19September 2026
Today’s poster
What to note today
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Practice
Previous Year Questions
Most candidates solve previous year questions the way they solve mock tests: timed, scored, filed away. That wastes the one thing a past paper offers that a mock cannot — evidence of what the examiner actually asks, as opposed to what the syllabus says can be asked.
A syllabus lists every topic and gives no indication of weighting. Past papers supply that weighting immediately, and the distribution is almost always uneven enough to redirect months of study.
Current affairs · 19 September 2026
Today’s current affairs, checked at the source
Every item is dated, read on the conducting body’s or ministry’s own site, and written with the question it becomes. Read today’s items, take the quiz, or download the month as a PDF.
The method
How to extract a weighting table
- Solve one paper untimed first. The point of the first pass is comprehension, not speed. Work every question to a full solution, including the ones you would have skipped.
- Tag every question by specific topic, not by section. Not "quantitative aptitude" but "circles — tangent length" or "percentage — successive change". The tags are what reveal the pattern.
- Count the tags across several years. A short list of topics will carry a disproportionate share of the marks, and a long tail will appear once in five years.
- Study the short list to fluency before the tail. This is where most of the available marks actually live.
- Only then start solving papers under exam timing. Now you are measuring speed on material you understand, which is what a timed attempt is good for.
Two cautions
What past papers cannot do
- A paper you have read is no longer a measurement — familiarity inflates the score. Keep two or three papers untouched for the final month and use fresh mocks for anything you intend to treat as a genuine measurement.
- Current affairs do not transfer — those questions are tied to the months preceding each exam. Use past papers to learn which themes are asked, then follow current sources for the content.
- Patterns change — when an examination is restructured, older papers describe a test that no longer exists. Check the current notification before building a plan on a five-year-old distribution.
Where to find papers
Previous year papers by exam Free mock tests Topic-wise practice Study material by subject
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Previous Questions
Questions
Previous Year Questions — FAQs
How should I use previous year questions?
As a specification rather than as practice. Solve one paper untimed and work every question fully, then tag each question by specific topic — not "reasoning" but "seating arrangement, circular, mixed facing" — and count the tags across several years. The distribution that emerges is almost always uneven, and it tells you which topics carry most of the available marks. Study those to fluency before touching the long tail, and only then begin solving papers under exam timing.
Can I use my score on a past paper to judge my preparation?
Only the first time you see it. Once you have read a paper, familiarity inflates any subsequent score, so it is no longer a measurement instrument. The practical approach is to keep two or three papers completely untouched until the final month, so that at least a couple of your measurements are honest, and to use fresh mock tests for anything you intend to treat as a genuine assessment of where you stand.
Are old papers still useful if the exam pattern changed?
Partly. The content and the topic weighting usually survive a restructuring even when the format does not — the same arithmetic shapes and the same general awareness themes recur. What does not survive is the structure: marks per section, timing, negative marking and stage design. So a paper from before a restructuring is useful for identifying what gets asked and misleading about how the exam now works, which is why the current notification should always be read alongside.
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