How to Score 120+ in UPSC Essay Paper | Strategy & Tips for GS Mains Essay

Keep closely to the subject of the essay

• It means that your entire essay should reflect on the topic. It can be in favour or against the topic. It can discuss the problems pertaining to the topic and the solutions for them. But it should always revolve around the topic.
• Common mistakes that students make here is they pick up a keyword from the essay and frame the dimensions or the essay on it. This will lead to a low score in your exam. You have to frame the essay on the essence of the entire topic. It is also important to keep reinforcing the topic again and again so that the examiner knows that you are not straying away.
• For example: 
  • 2025 Essay Topic- Truth knows no colour.
  • The topic means that truth is unbiased. It is not different for different people. It is the same irrespective of caste, creed, colour, region, gender, age or any such division.
  • Mistake- Writing only about racism in America, without linking it back to truth.

Arrange their ideas in orderly fashion-

• You have to make sure that you have not written the essay in a haphazard manner. 
• The order should be Introduction-> Dimensions and analysis-> Counterarguments and antithesis-> Problems and solutions(if contextual to the essay)-> Conclusion.
• Common mistakes made by students:
  • You start writing in support of the quote, then you write against it and then again write in support. 
  • You write about local dimension, global dimension, then regional dimension, then national dimension. It should be either local-national-regional-global or the exact opposite order.

Write concisely

• Concise means expressing what needs to be said without unnecessary words; short and clear. 
• You have to write your ideas and explanations in a brief manner.
• For example- 
  • In the essay for the topic “Truth knows no colour”, we can explain that:
  • Truth is unbiased. It is not different for different people. It is the same irrespective of caste, creed, religion, colour, region, gender, age or any such division.
  • Or, we can say- Truth does not know yellow, white, green, any colour. It means that truth is the same for all the people of the world. Truth is the same for all castes. It is the same for all religions-whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, etc. Truth is same for man, for woman, for third gender. Truth does not differentiate between the young and the old. Truth is the same for everyone even when they are different in some or the other aspect. 
• In the above example, the first para conveys the same message in a concise way whereas the second para is wordy and unnecessarily long.

Credit will be given for effective and exact expression

• The word effective means producing a decided, decisive, or desired effect. 
• The word exact means exhibiting or marked by strict, particular, and complete accordance with fact or a standard; marked by thorough consideration or minute measurement of small factual details.
• Here what we understand is that if we convey our idea with correct facts and in concise words that clearly describe what we want to say, then we will be given better marks.
• For Example-
  • Effective & Exact: “The Nuremberg Trials proved that truth and justice transcend borders; crimes against humanity cannot be hidden behind political colours.”
    Weak: “Bad things happened in World War II, and truth came out later.”