UPSC MAINS GENERAL STUDIES PREVIOUS YEAR ESSAY QUESTION PAPER
2024 UPSC MAINS PREVIOUS YEAR ESSAY QUESTION PAPER
Write TWO Essays, choosing ONE from each of the Section A and B, in about 1000-1200 words each. (125 x 2 = 250)
Section-A
Q1. Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow them.
Q2. The empires of the futures will be the empires of the mind.
Q3. There is no path to happiness, Happiness is the path
Q4. The doubter is a true man of science.
Section-B
Q1. Social media is triggering ‘Fear of Missing Out’ amongst the youth precipitating depression and loneliness.
Q2. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but to test the character, give him power.
Q3. All ideas having large consequences are always simple.
Q4. The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing
2023 UPSC MAINS PREVIOUS YEAR ESSAY QUESTION PAPER
Write TWO Essays, choosing ONE from each of the Section A and B, in about 1000-1200 words each. (125 x 2 = 250)
Section-A
Q1. Thinking is like a game, it does not begin unless there is an opposite team.
Q2. Visionary decision-making happens at the intersection of intuition and logic.
Q3. Not all who wander are lost.
Q4. Inspiration for creativity springs from the effort to look for the magical in the mundane.
Section-B
Q1. Girls are weighed down by restrictions, boys with demands – two equally harmful disciplines.
Q2. Mathematics is the music of reason
Q3. A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.
Q4. Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
2022 UPSC MAINS PREVIOUS YEAR ESSAY QUESTION PAPER
Write TWO Essays, choosing ONE from each of the Section A and B, in about 1000-1200 words each. (125 x 2 = 250)
Section-A
Q1. Forests are the best case studies for economic excellence
Q2. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world
Q3. History is a series of victories won by the scientific man over the romantic man
Q4. A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ship is for
Section-B
Q1. The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining
Q2. You cannot step twice in the same river
Q3. A smile is the chosen vehicle for all ambiguities
Q4. Just because you have a choice, it does not mean that any of them has to be right
2021 UPSC MAINS PREVIOUS YEAR ESSAY QUESTION PAPER
Write TWO Essays, choosing ONE from each of the Section A and B, in about 1000-1200 words each. (125 x 2 = 250)
Section A
Q1. The process of self-discovery has now been technologically outsourced.
Q2. Your perception of me is reflection of you; my reaction to you is an awareness of me.
Q3. Philosophy of wantlessness is Utopian, while materialism is a chimera.
Q4. The real is rational and the rational is real.
Section B
Q1. Hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
Q2. What is research, but a blind date with knowledge!
Q3. History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce.
Q4. There are better practices to ‘best practices’.
2020 UPSC MAINS PREVIOUS YEAR ESSAY QUESTION PAPER
Write TWO Essays, choosing ONE from each of the Section A and B, in about 1000-1200 words each. (125 x 2 = 250)
Section A
Q1. Life is long journey between human being and being humane.
Q2. Mindful manifesto is the catalyst to a tranquil self.
Q3. Ships do not sink because of water around them, ships sink because of water that gets into them.
Q4. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Section B
Q1. Culture is what we are, civilization is what we have.
Q2. There can be no social justice without economic prosperity but economic prosperity without social justice is meaningless.
Q3. Patriarchy is the least noticed yet the most significant structure of social inequality.
Q4. Technology as the silent factor in international relations.