Prelims 2021: Detailed Analysis of GS Paper-1 | Additional Study Material for UPSC PDF Download

IAS (UPSC CSE) Prelims, popularly known as UPSC Prelims 2021, was conducted on October 10, 2021. The UPSC IAS Prelims 2021 exam was conducted in two shifts for the two papers- from 9:30-11:30 AM and 2:30-4:30 PM.

According to the candidates who appeared for the exam and the expert analysts, the Prelims GS Paper 1 was easy to moderate in difficulty. All the sections had questions from varying difficulty levels.

This article contains detailed information about the difficulty level of each section along with breakdowns and comparisons.

UPSC Prelims GS 1 Analysis 2021- Overall Analysis
The following tables shows the number of questions asked from each topic of Prelims Syllabus of GS 1, as well as the difficulty level of each section. It can be seen that the most number of questions were asked from History and Geography section and that the section was overall difficult.
The Science section saw most of the questions from the Science and Technology portion and only one question was asked from General Science.
This time, the number of questions from Current Affairs were fairly low- 7, as compared to last year’s 15. Also, there was only one question from Miscellaneous.

UPSC Prelims Analysis 2021 - Sectional Analysis

The following graph displays the distribution of questions from each section in Prelims 2021 paper. The candidates can check the number of questions and their difficulty from each section. Knowing the details of this years’ exam will help the future aspirants in forming their Prelims preparation strategies.

Note: As mentioned in the graph, the vertical scale signifies the number of questions while the color shows the difficulty.

IAS (UPSC CSE) Prelims History and Geography Sectional Breakdown

From the data discussed above, we know that the highest number of questions were asked from the History and Geography section. It is important to note that this is one section with multiple sub-topics. Thus, in order to show the number of questions asked from each topic and their level of difficulty, we have provided the following graph.

The above-given data is very important for all the candidates who are going to appear for IAS Prelims 2022 or in future, as well as the candidates who took the exam in 2021. The UPSC Prelims 2022 date has been announced as June 05, 2022.