How to Score
in Essay?

More than 95% of people who write mains score less than average marks in Essay! Through this paper UPSC is checking how well can you comprehend the topic, how effectively can you write to convey the information, your viewpoints about that topic. Most of us are taught to memorize answers and essays in our school, that is the reason why most of us fail to score good marks when it comes to thinking and writing.

                                                                                       But scoring 150+ is not that hard provided you learn few basics of Essay writing and considering the fact that your Essay is just another work for the examiner, who has to check your copy, take his payment and go home. So if you cannot make it interesting enough to read he won’t even bother to read. The basic ingredients for writing a good essay includes a crisp introduction, comprehensive body, an optimistic conclusion, good flow of language and last but not the least simplicity in language, in the words of Einstein “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well”.

If you have read the above paragraph and in between if you have not realised that it is an introduction for the Essay “How to score 150+ marks in Essay?” , you are not preparing well for your exam. Why? Because once you know the basic parameters then you will read your articles and watch documentaries and stuff on youtube in a different manner. Writing in UPSC is not about English or information, it is about your thoughts penned down in those 3 hours which gives a glimpse of your personality. So if you are aware about the structure , you can collect information in a better manner. before telling you about how to collect info, let me tell you the basic structure of any essay.

• Introduction
  • Hook
  • Connecting statement
  • Thesis
• Body
  • Background
  • Arguments 1
  • Arguments 2
  • Way forward
• Conclusion
  • Summarizing the whole essay in 1 para
  • Optimism in second

You can watch the video below to get a more detailed answer to your queries:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR0lWrNUJE0

Now suppose if you re writing an essay on “Technology- a distraction”, then you can begin as 

“According to an article, published by Daily Mail, an average person spends 8 hours and 41 minutes on electronic devices. That period of time surpasses the time an average person spends sleeping for 20 minutes. There is no doubt in the fact that people are getting more dependent on technology as time goes by. The only question is: are we too distracted by it?

                                                                   Technology can be a distraction only when people fail to use it responsibly. When a responsible individual uses smartphones, tablets, laptops and other devices to get access to knowledge, contacts and truthful information, technology serves as the most useful tool for elevating their quality of life.

the Blue one is your Hook, the orange one your connecting statement and purple one your Thesis statement. Now the question comes what can be a Hook, for that please watch the video else the article becomes too boring to read. Let me directly give you another hook 

“In a shocking incident in Karnataka’s Belagavi, a 21-year-old youth was arrested for allegedly killing his father for refusing money to recharge his mobile phone plan to play the addictive PUBG Mobile, police said on Monday.”

Now this is the headline of a newspaper, you can use it as hook, but let me get back to the main point again before getting that eye to pick up this information you have to know How to prepare for essay, the division into topics and where any particular information will fit. Let me give you basic pointers on how can you streamline your preparation.

• Know the structure first- Intro, Body , Conclusion
• Divide your topics- Read the article and topics in this blog where i have classified previous year papers topic wise. It will help you in segregation
• Whenever you read and see anything write them down under these subheadings to be used
• collect Introduction lines, conclusion lines, Facts, data, examples
• See different styles of writing and learn which style suits you 
• Write test papers and get it evaluated so that you know you are on right track.

Let me give few examples of articles here, by which you can get an idea of what to pick from newspapers.

• See the flow and introduction in this article 
  • https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/CffaPyc2CuOTl4uRLgayGM/Private-schools-need-to-be-regulated.html
  • https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/c2QusjQh9tT2hXrKjCz7gO/Cyber-security-an-indigestion-problem-in-healthcare-indus.html
• You have to collect few interesting facts which retains the eye of examiner
  • about half the population of Bangladesh lives less than 5 meters (16.5 feet) above sea level. In 1995, Bangladesh’s Bhola Island was half-submerged by rising sea levels, leaving 500,000 people homeless. Scientists predict Bangladesh will lose 17 percent of its land by 2050 due to flooding caused by climate change. The loss of land could lead to as many as 20 million climate refugees from Bangladesh

Now all this information is from newspapers but the approach is different. Here you see the transition between paragraphs, Starting, ending etc to get a sense of what is going on and how to write smoothly. 

Coming to the body part, things you have to keep in mind are:

• Not more than 3 and less than 2 paragraphs per page
• good handwriting with no cutting
• No point format
• give both sides of the statement
• Watch the video below for a detailed explanation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RcW1YUYxaY

Now let us come to conclusion part, see this could be tricky. You can do the following to avoid it. In first para summarize your entire essay and in second mention something futuristic by giving an example or a poem or any report or any famous person. Remember All’s well that ends well. Now suppose if you are writing an essay on education and if you can quote Abraham Lincoln’s letter written to his child’s teacher it will fetch you way more marks because you have given that last hit to the reader. Conclusion can be a game changer and this can create 5-6 marks difference.

Now to summarize let me say that:

• If you want to get average marks like 125 ish, just follow the structure and use simple language, cover all dimensions you will get it
• For More than 125+ you need those extra examples, quotes, stories, data, flow.

Now what to do?

• Work on learning to write introduction first
• work on covering maximum dimensions in limited space
• Brainstorm for 20-30 minutes before writing , arrange your thoughts frame sentences
• Join test series and make sure the person knows about essay, if possible check his marks and talk directly

Now an annoucement-

• We are going to start Essay initiative here on this platform, topic-wise
• I will give you one essay to write in 2 days and you can write an essay and submit in comments section
• We will go topicwise where you will get content for all topics such as Society, culture, Polity, Education etc
• A test series of 4 Full length test in the end, to gauge your performance but i will take only 50 students.

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