{"id":256,"date":"2022-01-05T06:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T00:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/?p=256"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:10:59","slug":"how-to-manage-time-while-writing-answers-in-upsc-mains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/how-to-manage-time-while-writing-answers-in-upsc-mains\/","title":{"rendered":"How to manage time while writing answers in UPSC Mains?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After you receive the Question cum answer booklet and before the bell rings, read the instructions!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 <\/strong>First things first! Read the question paper well. Check if the booklet is printed correctly. If needed,
ask for a replacement.
\u00b7 Read the question paper. Take a few minutes for this.
\u00b7 Split the entire time into 3 separate hours. Look into the question paper very well. Divide them into
8 easy questions, 7 average questions, and 5 difficult questions (Considering there are 20 questions).
\u00b7 Follow the 8-7-5 method. Answer your best known 8 questions during the first hour of the
examination. 7 in the next and the rest 5 in the last hour.
\u00b7 The well-known questions answered in the first hour should be written with maximum speed.
\u00b7 Mentally frame answers for all the questions as to how you are going to start the answers. This
should take a few seconds for every question. Practice this well now.
\u00b7 Follow bullet points where ever possible. Underline the important points using the same pen.
Follow a framework like introduction, headlines, and conclusion for the answer. This will help in
saving time and help with the flow of points.
\u00b7 Plans inside the exam halls may go wrong and we should have a plan B. In case you feel you have
wrongly read the question in the course of writing answers, don\u2019t panic and waste time. Writing one
wrong answer will not ruin your prospects. Regretting about that and wasting your time may ruin
your chances.
\u00b7 Never spend so much time only on the answers which you feel strong.
\u00b7 Always try to incorporate diagrams, flow charts, etc in your answer as this will help you substitute
words and make you convey the essence easily and save time.
\u00b7 There may be some questions where you do not have even an iota of knowledge. If that is the case,
don\u2019t attempt those questions as you will not get any grace marks. It is a waste of time.
Also,
Have a watch near your paper.
Have enough number of your choice of a pen with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to attain these beforehand :<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Practicing answer writing will make your studying process more refined and exam-oriented.
\u00b7 As Mains exam mark\u2019s play a dominant role in determining your All India Rank, to crack it one
should practice answer writing every day.
\u00b7 In the first attempt, you cannot come up with a good answer and this does not mean that after
practicing you can write a perfect answer as there is nothing called a perfect answer. All you have to
do is to understand the question, what answer it requires, and try to write accordingly.
\u00b7 Ideally, candidates should write answers for Optional, General Studies every day and for essays
once a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 You can consider following IAS Parliament which offers questions for daily answer writing practice.
\u00b7 Joining a Test Series and getting the proper feedback is very important.
\u00b7 Above all, correcting yourself from the evaluation points and improving those from the next answer
writing is what makes your preparation worthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After you receive the Question cum answer booklet and before the bell rings, read the instructions! \u00b7 First things first! Read the question paper well. Check if the booklet is printed correctly. If needed,ask for a replacement.\u00b7 Read<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-upsc-strategy","category-upscblogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2643,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/2643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shankariasacademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}