The CSE or the Civil Service Exam is organised by the Union Public Service Commission, conducted to recruit people for the civil service of the country. There are two parts to the examination, the CSE Prelims and the Main Exam. The former serves as a qualifier for the latter but is not any less difficult. Any Officer in the civil service of the country must qualify both examinations and fare well in them. Out of about 7 lakh takers of the Civil Services Exam last year in 2017, only 15000 made it through. And it is a dismal figure every year.

With the CSE 2018 around the corner, the candidates are busy putting the last minute touches to their preparation as the way their future is going to go will soon be decided. Every individual preparing for the UPSC has put in serious effort. A chief factor of the preparation is the solving of previous years’ question papers, especially the questions of the year immediately before the year they will appear in.

The question papers and answer keys are easily available online from different portals and exam study apps. The answer key is crucial to the preparation of any candidate. The answer key contains the correct answers for the UPSC exam paper. It serves as the point of reference for the candidate to understand that they had gone wrong, figure out where they went wrong, and accordingly take measures of self-improvement. It is important for anyone invested in the exam to obtain a proper answer key for the papers they solve. Answer keys may be published by the many different online portals, but a legitimate answer key is extremely necessary for those preparing.

And indeed the answer key can have a legitimate source. The Union Public Service Commission itself publishes the answer key to each year’s questions eiyhi a few days of the examination.

Here is the way to gain access to the UPSC published answer key from their official website:

1. Log on to UPSC Official Website

The official website of the Union Public Service Commission (upsc.gov.in) is kept up to date with the latest information regarding examinations, admit card distribution, rescheduling of examinations and other details. Make sure to log on to the website to easily find the answer key to previous year’s question papers, so that you can use it for your preparations. Once you have taken the examination yourself, you can check out the answer key to your year as well, to have an idea of how well you have performed.

2. Click on the tab in the top right corner

On the top right corner is an icon, by clicking which a sub-page will open on the main web page of the UPSC website. You are looking for the ‘Examinations’ option on the sub-page.

3. Look for ‘Examinations’ option

In the host of options on the sub-page related to the CSE and the UPSC, look for the option relating to ‘Examinations’ and see the options given.

4. ‘Answer Keys’

Under ‘Examinations’, there will again be many options. The one that says ‘Answer Keys’ is the one. This is the option you are looking for. Select, to know more.

5. PDF file

Clicking on ‘Answer Keys’ the website will open on a page with all the answer keys listed, by the recent examinations that the UPSC has held. The list contains PDF links, in blue, to the answer keys to the listed examinations.

6. Download file

Click on the blue lines of text, to download the PDF files for the exam that pertains to you. Click on ‘save’ after the file is downloaded to find it easily on your device.

7. Search directly on Google

The Union Public Service Commission homepage and subpages easily show up on the Google search engine as well. In the search bar type in what you are looking for, something along the lines of ‘UPSC CSE Answer key’. Add the year about the question paper you are solving. This will also help you access to answer keys before the year immediately preceding to yours and save you from a lot of scrolling down, on the UPSC official website, should you use the method mentioned in the previous points.

The answer keys are an indispensable part of the CSE Prelims preparation. Any candidate should most definitely go through the previous year’s papers for a detailed preparation. It follows from here that the UPSC prelims answer key they refer to should be a legitimate one. Understanding your mistakes is fundamental to self-improvement and to better your preparation. A legitimate answer key makes sure that you are not left doubting yourself or confused, about any question, as you prepare yourself for the upcoming exam.