Nearly 43% candidates skipped Civil Services prelims exam conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) here in Lucknow on Sunday. A total of 40,018 candidates were registered to appear in the exam of which 57.10% aspirants turned up to write the exam.
In the morning shift, 23,123 (57.78%) aspirants appeared while 16,895 skipped the exam. In the second shift, 22,851 candidates appeared (57.10%) and 17,167 did not turn up to write the paper.
In 2020, about 50% candidates had skipped the exam. The figures for absentees for the last two years were not available.
Meanwhile, the candidates who appeared in the exam found general studies (GS) paper very tough as compared to previous year.
Diwakar Singh, an aspirant who came from Barabanki to write the exam said, “The general studies question paper was quite tough this year. I took the same exam last year too, but this year the paper was much more difficult.”
The second paper ‘Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT)’ was easy, he said.
Ananda Sachan, another candidate who appeared for the first time in the exam said that general studies paper was slightly difficult but was manageable if the aspirant had studied it well.
Another aspirant Sayam Pathak shared similar thoughts who also found general studies question paper to be tough. Robina Khatoon too said general studies paper was not easy and if aspirants had not prepared well, they must have struggled in writing it.
Meanwhile, the exam was held in 86 exam centres in the state capital. District magistrate Suryapal Gangwar himself visited a number of exam centres to monitor the progress. In the morning shift he went to Rajkiya Jubliee Inter College and in the afternoon session, he visited Government Girls Inter College and Shia Inter College.