UPSC CSE Prelims 2014 GS Observation+ Deep Analysis

Year 2014 Prelims Paper 

1. The Paper portrayed a departure from the trend of last 3 years. While traditional questions were very easy, over emphasis on questions from art and culture and environment made the paper tough.
2. Paper was factual and traditional compared to last three years. Questions from India year book also appeared this year.
3. Topicwise composition is moving along expected lines as weightage of art & culture and ecology/environment is increasing.
4. Proportion of unapproachable questions increased this year, which were mostly in art & culture and ecology & environment.
5. Polity is moving towards governance and public administration type questions (Cabinet Secretary, Constitutionalism etc.) which was on expected lines.
6. Except few easy ones, questions this year required complete knowledge of the topic.
7. Deceptive presentation is a common method to segregate deep knowledge with superficial knowledge or hunch. This technique was used in many questions. (Bombay Natural History Society is autonomous organization but does not come under MoEF, Sattriya dance uses devotional songs but not by Kabeer, Tulsidas and Meerabai. Doubtful “all correct” or “none” was not correct).
8. Some questions were too easy (E.g. Marginal Standing Facility). This does not mean that we should not have proper knowledge of topic (Eg. Solar power required complete knowledge).
9. Pointers for most of the questions could be traced to The Hindu but as recommended earlier, in the age of internet, complete knowledge of topic is expected (Bromine flame was covered as part of e-waste in The Hindu).
10. Some basic GK topics (like Hibernation) also appeared in The Hindu.

Suggestions:

1. Read Basic/standard books, one Good News Paper (like The Hindu) as almost 80 questions could be attempted with this combination. 
2. Have keen perception about things going around you and assume less and less. After reading newspaper always clarify key terms from internet or books or teachers. 
3. Read one good book on art & culture and Environment this will help in prelims, mains and interview i.e. all stages of examination. This will also help in making some unapproachable question approachable. However, do not try to research, as it is impossible to cover all the questions. 
4. The trend of last three years was analytical but trend changed this year with the inclusion of factual questions and state civil service/SSC type one liners. So it is advisable to be ready for analytical and factual questions at the same time. It is expected that UPSC will not ask irrelevant facts (Date on which someone died type asked in state civil service) but important facts should not be ignored. 
5. Do not ignore your strong areas to do research in weak areas. You should be able to answer most of the questions from your strong areas. 
6. Nearly 60% of the questions were very basic which could have been answered by reading elementary books. Strategy should be to avoid negative marking in tough questions and maximize your score by first finding the easy ones and completing them. Read questions carefully.