UPSC Prelims 2021 GS Paper 1 Question paper is out. We have observed the following general trends regarding this year’s question paper:
- UPSC has not followed previous year’s trends i.e. hard and analytical questions. This year’s questions were more basic and applied in nature, similar to UPSC trends in 2010-16.
- Some of the sections that have been completely ignored, in the previous years by UPSC, have reappeared this year. i.e. Sports and awards.
- The weightage of ancient & medieval history has been increased.
- Overall, UPSC has maintained its reputation of being unpredictable. The nature of the question paper is very different from the expectations of aspirants, preparing specifically for UPSC CSE Exam.
UPSC CSE Prelims 2021 GS Paper 1 Subject-wise Weightage
| Subjects | Science and Tech | Polity | Sports and awards | Economy | Environment | Art and culture | History | Geography |
| No. of Questions | 12 | 20 | 4 | 14 | 17 | 5 | 15 | 13 |
UPSC CSE Prelims 2021 GS Paper 1 Subject-wise Weightage with comparison to PYQs:
There is not much difference in terms of the overall weightage of the subjects in the question paper. However, there can be variations in terms of sub-topics within the subjects, for example in history more weightage has been given to ancient and medieval history compared to modern history. Following is the year-wise comparison of this year’s question paper:
| Subjects | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Economics | 10 | 13 | 18 | 16 | 18 | 14 | 15 | 14 |
| Polity | 14 | 13 | 7 | 22 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 20 |
| Environment | 18 | 11 | 18 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 17 |
| History | 20 | 17 | 15 | 14 | 22 | 17 | 20 | 20 |
| Geography | 14 | 16 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 14 | 10 | 13 |
| S&T | 16 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 12 |
