UPSC Cut-off Marks

Understanding UPSC Cut-Off Marks and Their Significance

UPSC Cut-Off Marks refers to the minimum qualifying scores required by the candidates at each level of the examination. They vary from year to year, considering the intensity of papers, number of applicants, and a general category-wise competition. The cut-offs are important as they enable the students to prepare efficiently with stage-specific targets set for Prelims, Mains, and the Interview.

UPSC Cut-Off marks ensure any candidate’s journey. These marks, as a benchmark, give the candidate an idea of the amount of competition that is involved and how difficult the exam is. Cut-offs in UPSCs are essential for fresher candidates to have realistic goals.

Factors Influencing UPSC Cut-Off Scores

There are several factors which influence the UPSC cut-off marks every year. If a student is able to discern the variables behind it, then it helps the candidates to plan better and prepare themselves against the uncertainties in cuts.

Here are some of the factors:

Number of Vacancies : More vacancies might pose a low number of cut-offs whereas fewer vacancies usually yield a cut-off mark that is higher.
Difficulty Level of Questions : The cut-off has generally tended to go down when the perception about the paper is tough because average scores tend to fall.
Candidate Performance : High competition between well-prepared candidates push cut-offs higher especially in popular categories.
Category of the Candidate : Each category like General, OBC, SC, ST, and EWS has its own cut-off because of difference in various reservation rules.

Category-Wise UPSC Cut-Off Marks

To have a better idea, candidates must take category-wise UPSC cut-off marks of previous years. All cut-offs differ and looking at a trend may give one a practical insight into what scores he or she could expect.

General Category
The cut off for General category has remained highly competitive in the last few years, hence requiring good preparation.

Other Categories (OBC, SC, ST, EWS)
Cut offs in other categories are generally low as the rules are set as per policy. Still, a fight is very stiff at every category, and the candidates need to look for clearing a cut much higher than what is expected.

Year	Stage	General	EWS	OBC	SC	ST	PwBD-1	PwBD-2	PwBD-3	PwBD-5
2018	Prelims	98.00	N/A	96.66	84.00	83.34	73.34	53.34	40.00	45.34
	Mains	774	N/A	732	719	719	711	696	520	460
	Final	982	N/A	938	912	912	899	908	754	718
2019	Prelims	98.00	90.00	95.34	82.00	77.34	53.34	44.66	61.34	61.34
	Mains	751	696	718	706	699	663	698	374	561
	Final	961	909	925	898	893	861	893	653	730
2020	Prelims	92.51	77.55	89.12	74.84	68.71	70.06	63.94	40.82	42.86
	Mains	736	687	698	680	682	648	699	425	542
	Final	944	894	907	875	876	867	910	675	708
2021	Prelims	87.54	80.14	84.85	75.41	70.71	68.02	63.09	40.08	46.86
	Mains	745	713	714	700	700	688	712	388	560
	Final	953	916	910	886	876	892	923	688	701
2022	Prelims	88.22	82.56	83.88	75.41	72.45	70.06	65.27	43.89	47.94
	Mains	748	713	714	700	700	689	712	401	570
	Final	963	920	923	897	889	894	922	705	712
2023	Prelims	75.41	68.02	74.75	59.25	47.82	40.40	47.13	40.40	33.68
	Mains	741	706	712	694	692	673	718	396	445
	Final	953	923	919	890	891	894	930	756	589

How to Use Cut-Off Marks for Effective Preparation

Set Score Targets for Every Round. Target a certain score above the Cut-off marks for each stage ie Prelims, Mains and Interview. Take the Highest marks obtained by previous years’ toppers and then set a realistic goal initially. For example, if the highest mark for prelims was 150 and the cut-off mark was 75 then set a realistic goal of 85 initially and then 90 to be on the safe side. Overachieve to go just beyond the cut-off marks.

Score Analysis :

Analyze how the scores are distributed for each paper. For Prelims, it’s easy because out of the two papers for prelims, the CSAT paper is qualifying in nature. The Cut-off marks only depend on the General Studies paper. But for the main exam, it’s tricky. You will have to go through toppers’ marks and individually assess what marks they got for each subject and then set realistic targets for yourself. Along with that, you will have to see a topper with the same optional subject as you and then see how many marks they get to secure that specific rank.

Know the UPSC Cut-Off Trends

By analysing the previous year’s UPSC Cut-Off Marks trends, we have come to the following conclusions:

Decrease in Cut-Off Marks: This shows that the competition is very high. This trend is highly seen in the prelims exam.
Challenging Papers: Whenever the question papers are unusually tough, there is a dip in cut-off marks. The reasons for challenging papers can be because of high competition or a high number of applicants the examiners are focused on setting a difficult paper.

Year	Stage	Appeared (Prelims)	Qualified (Prelims)	Appeared (Mains)	Interviewed	Recommended
2018	Civil Services	5,00,000+ (est.)	10,468	10,400+ (est.)	1,994	759
2019	Civil Services	5,68,282	11,845	11,474	2,302	922
2020	Civil Services	4,82,770	10,564	10,343	2,049	833
2021	Civil Services	5,12,242	10,700	10,343	2,049	836
2022	Civil Services	4,94,768	10,450	9,749	2,089	867
2023	Civil Services + IFoS	5,79,008	Data needed	12,775	Data needed	Data needed

UPSC Cut-Off