UPSC civil services examination (CSE) Prelims 2022 was held on Sunday, June 5 across the country. Check here for more details.

* Environment and Science and Technology related questions dominated the question paper (31 Questions). The focus was on IT and Communication as many questions were framed from these areas

* Interestingly, scope of using elimination techniques was removed due to a new pattern of options. E.g. previously, the candidates had the chance of arriving at an answer by eliminating one or two options

* This year, for at least 8 questions, instead of asking if 1 or 2 is correct or incorrect the UPSC options were: only one pair is correctly matched, only 2 pairs are correctly matched etc. This would impact the cut off

* History was another focus area where the focus was on Buddhism, Jainism, Temples, literature and Texts, Mongols, Early British Expansion, constitutional history, Revolutionaries, Sangam Literature, Mauryan Dynasty. Some of the questions can be termed difficult to answer

* The questions on Indian Polity and Economy were relatively easier than previous years.

Current Affairs continued to be the focus of these subjects as the UPSC asked questions on Deputy Speaker, Attorney General for India, banking etc

* From Indian Polity 11 questions were asked. 16 questions were asked from Economics. The 10 questions asked from Geography were a departure from previous years. The questions were less conceptual, and a mix of factual and location-based questions were asked; and

* A jump was witnessed in the International Relations portion of the CSE syllabus (A total of 14 questions were asked). Questions on Afghanistan, Central Asia, East Europe and Africa were asked

Considering the level of the question paper the cut off is predicted to be in the range of 90-95; higher than last years’ cut off (87.54 for Gen category). Overall, the question paper can be considered relatively easier than last year, although some questions were in the range of moderate to difficult level.