UPSC Answer keys Survey: A Quick look into the Unofficial Answer keys

The first thing that comes to the mind of a UPSC CIVIL SERVICE aspirant soon after coming out of the first half of the Prelims Examination is:

“How many marks am I going to get ? ”.

With much time left for the second paper of Prelims, the first thing we search over the internet, are the answers which we have done just to make sure our position. The Internet gets flooded with examination reviews from many coaching institutes. They come up with their answer keys.

These answer keys are the only documents which evaluate us on first hand. So before hovering into these answer keys it is very important to follow the 2 steps

How much authenticity and credibility does the institute have?
These are not official answer keys. So any amount of marks you are getting must not be the base of your final judgment regarding your preparation for the MAINS examination.

However, it has been found that a good, reliable institute provides 95% or more accurate answer keys.

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How do we know?

We have collected samples of the answer keys provided by different coaching institutes/websites and checked it once UPSC published their official answer keys. The result of our survey is astonishing.

Most of the answer keys from various institutes and web sites are found to be differing from the official answer keys by around 10-15 questions. It may affect your first-hand evaluation to the tune of around 40-45 marks.

So the question is, which institute has the best UPSC Key?

During our survey, we have been able to check the answer keys published by IASGYAN powered by Aptiplus, InsightsIAS, ShankarIAS, VisionIAS, Mrunal, and Vajiram and Ravi against the official answer key of UPSC (2019).

The best 3 results we have got are the following:

As you can see from the above table, the following are the notable features of our survey :

Among the Answer Keys we compared, https://www.iasgyan.in/ powered By Aptiplus answer key has turned out to be the most accurate one. Only 4% of the questions were wrong when compared with the Official UPSC Key.
InsightsIAS got 5 Questions wrong, while Shankar IAS got 7 Questions wrong against the official UPSC key of Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2019.
VisionIAS too got 95 questions correct and 5 questions wrong just like InsightsIAS.
Mrunal’s Answer Key performance was also in this range.

So Why do they answer keys differ from the official UPSC key

It definitely is a good question in the mind of an aspirant that, if these coaching institutes are not able to put 100% correct answer keys, what actually are they teaching.

Lack of Knowledge: One reason for such is definitely, Lack of knowledge added with poor research.

Different Sources and Interpretations: One needs to remember that UPSC CSE is not like any other examination. Here, a question comes from different sources with different understandings and conclusions, which may lead to completely different perspectives on the questions asked.

You can think like the relation between our Constitution and the Supreme Court. Although we have a single written constitution available, interpretations of it vary from one bench to another. The perspectives get changed with time, which in turn modifies our thoughts over our Constitution.

Likewise, an examination as dynamic as UPSC CSE, there is every reason for ambiguity and difference in the answers from different sources. The questions with ambiguity will ultimately be answered when UPSC publishes their answer keys.

So it is not good justice served when you criticize the coaching institutes who deliver right answer keys in the range of 90% and above.

The approach of APTIPLUS

Every year, we release our Answer Keys through our Website https://www.iasgyan.in/. Usually, we take 3-4 days to come up with our key (after sufficient research). Still, we want to convey to you that around 5% variation may be there when compared to the official answer keys of UPSC.

This year, when the official answer key from UPSC came out, IASGYAN Powered by Aptiplus, Answer Key turned the relatively reliable one with just a 4% difference with the official answer key.

The questions mentioned below were the ones our answers differed with UPSC Key. Here, we have used SET A of the UPSC Prelims question paper.

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Q98. Which of the following are the reasons for the occurrence of multi-drug resistance in microbial pathogens in India?

Genetic predisposition of some people
Takin incorrect doses of antibiotics to cure diseases
Using antibiotics in livestock farming
Multiple chronic diseases in some people

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

a) 1 and 2

b) 2 and 3 only

c) 1, 3 and 4

d) 2, 3 and 4

Our Answer: Option D

UPSC’s Answer: Option B

Q94. Consider the following statements:

A digital signature is

An electronic record that identifies the certifying authority issuing it
Used to serve as a proof of identity of an individual to access information or server on the Internet
An electronic method of signing an electronic document and ensuring that the original content is unchanged

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only

b) 2 and 3 only

c) 3 only

d) 1, 2 and 3

Our Answer-D

UPSC's Answer: C

Q85. In the context of polity, which one of the following would you accept as the most appropriate definition of liberty?

a) Protection against the tyranny of political rulers
b) Absence of restraint
c) Opportunity to do whatever one likes
d) Opportunity to develop oneself fully

Our Answer-B

UPSC's answer: Option D

Q53. Regarding the Legislative Assembly of a State in India, consider the following statements:

The Governor makes a customary address to Members of the House at the commencement of the first session of the year.
When a State Legislature does not have a rule on a particular matter, it follows the Lok Sabha rule on that matter.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Our Answer – A

UPSC's answer: C

Most UPSC coaching institutes’ key was the same with our answer keys regarding the 3 questions discussed above. However, as per the official Answer keys provided by UPSC gives a different answer to the above questions.

How is the performance of our Prelims Answer Key in Previous Years?

Like many other areas, we are continuously doing well when it comes to Prelims Answer keys. Our credibility in this front is something we can proudly share with you. Our variations with the official key had never exceeded more than 5% even in the previous years. The credit should definitely go to the fact that we do thorough research before publishing our answer key.

Wait! There is a Gray area here :

Sometimes aspirants tend to score marks more than the cut off as per the answer keys, however, can’t clear the prelims.

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How?

Suppose one aspirant has found that his/her answers to those 10 questions are correct, which by UPSC’s official keys are wrong. Since one Correct answer contributes to 2 Marks, so he/she has calculated 20 marks for those answers.

However, on the other hand, negative 0.66 marks will be penalised if the answer keys are not correct.

So here, when the result comes, his/her marks will be Negative 6.6 in those questions. So his/her marks will differ by 26.66 Marks, which itself is a big one as far as UPSC Prelims is concerned.

Conclusion

Whatever we have shared is based on our survey in the market. This, however, is in no way to put other coaching institutes in a bad light.

Our objective behind this survey was sole to guide the aspirants and never to put the “BEST INSTITUTE” tag on us by pulling others down. Analysis in any other year may show different results.

Our business ethics condemn such act and we refrain ourselves from any such practice. We, as an institute, follow the objective of sustainability through honest and smart effort.

Although these answer keys are very good when it comes to ready-made post-exam analysis, these may not be the ideal way to come into a solid conclusion as far as a selection in UPSC CSE Prelims is concerned.

As far as ambiguity in answer keys are concerned, the key factor to judge an institute is to understand it’s interpretation understanding of the UPSC CSE requirements.