh Cheng Leong and Geography of India – Majid Hussain
- Economy – Business Standard, Investopedia, The Hindu
- Current Events – The Hindu, Frontline, Yojana (including S&T, environment, biodiversity, ecology and climate change)
Again, each test would contain 20 questions from each Textbook or newspapers.
In these tests, question will be asked chapter wise. We will give details of chapters a week before and you have to study them and be prepared to answer our tests.
Next Five Tests
Once we cover above books, we should move one step up. In these next five tests, we will cover chapters from following books:
- History –Bipan Chandra – India’s Struggle for Independence
- Polity – Indian Polity – D D Basu
- Geography – From current events
- Economy – Economic Survey, India Year Book, Budget
- Current Events (including S&T, environment, biodiversity, Ecology and climate change)
Next Five Tests
These five tests would cover questions from all books and newspapers. These will be comprehensive.
Every effort will be made to frame original questions for all the Exams.
The above strategy helps in covering syllabus from basics to advanced level. You will be equipped with broad understanding to face any type of question in Paper-1.
Just to give you a glimpse about the nature of questions, we have included Ten questions below which are frames exclusively from two NCERT books ( Ancient India – Old NCERT and Themes in Indian History part- 1 – New NCERT)
Sample Questions
Solutions to Sample Questions
At first glance these questions appear difficult. But they are from NCERT texts and not from any standard history texts. If one has read NCERT books well, he/she can answer these questions.
Solutions to above questions will be given tonight. (hope by then you would have found answers in the above mentioned text books)
Solutions:
For every question paper we will provide solutions along with Page numbers, name of the source.
Efforts will be made to provide detailed solution to most of the questions.
Quality
If you are a regular visitor of this site, you will know that we won’t compromise quality and also we have a good understanding about the demands of recent exam trends. We will do our best to maintain quality throughout the series.
The above article also serves as strategy for Prelims exam who do not want to enroll for the Exam Series.
But practicing mock exams reinforces whatever information you study in your head. It gives you much needed confidence.
The price is kept low in spite of lot of hard work this involves from our side.
Topics Break-up
We will give you topics break-up one week before the next test.
Note:
By this Exam Series, we are not promising you that these questions would be repeated in the real exam. The intention is to make you read essential books with exam in mind and read them with purpose.
If you observe deterioration in quality of questions, feel free to send us mail to:
insightsonindia at gmail dot com
The Payment Mode:
Fees: Rs 3300/-
Payment can be done by Four modes:
- Debit Cards
- Credit Cards
- Internet Banking
- Deposit by Cash into our account
To Pay For The Mock Exam Series, Click the Button below.
Or you can click the link below and make Online Payment
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Instructions:
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The above gateway is safe and secure
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Once you pay, you will get an Online Receipt. Keep it safe in your inbox for future reference.
For Maestro SBI card specifically, please do this-
1. Under netbanking tab, select the last option ‘Other banks and debit cards”2. On the PG page that opens up, SBI Maestro card option will be present in ‘debit cards’ tab.
To Pay by Depositing Cash in Bank Account:
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Please feel free to leave behind your suggestions and feedback (anything except lowering Fees). We want to give the best and your feedback is crucial for us.
Request:
Please don’t share our files through Torrents or on Forum. But you can share between roommates or share with friends who really can’t afford these tests. It really takes hell lot of hard work to prepare quality questions. Please cooperate. Thank you.
