Chennai: Civil services aspirants found the general studies paper in the Union Public Service Commission’s (UPSC) preliminary exam tough and lengthy this year.As many as 16,626 candidates from the city appeared for the UPSC’s civil services preliminary exam on Sunday. As many as 6,494 candidates were absent.Ajay Isac, one of the aspirants who wrote the exam from the city said the paper was lengthy as the question paper contained 51 pages which is around 10 pages more compared to previous years.“It took me more time to read and understand the questions. There is a deviation in the question pattern compared to last year. We expect the cut-off for main exams to come down from the previous year,” he said.The general studies paper has 100 questions and the exam is for 200 marks.Devika said the questions were analytical and time consuming. “The question paper also had questions in ethics which usually asked in the mains exam,” she said.Some candidates said the comprehension questions in the qualifying aptitude test (paper II) were tough.The top 1% candidates in the preliminary exam will qualify for the mains exam. Last year, the cut-off for qualifying mains exam for general category was 92.6 marks out of 200.“The toughest general studies paper in the recent years was in 2023. The cut-off for qualifying mains exam was 75 marks that year. We expect the cut-off to be 75 to 85 marks out of 200 in general studies paper,” said T Sankara Saravanan, additional director (competitive exams), All India Civil Services Coaching Centre.The aptitude test, which is a qualifying paper, was also very tough and it required extensive reading, he added.
