In each GS paper, UPSC expects you to write 10 ten-markers (150 words) and 10 fifteen-markers (250 words). That’s 4000 words in 3 hours. Ironically, most serious aspirants end up writing more. They end up writing 4500–5000 words per paper.
That’s 20 questions in 3 hours—i.e., 7–8 minutes for a 10-marker and 11–12 minutes for a 15-marker. And in those three hours, you’re expected to read the question, understand the demand of the question, and frame an appropriate response. Add to that the need to stand out, be value-added, and present your answers well. And you have to write 4–5 papers like that over three consecutive days. This is where it becomes challenging.
Why are most students unable to complete the UPSC Mains Paper in time?
Some of the challenges students face: overthinking before writing, writing too much even when you don’t know, allocating more time than a question deserves, aspiring to write perfect introductions and conclusions, spending too little time on writing UPSC format papers within time and never having written this many tests in your life etc. And the irony is that the most common reason for students skipping questions is not that they don’t know the answer—it’s that they run out of time to write it.
So, is there a way around it?
Honestly, there is no magic wand to fix this problem overnight. You can address this to a large extent by doing some exercises, changing your mindset, and developing good practices. Every time you write a paper, you learn something about yourself. Use that to tweak and improve.
What gets measured gets improved!
Start measuring, start analysing, and target improvement in every test—even if it’s just a few minutes or seconds per question. Make sure you don’t stretch beyond 7–8 minutes for a 10-marker or 11–12 minutes for a 15-marker. Learn and practice how to use a wristwatch to track time spent on each answer.
Pro Tip: At the top of every answer, write the starting time to analyse the sequence of attempts and time spent on each.
Pre-prepare your Intros and Conclusions
Most students take time thinking about what to write as a great introduction or conclusion. Imagine if, for each question, you take 45–60 seconds thinking about this—it adds up significantly across the paper. So what do we do? We prepare a compendium of introductions and conclusions for syllabus keywords so that you don’t have to overthink and can activate muscle memory.
Pro Tip: Leave space for the introduction, write the body first, and you’ll often get better ideas for the intro while doing that.
Embellishments do Wonders for Time Management
When you write every answer in full sentences and fill every line with text, it obviously takes more time. So what we suggest is this: use schematics, maps, and diagrams in answers. They fill more space in less time and make the content more visual. Schematics are especially effective in answers where you lack strong content and want to fill space efficiently.
Pro Tip: Refer to toppers’ copies to see innovative approaches in the use of diagrams and schematics.
Don’t Treat Every Question Equally
Most students make the mistake of approaching all questions uniformly. Some you know well, some you have partial content for, and a few you have no clue about. Logically, does it make sense to give equal time and intensity to all? No. So, approach them differently—save time on some so you can afford to spend more on others.
Pro Tip: Take 5 minutes before every test to grade questions and sequence them accordingly.
And above all, A must-do Mindset: I will write as much as I can and improve with every test. Even if it involves writing a few average or bad answers, I’ll write the whole paper. Don’t aim to write perfect answers. Write good ones, along with average and calculated attempts, to ensure you complete the entire paper. Once you commit to this mindset, you’ll stop trying to write perfect answers, you’ll stop overthinking, and you’ll stop spending too much time on every answer.
It’s not a single idea that works for this problem, but a combination of these that can solve it to a certain extent. The trick is in experimenting and deciding what works better and what suits you more. Happy writing!
