The Civil Services Examination to pick IAS, IPS, IRS, IFS, IFoS and other officers was held on Sunday. The preliminary stage saw an unexpected change. Aspirants are lamenting that too many reasoning-based and assertion-based questions were asked. "Still gobsmacked by the UPSC Prelims 2023 Paper? There were a total of 18 Assertion & Reasoning Questions in Paper-1. One needs a mixture of Critical thinking, Logical Reasoning & Subject knowledge to tackle such questions," wrote an IAS training institute on Twitter.
Usually, Prelims question papers feature not more than one or two such questions. This year, the number stands at 18. Such a sudden, unexpected change has shocked aspirants.
The ones who are most vulnerable are the aspirants from economically deprived sections. After seeing this year's question paper, any perplexed candidate will rush to Delhi to attend the best or some reasonably well-placed training institute. Coaching and a year's stay in Delhi mean lakhs and lakhs of out-of-pocket spend, something only upper-middle-class people can afford.
In poor States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, aspirants sell their family property at times to be able to afford IAS coaching in Delhi. Unexpected changes that create a sense of fear about the unpredictability of the exam will make more and more aspirants migrate to Delhi every year.
IAS coaching has become not only unaffordable but also indispensable. UPSC's avowed aim is to weaken the coaching industry by asking unpredictable questions in the exam. But the result has been the exact opposite: Confused aspirants move to Delhi to undergo training in expensive institutes.
https://twitter.com/Legacy_ias/status/1663040714887004162
