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UPSC CSE prelims 2025 question paper review: What students, teachers said?
Aspirants felt that this year, the paper 1 was a bit easier than last year's prelims exam. However, some believe that the question paper was time-consuming.
CSAT 2025: Qualifying or eliminating?
Meant to be a qualifying paper, CSAT turned out to be the true eliminator this year. With tough comprehension passages and intricate reasoning questions, many aspirants found it far beyond their expectations.
Mudit Gupta, a UPSC mentor, in a statement to The Indian Express, said, 'This year's CSAT was one of the most difficult papers ever. The paper, which UPSC says is qualifying in nature, is actually 'eliminating' in nature.'
Many students echoed similar sentiments on social media, calling the paper 'a trap disguised as a formality.'
History: Surprising sweet spot
Amid the overall difficulty, one section that offered relief was History and Art & Culture. With 16 questions – 9 of them from Modern Indian History – students found it relatively easy.
Shikhar Sachan, a civil services mentor, called the History paper easiest in the past five years and told The Indian Express, 'The History section was arguably the easiest in the last five years.'
Questions ranged from the Indus Valley's Dancing Girl statue to Portuguese fruits and historical personalities like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, offering both diversity and simplicity. ALSO READ |
Polity: Familiar yet confusing
Polity featured standard topics such as the President, Panchayati Raj, and Ordinances, but the trick lay in the framing of questions. UPSC's notorious 'How many statements are correct?' format confused even well-prepared candidates.
'Every straightforward topic had at least one cleverly crafted statement. That was enough to confuse even the best-prepared,' added Mudit Gupta. Arguably, the Polity section is the easiest in the past five years.
Economy: Conceptual meets calculative
With 17 questions, the Economy section was both conceptual and quantitative. It included topics such as fiscal deficit calculations, RBI policies, UPI, and agricultural taxation.
'There was a strong focus on energy and minerals critical to the green economy,'
noted Banke Bihar, Economy mentor (The Indian Express).
Students described it as mentally taxing and praised the real-world relevance of the questions.
Science, tech, and international relations: Mixed bag
Science and Technology featured both trending topics like electric vehicles and deep learning, as well as conceptual questions. While some found it manageable, others struggled with the tricky wording.
International Relations had only five questions, mostly centred around organisations like BIMSTEC and NATO, with the EU's Nature Restoration Law being a surprise element.
Tough GS, tougher CSAT
Overall, aspirants described the 2025 Prelims as lengthy, mentally exhausting, and layered with traps. With CSAT acting as a gatekeeper rather than a qualifier, mentors expect the cut-off to drop this year.
One student summed it up perfectly: 'UPSC didn't test what we knew—it tested how calmly we could think under pressure.'
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Take a look at the essential events, concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here's your UPSC polity current affairs knowledge nugget for today on nominated seats in Rajya Sabha. (Relevance: The Rajya Sabha is an important part of the UPSC CSE syllabus. Previously, UPSC has also asked various questions related to its functions and powers. Thus, it becomes essential to cover this topic, as it's also in the news.) The government has nominated four people of eminence to the Rajya Sabha, including former foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Special Public Prosecutor in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case Ujjwal Nikam, Kerala BJP leader C Sadanandan Master, and historian Meenakshi Jain. In this context, let's know who and how gets nominated for the Rajya Sabha. Why does the Rajya Sabha have a 'nominated' MP? 1. 'In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-clause (a) of clause (1) of article 80 of the Constitution of India, read with clause (3) of that article, the President is pleased to nominate to the Council of States the following persons to fill the vacancies caused due to retirement of nominated members:- Shri Ujjwal Deorao Nikam, Shri C. Sadanandan Master, Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Dr. Meenakshi Jain,' the Union Home Ministry said in a notification late Saturday. 2. Notably, Article 80 of the Constitution ('Composition of the Council of States') provides provisions on nominated members of the upper house. It says, 'The Council of States shall consist of: (a) twelve members to be nominated by the President in accordance with the provisions of clause (3); (b) not more than two hundred and thirty-eight representatives of the States and of the Union territories.' Clause 3 of the article layer down the qualifications for the appointment: 'The members to be nominated by the President…shall consist of persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as the following, namely — Literature, science, art and social service.' 3. Nominated member can join a political party within six months of taking his/ her seat in the House, They enjoy all the powers and privileges to which the elected Members of Parliament are entitled. They can take part in the proceedings of the House in the normal manner. 4. Nominated members are not allowed to vote in the election of the President. They do have the right to vote in the election of the Vice-President, however. 5. 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However, Rajya Sabha enjoys some special powers. If it passes a resolution by a majority of not less than two-thirds of members present and voting, saying that it is 'necessary or expedient in the national interest' that Parliament should make a law on a matter enumerated in the State List, Parliament becomes empowered to make a law on the subject. Such a resolution remains in force for a maximum of one year but this period can be extended by one year at a time by passing a similar resolution. 9. A similar route can be adopted for recommending creation of one or more All India Services common to the Union and the states. Parliament becomes empowered to create such services. 10. Also, Rajya Sabha has a role to play if the President, as empowered by the Constitution, issues proclamations in the event of national emergency, in the event of failure of constitutional machinery in a State, or in the case of financial emergency'. 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She is an alumna of the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University, where she pursued her graduation and post-graduation in Political Science. She has over five years of work experience in ed-tech and media. At The Indian Express, she writes for the UPSC section. Her interests lie in national and international affairs, governance, economy, and social issues. You can contact her via email: ... Read More
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