The lack of disclosure of marks of selected candidates in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services (Main) examination in each General Studies paper, optional subject paper, and the final Personality Test seems to be impacting aspirants’ preparation process, as they are not able to track performance trends in different optional subjects and make informed choices for subsequent attempts.
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Experts claim that it also reflects a certain lack of transparency in the system, especially since the practice of disclosing the detailed distribution of marks obtained by all the candidates selected in the Civil Services (Main) examination was discontinued since 2018 without any official record of the decision being made.
More recently, the Central Information Commission (CIC) urged the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to restore the practice of displaying the detailed distribution of marks obtained by all the candidates selected in the Civil Services Main examination after it observed that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had no record of any formal decision made to discontinue the practice from 2018. The UPSC, in response, told the Commission that, post declaration of the final result, the detailed break-up of marks is forwarded to the DoPT and the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), while the DoPT maintained that the detailed marks are generated and maintained by the UPSC.
The issue came to the fore when a Right to Information (RTI) application was filed by a candidate seeking the comparative data of marks obtained by all selected candidates in each General Studies paper, optional subject paper, and the Personality Test over 10 years, up to 2023. The applicant was keen to find out how selected candidates had fared in different optional subjects. The petitioner stated that while paper-wise marks of recommended candidates were publicly disclosed back in 2017, only aggregate marks are now made available from 2018 onwards. The CIC noted that despite being provided a final opportunity to produce official records, the DoPT failed to submit any file noting, office memorandum, policy decision, or other record upholding the discontinuation of publication of the UPSC CSE (Main) marks across different subjects from 2018 onwards.
“In the absence of official paper-wise data for all candidates, aspirants depend upon marksheets voluntarily shared by only some of the successful candidates publicly, which may not be indicative of the overall picture. Such data is stray and incomplete and may present a distorted picture of what constitutes a good score in a particular paper. However, it is difficult to establish a direct causal relationship between the discontinuation and aspirants’ actual exam performance. The current practice has led to a less scientific and more luck/hunch-based exam preparation,” Pranay Aggarwal, Director, IAS Gurukul and Sociology optional faculty, told The Hindu.
He attributes the discontinuation of subject-wise marks of selected candidates to several possible factors. “The decision may have been motivated by a concern for the privacy of the individual candidates and the disclosure of their paper-wise scores. Another possibility is bureaucratic resistance within the UPSC to greater transparency. While a third possibility could be an attempt to prevent what the UPSC deems as avoidable litigation regarding the selection process,” he added.
With the breakup of marks not being available, it has reduced the amount of information that aspirants can access. “The Civil Services Examination is unusual because there is no official answer key or standardised benchmark for the descriptive Mains papers. Consequently, aspirants learn a great deal by studying the performance of successful candidates. Paper-wise marks allowed them to understand where marks were being made or lost—Essay, individual GS papers, the optional subject, or the Personality Test. Once only aggregate written marks are available, two candidates with an identical Mains total may have arrived there through completely different performance profiles. That information is valuable both for first-time aspirants and for candidates deciding how to improve in another attempt,” Former IRS Officer and UPSC mentor Ravi Kapoor, said.
Aspirants speak
Bihar native Amir Siddique, 27, who is aspiring for his fourth attempt and currently residing in Delhi, feels that candidates do not have a clear idea about what is the highest and lowest marks in the respective GS and optional papers. “This makes planning the next attempt extremely confusing,” he says.
“Earlier, when UPSC published the entire list with paper-wise marks, everyone had a clear benchmark of what was working in GS and optional papers. Now, students get to know some of the marksheets through Telegram/Youtube/Instagram which are posted by a few selected candidates. Most of the aspirants end up changing optionals or sticking with them based purely on coaching claims and topper talks, not real data,” Mr. Siddique adds.
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