About Writing Answers Format

1. Read standard books — collect standard information.
2. Express in your own language — your answers should give impression that they
3. Express in your own language — your answers should give impression that they are your own creation.
4. The expression i.e., your creation, does not mean that this should be the outcome of your views — views should not be yours for you are not supposed to be a historian and you do not have any work on that to your credit.
5. You accept the views which have been acknowledged by a majority of historians — what you do is that you present them in your own language creating originality of words and expressions.
6. Elements of bias or prejudice must be absent from your writing.
7. When you critically examine, you must examine a fact in the light of socio-economic - politico circumstances — this would give your answer a moderate tinge.
8. Use effective language but do not make it verbose.
9. Write a simple answer — do not use very long sentences and paragraphs.
10. Split your answers in various paragraphs — change paragraph when you shift to a new subject — matter.
11. Do not quote views, opinions etc. — at times you can quote from original work.
12. Give major points of your answer in separate paragraphs and put all the minor points in one paragraph at the end. — try to give as many points as you can.
13. You need not write a lengthy introduction, you can even do without it. Write the main body of the answer and a good and very effective conclusion — in the answers where you analyse or critically examine, you must write a conclusion.
14. Write the answers (of full questions carrying 60 marks) in 600 to 800 words.
15. While writing, make sure your handwriting is legible — do not be under the impression that whatever way you write the examiner would make all efforts to go through that — help the examiners read your answers comfortably.
16. Do not exceed the word limit — 200 words may be 210 or 215, not more than that in any case.
17. Your answer must not lose coherence — points should be in order so that the whole answer presents a balanced and integrated view.
18. Practise writing answers of model questions — get them evaluated.

I would like to give some additional tips for fetching better marks. One thing which is very significant in this context is making your answer look distinct and fresh and this is possible by departing from conventional way of writing. I would drive my point home by giving some illustrations.

Administration of various empires — Mauryas, Guptas, Harsha, Cholas. Vijayanagara, Delhi Sultanate, Mughals and Marathas is an important type of question. The conventional way followed by majority of Civil Services Aspirants is to write about the king, the council of ministers, the central administration, the provincial administration, the District Administration, the Revenue Administration and the military establishment in the sequence. You can give it a new direction. You write first, in four to five paragraphs, the salient features of the administration then switch over to all that I have mentioned above (the king, the council of ministers etc.) in the same sequence and finally a good conclusion. This way you bifurcate the answer into three distinct parts — characteristics, main body, and conclusion. You are aware of the second part but even in this case be precise and incorporate factual aspects as well. In first and third part you may have some confusions. The first part is all about the core aspects of the administration. We may take example of the Mauryan Administration.

In this case the core aspects would be (a) Greater powers of the king (b) Centralized empire (c) Bureaucracy (d) Changed role of the Purohita (e) State's concern for economic activities etc. Writing the first part implies that you put forward the broader outlines of the political ideas and the institutions giving the impression that you have vivid concept of the administrative system and also that you can present a novel and better arrangement of the answer.

The third part (conclusion) contains implication and impact. It is unfortunate that a good number of Civil Services Aspirants think that conclusion is the summary of the main body. They put in a terse style all what they have already mentioned or described in the main body. This becomes, essentially, a repetition, and repetition carries no marks. All those who view conclusion in this manner live under a false impression.

For example, the third part (conclusion) in case of Mauryan Administration would comprise the points (a) Its impact on the stability of the empire (b) Promotion of commercial activities (c) Its being a factor in decline etc.

This way, you should work on the various sections of your syllabus and develop some innovative and better style of writing. This, I am sure, would prove to be a boon. Try it and see the difference in style of writing and marks.

One significant aspect of the scheme of preparation is comprehension of the questions. To comprehend the question is the prelude to good writing. In questions you come across manifold kinds of tails like Discuss, Elucidate, Examine etc. Putting different tails at the end of the questions has some significance. Different tails give different connotation and require different treatment to be given to the answers. I have experienced, most of the Civil Services Aspirants fail to import different orientation to the answers in tune with the respective tails. This results in giving a wrong approach to the answer and in the end heavy curtailment in marks. I think a great number of Civil Services Aspirants are not well-ware of this.

So my point is that understanding questions is very important. We have plenty of instances where we find that the Civil Services Aspirant writes something differently from what is asked. And in this case you get no marks at all. I would like to provide you clues for various tail-types so that you may be aware of the broad meaning of each.

Elucidate — It refers to making the given statement plain. In fact you have to explain it in such a way that it becomes intelligible

Explain — Same as above.

Comment — It implies that you give a written remark, giving opinion or elucidating an event , a person, a situation etc.

Examine — It refers to inspecting something closely and bringing out facts i.e. you bring to light various aspects of the given statement.

Critically examine — It means inspecting closely and forming or expressing judgement. The latter is of greater relevance here.

Discuss — It refers to writing about something i.e. you are supposed to write about the various aspects of the given statement.

Analyse — It refers to taking various facts of parts or a given statement into consideration and bringing to light its nature or structure, you take each part one by one and examine.

Amplify — It refers to elaborating the statement you add details, make it fuller

Illustrate — It refers to explaining or making clear by giving examples.

Questions number 1 & 5 of both the Paper I & II are compulsory that is one question is compulsory in all the four sections. These are comment type questions and there is a prescribed word-limit of 200 words each. The Civil Services Aspirants should be well-aware of the fact that comment-type answer refers to written remark giving opinion or elucidating an event, a situation, a person etc. Over the years I have experienced that many a Civil Services Aspirant does not know how to attempt comment-type questions in the light of the strict sense of the word comment. In this case your attempt becomes a poor attempt and subject to average or even below average marking. I would like to give some tips for standard writing.

1. Elucidate the given statement in the right context.
2. Give opinion in brief but that must be the standard opinion — the elements of bias or prejudice or any kind of leaning should be absent.
3. Be precise and to the point — it is also important because there is prescribed word-limit
4. Split the whole of the contents of explanation in three to four paragraphs.
5. The whole format of your answer must not give a vague or equivocal impression — it tends to be so in majority of the cases because of the statement being not very much intelligible to you.
6. Begin with the sentence which has a direct bearing on the statement given in the questions. Do not impart the beginning part of your explanation an introductory tinge.

It is also of relevance to analyse the nature of comment-type question.

1. Statements may be linked with two or more aspects of a topic.
2. Statements may be a link between two topics.
3. Statements may be such for which you do not have substantial information or data and it is your ability to express which matters.
4. Statement may be associated with some insignificant aspect which you ignore while making preparation.
5. Statements may be related to an event or a situation - its implication, impact, cause etc.
6. Statement may be associated with a personality - his achievements, failures, his being a factor in giving rise to a situation or event.

In final analysis what comes into the light is their varied and extensive nature. They subsumes even the parts of the course contents which usually do not constitute the prominent aspects of the subject in the list of the topics to be prepared by majority of the Civil Services Aspirants.

In this context the mode of selecting the topics in advance and working on that is not always workable. So what is of significance is one must have a detailed general outline of whole of the subject-matter. Different concepts related to various development and above all chronologically, various factors at work, role of a personality, role of policies and programmes are important in this context.

The Civil Services Aspirants are comfortable in one sense that 60% of the statements are parts of the major topics one usually prepare for they are the core portions of the syllabus.

History Paper I contains a question on map. Initially the trend was that this question was put in section I (Ancient India) and then section II (Medieval India) in every alternate years, But this trend has undergone a change and in order to be at safe side one is supposed to prepare places from both the sections. In addition if one incorporates places from Modern India one would be still safer. No map question has been put in History paper II so far, but there is a likelihood of doing so by the question setter and it should not come as a bolt out of blue. So to my way of thinking it can be expected from a sincere Civil Services Aspirant that he should make some groundwork for it.

In doing questions on the map two aspects are involved. One is marking the places on the given map. There are certain ways through which you can do this comfortably

1. Prepare seperate maps for various sections (for example : Indus Valley Civilization sites, Sites of sixteen Mahajanpadas, sites of Painted Grey Ware sites, Sites of Ashokan Edicts,Various Ports etc.)
2. Develop the habit of looking at these places in your leisure so that over a period of time you have in your mind imprint of the location of these places.
3. Take the courses of the rivers into considerations while locating places (you can do it in case of a good number of places)
4. Take into considerations the various zigzags in the outline of the map to locate places
5. Take the cluster - approach into accounts — that is a number of places lying in the vicinity of one another and location of one place can help you in locating other adjoining places (for example : (i) Lumbini, Pavapuri, Bodhgaya, Vaishali, Patliputra (ii) Aihole, Pattadakal, Badami (iii) Lothal, Surkotada, Somnath, Dholivira, Desalpur)
6. Practice marking places on blank maps

Note : Map with state boundaries and without rivers was supplied in CSE 2000. But in CSE 2001 Map with rivers marked on it was supplied. Civil Services Aspirants are advised to practice both the types.

The second aspect is writing short notes on the places. Write 50 words each on these places — this comes to 750 words writing on 15 places. Write major points associated with the significance of the places. You do not have scope to write minor points so avoid the latter. I should like to make it lucid by one illustration. Take, for example; a place Charsada. The major points in about 50 words should be:

Referred to as "Puskalavati" in early Indian source and as "Peucelaotis" and "Proclais" in the classical sources, it was very important during the Indo Greek period. It had great commercial importance in the extra-Indian trade of the period — goods from the Kabul valley, Kashmir. Sub-Hindukush area and Scythia were sent through this city to Barygaza. Certain minor points associated with the same place may be summed up as : The city itraditionally believed to have been founded by "Puskara" the son of Bharata and the nephew of Rama. It finds casual mention in the writings of the historians accompanying Alexander. It happens to be the only well- known and excavated urban centre to the west of the Indus. Its importance declined with the growth of Purushpura.

Going through these two kinds of description of the place Charsada in bold and italics above, you may form the idea what points to be given preference to other points. This is important for fetching very good marks which you can comfortably do by paying attention to certain clues mentioned above. I would like to give a list of important areas one should concentrate upon while preparing for map questions.

1. Indus Valley sites
2. Painted Grey ware sites
3. Sixteen Mahajanpadas
4. Sites of Mauryan edicts
5. Ancient & Medieval ports
6. Sites of great temples
7. Sites serving as capitals of great kingdoms and empires
8. Places of commercial importance
9. Important places during the Sultanate of Delhi
10. Important places during the Mughal period
11. Places having religious importance

1. the place being a part of a civilization or kingdom or a capital
2. Riverine Location
3. Strategic location
4. Commercial importance
5. Religious importance
6. Association with a great personality
7. Any other name
8. Founded by (if a personality is associated)
9. Place as an Educational Centre

In History Paper I (in both the Sections I & II, Ancient India and Medieval India) there are questions related to Short Essay. I am giving below certain significant facts about this kind of questions which would help the Civil Services Aspirants prepare various short essays.

1. The trend of the questions related to Short Essays show that topics are not always associated with the Main Topics of the syllabus. Many a topic is such as not prepared by the Civil Services Aspirants e.g., Nalanda Mahavira, Nurjehan etc. But now these topics too are to be taken into consideration exclusively for Short Essay.
2. Many topics of the Short Essays are the parts of the Main Topics which are usually prepared by the Civil Services Aspirants e.g., Social Structure of the Rajputs, Religion of the Indus Valley Civilization, Municipal Administration of the Mauryas etc.
3. Prescribed word-limit for Short Essay is 200 words. Try to remain within this limit.
4. Write such essays in four to five paragraphs.
5. The style of writing should be the style of "Discussion"
6. Write about the main facets related to the topics like Structure / Nature, Relevance, Positive aspects, Negative aspects, Role etc.
7. If the essay is related to personalities, do not emphasize on their life but focus upon their role and contributions.
8. In general, analysis, explanation and criticism are not required.
9. Of late the small topics of the syllabus have emerged as important topics for Short Essays. Mentioned below are some small topics as examples.

Ancient India

1. Religion of the Harappans
2. Painted Grey ware culture
3. Teaching of Mahavira
4. Teaching of Buddha
5. Mauryan Art
6. Mahayana Buddhism
7. Tamil society on the basis of Sangam texts