In these type of ques, heuristic from Q7 comes to our rescue, i.e. focus on negating the premise of given options to arrive at the 'last option standing' than rushing to what you think is right, because such questions are also a matter of interpretation.

Option 'c' was definitely wrong as Gandhiji spoke about trusteeship and not abolition of pvt property.

Wrt Option 'd' I didn't know about economic determinism conceptually but word association hinted towards a system where economics determine one's being. I couldn't relate it to any of Gandhiji's ideas that I have read so backed my instinct and eliminated 'd'.

One of the lessons I drew from this question is to not color the questions with your prism of the job profile that this exam brings, and maintain objectivity. What do I mean by that?

I knew about Gandhiji's idea of Gram Swaraj and decentralising the powers to bring autonomy to people. Also I was aware of the fact that Gandhiji was called a political anarchist by some of his 'critics'. But I kept thinking about how it was highly improbable for the question setter to take up a 'critical' stand of 'Politico Anarchism' towards 'Bapu'.

I did also misinterpret the term 'class struggle' in the exam hall. I related class struggle with the peasant and working class movements Gandhiji was a part of. So I ended up marking 'b' which we know now was incorrect.

My takeaway thus for handling interpretation based questions is pretty straightforward. If you can't make concrete sense out of most of the given options, better to leave such questions. Or if you're attempting such questions, know that you're playing the odds and tread cautiously.

I was setup for a negative score on this question right from the word go. Simply because I was making a lot of unsubstantiated assumptions. I eliminated 'd' on a half baked hunch, then ignored 'a' by projecting a patriotic mindset on the examiner, and finally gave my own color to the term 'class struggle'

Don't unnecessarily 'intellectualise' the questions/options and stay away from the cardinal sin of overthinking. Simplicity yields the best rewards in this examination.

In my experience, if you're making more than 1(in desperate* times, 2) assumption/s in a question, you're setting yourself up for a negative score.


Also, some of you would also be curious as to why do I keep investing so many words on discussing an approach that fetched me a negative score . The response to that is fairly simple. I've come to also understand over time that sometimes, a faulty approach is a far more powerful tool to learn & improve than a straightforward approach that might yield the answer in one go, but doesn't teach me 'why' it worked.

*Desperate times: When you're anyways not able to attempt more than 45-50 questions, and you know that the attempt looks full of doom & gloom, it doesn't hurt to play the odds and possibly make assumptions that at least enable you to attempt some additional questions.

Similar heuristic to the one used above and in Q7 as the question is again interpretation based. So my focus will be on finding the one option that is 'closest' to the context of the question than the others.

Logically it is the parliament itself that has the power of widening its own scope. So I eliminated 'a'.

Since bureaucracy forms a part of AIS, it can be seen as an agency for strengthening the structure of federalism so I'll hold onto that thought for a while and move onto the next option.

Political stability is incumbent upon the political parties(by means of forming alliances) and their electoral performance. Bureaucrats ideally have little to no role in ensuring that. Moreover we read about political neutrality as being one of the cardinal values required in civil services. Thus, I eliminated 'c'.

Option 'd' looked logically correct. Moreover it is more likelier to be correct than Option 'b' as public policy implementation is a part of the core job profile of a bureaucrat whereas strengthening federalism is an ancillary benefit of the services.

Straight from the chapter on preamble from Laxmikanth. Same takeaway as from other ques on Polity. Do Preamble, First 51 Articles(FR,DPSP,FD) and the chapter on legislature really well. Everything else can wait.

For people who read IMF thoroughly, this was a a direct question.
But there still are ways to get to the right answer with logical guesswork even if one hasn't thoroughly prepped IMF. So two heuristics aid our cause in this question.

Heu#1: Taken from Q#5 , a more specific option is more likely to be correct than a vaguely worded one. And 'b' is as vague an option as it possibly gets.

Heu#2: Usually if two statements are similarly worded with only slight variation, it's very likely that the answer is one of them.
For instance, option 'c' and option 'd' are similarly worded but for the orgs that are mentioned. Additionally, WTO is a facilitator while IMF has a more hands on functioning operating with credit systems. So even if I were not exactly aware of the answer, I would have still marked 'd'.

Another takeaway is to prepare atleast these 3 orgs, i.e. WB, IMF and WTO really thoroughly. Each year or every alternate year, there's atleast one question from one of these 3 organisations.

How many times will I repeat it? Idk, as many times as the need be. First 51 articles of Consti, Preamble and the chapter on legislature needs to be internalised. No excuses on that.

Moreover, to know that '3' is correct doesn't even need too deep an understanding of DPSPs.
That leaves us with 'c' and 'd'. After that, it's a matter of how well you've read the chapter and could back your knowledge in the exam hall.
Though at the outset, statement '2' is tempting as it appears to be an extreme statement, but is correct nonetheless.

Thus, conviction is key in the exam hall. And 'blind' adherence to any rule or heuristic is a sin.

Statement '1' was peculiar so I had to leverage my peripheral knowledge while also backing my convictions.

We know that a person after attaining the age of 18 becomes eligible to vote. Whereas to become a member of legislature, minimum age requirement is 25, after which one become eligible to serve at a ministerial post.
Even if one were to be made a minister without getting a membership of the house, it sounded unlikely that an 18 yr old Voter ID holder could be made a minister. for 6 months. So I eliminated '1'.

For statement '2', I couldn't remember any provision for permanent disqualification. The disqualification from my understanding was contemporaneous to the duration of the punishment plus some additional time on top of it. Moreover, 'data' points are more often than not manipulated by UPSC in questions. Thus, the sentence term of 5 years seemed sketchy. So I marked 'd' which eventually turned out to be the correct answer.

My take on these questions is fairly straightforward. It's difficult to memorise and recall such minute details.
If you could use common sense with your peripheral knowledge, you would have every shot of getting these questions correct with practice.

Note how we have another question from Parliament.

Two ways to arrive at a 50-50 chance.
Either you know '1' to be correct which is a straightforward fact from the chapter. Or you know that '2' is incorrect as there's no mandate on conducting a certain number of sessions.

Either way leaves you with 'a' and 'c'.
Now I knew that the gap between two sessions could at max be 6 months. So a logical extrapolation suggested that it there's a requirement of atleast 'two' sittings of Parliament over an year. I went ahead and marked 'a'.

UPSC key had 'c' as an answer which gave me a reasonable takeaway. In questions on polity, it's always better to take the statement on its face value and avoid extrapolations. Since the parliament 'explicitly' doesn't suggest a requirement of a minimum no. of sessions, so '3' made more sense from that argument.

Hey guys! Accept my apologies for not being able to finish this discussion. In between now and the last time I was here, life happened. Couldn't clear Mains 2021 and had to revaluate my future course of action. Also, as I believe, there's no point in reinventing the wheel. By the stroke of serendipity though, I got a document which might help you before pre. Make good use of it.

Hopefully if luck obliges, I'll be back soon. Best wishes meanwhile.

Some answers given by the author are incorrect. So always use the official answer key to validate.

Q20. Official answer is 'A' not 'D'
Q42. Cancelled by UPSC
Q51. Official answer is 'C' not 'D'
Q58. Official answer is 'A' not 'D'
Q77. Cancelled by UPSC
Q83. Official answer is 'D' not 'B'
Q89. Official answer is 'D' not 'A'
Q91. Official answer is 'B' not 'C'

Find the solution of Prelims UPSC 2021. Use this solution as a tool to use heuristics more smartly. Also, now you would see why this paper was really uncertain given so many random questions and nearly 11-12 contentious questions whose solution could only be confirmed by the honorable commission.

Q1. No provision in constitution regarding RBI as it is a statutory body, eliminate '2' arrive at the answer.

Q2. Answer either 'b' or 'd'. Based on my experience, I try to negate statements with simple examples and if I cannot, I assume the statement to be correct. I can negate '1' by thinking of a casual 'labour' who is not given EPF. I negate '1' and mark 'b'.(Wait for UPSC's key to confirm)

Q3. Static, counter cyclical fiscal policy. 'b'

Q4. Word association. 'Inferior' good's demand increasing with increasing income of consumer highly unlikely. Eliminate '3' and arrive at 'a'.

Q5. Static. '1' is factually wrong, arrive at 'b'.

Q6. 'Influence' is a soft, broad term. I prefer to mark 'All' i.e. 'd'.

Q7. 'deposit' can't be an 'investment'. Furthermore, FII with 'certain conditions' is generic and likely to be correct. 'a'.

Q8. 'Necessarily'.'1' is certain while '3' is only 'likely' thus 'a'.

Q9. Occam's razor i.e. Black money=Tax evaded money. 'd'.

Q10. Repeated question(2013), 'd'.

Q11. Repeated question(2019), 'c'.

Q12. 'high interest rates'= less easy to procure funds. Eliminate '5' and arrive at 'a'.

Q13. 'Organisation combination' usually mismatched(BSE+RBI looked incoherent combination; BSE's collab with SEBI would have made more sense). '2' is generic. 'b'.

Q14.'Organisation combination' usually mismatched. Eliminate '2' arrive at 'c'.

Q15. Static, 'b'.

Q16. 'Word association'; 'R2', 'a' has 'responsible, recycling'

Q17. Answer either 'b' or 'd'. Wait for UPSC's key.

Q18. 'Generic statements, can't negate any strongly. 'd'

Q19. 'Word association'; 'Blue=Water related', 'a'.

Q20. Static, 'c'.

Q21. Random trivia, 'c'.

Q22. 'Cyanobacteria= Blue green algae'; 'Diatoms also primary producer' These options have already featured in PYQs. So better to google PYQ options. Also in copepods, 'pod' means legs, thus likely to be an animal than a 'primary producer'. 'b'

Q23. '3' is well known. For those who watched cartoon series 'Sonic the hedgehog' series would know '1' is also correct. Otherwise can take a guess between 'c' and 'd'. Answer='d'.

Q24. Eliminate '3'(legally binding not usually correct),'4' is generic thus can't be negated strongly, 'a'.

Q25. Answer either 'b' or 'd'. Wait for official answer key.

Q26. Random trivia, 'c'.

Q27. Static, 'c'.

Q28. 'Spot the odd one out'. Seahorse doesn't seem to be a detrivore. Eliminate and arrive at 'c'.

Q29. Random trivia, 'a'.

Q30. Unless you have legitimate reason to negate an option, I would assume it to be correct. Couldn't negate either, so 'd'.

Q31. Eliminate '2'(only temple, less likely), arrive at 'c'.

Q32. Static+ Also in news due to recent UNESCO inclusion, 'a'.

Q33. Took a calculated risk. Period being asked is narrow(1600-1625), usually empires don't expand too much in the early phase within short periods. Started off at 'Surat', 'Broach' sounded Gujarati city and less likely that could have also expanded to 'Chicacole' which didn't 'seem' to be a Gujarati city by its name. 'a'.

Q34. Two hints given, 'Post Gupta' and 'Northern'. 'Yadavas were southern, thus eliminate '5'. 'Guptas' of Magadha sounded like an offshoot kingdom. 'b'

Q35. Unless you have legitimate reason to negate an option, I would assume it to be correct. Though 'Wrestling' was odd, no option which had '2,3, and 4'. Backed my hunch and marked 'd'.

Q36. 'Related options, answer one of those two'. 'a' about 'National Flag', 'c' about 'National Anthem'. Then it would be a 50-50 guess. Answer is 'c'.

Q37. 'Burzhaom' in Kashmir, less likely to have a geology for rock cut shrines(mostly found in deccan). Couldn't negate either 2 or 3. 'd'

Q38. 'Taimur' ended Tughluq reign and Sayyid dynasty's rule started after that. But Md. Bin tughlaq was not the last ruler of the tughlaq dynsaty. Eliminate '2'. '1' was a static well known fact. 'a'.

Q39. 'Random trivia', all statements filled with red flags. Answer to be confirmed by UPSC's key.

Q40. Similar to Q39. Answer is 'b'.

Q41. Another random trivia question. Answer is 'b'.