Evaluation Manual for Daily Answers by Foundation batch Students

The main Examination is intended to assess the overall intellectual traits and depth of
understanding of candidates rather than merely the range of their information and
memory.

The nature and standard of questions in the General Studies papers (Paper II to Paper V)
will be such that a well-educated person will be able to answer them without any
specialised study. The questions will be such as to test a candidate’s general awareness
of a variety of subjects, which will have relevance for a career in Civil Services. The
questions are likely to test the candidate’s basic understanding of all relevant issues, and
ability to analyse, and take a view on conflicting socio-economic goals, objectives
and demands. The candidates must give relevant, meaningful and succinct answers.

The above excerpts from the UPSC Civil services notification delineates the nature
of the Mains exam and its objectives. It also helps aspirants, mentors, teachers and
evaluators to frame strategies accordingly.

In consonance with it, we will also outline our approach towards answers written by
students associated with our institution.

To begin with, evaluation of mains answers by UPSC aspirants, especially the ones
in the foundation batch, is a highly responsible role. The direction we guide these
aspirants can make or break their chances of clearing the exam. Thus, we must be
very careful in our approach, attitude, choice of comments and feedback while
evaluating these answers.

Kindly note that we have to hand hold these aspirants/students from scratch, i.e.
from briefing them on the basics of answer to drawing a framework of an answer to
finally guiding them on value addition to maximise their score. These students are
akin to a heap of clay thrown on a potter’s wheel with you evaluators being the potter
shaping the clay into different finished products. Hence, the responsibility rests on
you evaluators to shape the careers of these students.

It must have come to your attention that all evaluators have been made in-charge of
the careers of these students. And very rightly so, as feedback based on insights
from the student’s answers can help them take corrective measures and help them
in their success in this exam.
Student’s answers gives an insight into the following things:
● The understanding of the topic
● Ability to express their ideas in accordance with the demand of the question
● The writing abilities of the student
● Factual and conceptual clarity of the students
 ● Analytical abilities of the student
● Their ability to take balanced stand
● How well the student is able to grasp the topics taught in the class

Thus, as already mentioned the role of evaluator and the evaluation becomes very
important. If we fail to identify the issues in the students’ answers and help them take
corrective action, then the whole exercise will become futile.

In the above pursuit, we will guide the students in phases. In the first phase, we will
guide the students to consistently follow the basic answer writing structure and
help them write according to the demand of the question. It has to be kept in mind
that in the first phase most students are likely to have below par content. Hence, our
focus will only be on acquainting the students with basics of Answer writing.

Within a month or two, these students will develop an understanding of the basics of
answer writing and move to the second stage where we will focus on guiding them
on improving their articulation of ideas as per the demand of the question. With
regular effort and quality feedback the students will start writing as per the demand
of the question and then be ready to move to the next phase of quality
improvement.

Please remember the students may stop writing if we are not able to maintain the
standards of our evaluation or if the students begin to feel that they are not gaining
from the exercise. Currently, only about 10 percent of the students in each batch are
writing daily answers. Not only we have to ensure that these students continue to
write but also we have to get the other 90 percent, sitting on the fence, to start this
practice. This will be possible only through concerted efforts, wherein students start
to feel that this exercise will help them in the long run.

At the end we have to ensure that we don’t guide students into writing alike. We
have to be very careful that students have their uniqueness intact.

Elements to look for in an Answer:

1. Structure
An answer must have three distinct parts: an introduction, a body addressing the
main demand of the question, and a conclusion ending the answer.

2. Relevance
The content in the answer must be relevant. It must be related to the topic in the
question. At times students have the habit of writing anything and everything related
to the topic in the answer.

3. Meaningfulness
The content must be written and arranged such that it makes sense to the examiner.
Short simple sentences and paragraphs/points. The content must be arranged in the
order of the question. At times the students may answer the second part before
addressing the first.

4. Succinct
As the questions have a word limit, the answers must be written within the word
limit. Most often the students may write too much irrelevant content or even repeat
their ideas resulting in too long answers.

5. Depth of understanding
At times many students will give too much information (range of information) which is
different from depth of understanding where each information is backed by proper
reasoning and explanation. We have to guide our students on developing depth of
understanding.

6. Presentation
The answers can be presented either in paragraph form or in points. Also the
students can use flowcharts, tables, diagrams and maps to show their understanding
of the topic. However, this must be done at the later stages once a student is
consistently following the basic structure.

From the basic/ Macro parameters we will now move to the micro parameters.

Introduction: A brief contextual beginning to the answer. It must not be more than
30-35 words in any case. For a 150 word answer it should be about 20-25 words in
length. The beginning to the answer can vary according to the question. The
students can begin their answer with either of the following:
1. Definition: Define a keyword mentioned in the question and then connect it
with the main demand of the question
2. Historical Background: Students may give a historical background as an
introduction to the answer and then address the main demand of the question.
3. Fact and/or data: In certain questions, data or facts could be used to begin
the answer.
4. Current context: Answers to questions which have been framed primarily on
current affairs can be started with contextual information related to the news.

Please guide students, if they verbatim use the statement in the question for their
introduction

From the introduction, we will now move to the body of the answer.
Body: Must address the main demand of the question. Only relevant information
addressing the main demand should be written. Any information that does not
directly or indirectly address the main demand of the question or adds value should
be avoided.
It can be either in points or paragraph form. If in paragraph form, the paragraphs
must be short and each paragraph must convey a different point/idea. Such a
presentation will make the answer legible and comprehensible for the examiner.

Moreover, each idea must be backed up by reason or explanation. So, that it makes
complete sense and does not appear to have been crammed up. It is also in
consonance with the UPSC guidelines for mains exam where it mentions that this
exam intends to check depth of understanding rather than mere range of information.

Conclusion:
A brief closing paragraph to the answer. This paragraph can be written differently for
different questions in accordance with the tailwords or directive words. We must try
to guide the students to write balanced conclusions.