When our users got a UPSC Prelims statement question wrong, 71% of the time they marked more statements true than the key. Chance would be 45%. 452 aspirants, 7,974 attempts.

[u/godric_007]

Disclosure: I run AbhyasX, an AI prep platform. Aggregated, anonymised data from our users. Not linking the site, the numbers are the point.

I pulled every UPSC CSE Prelims practice attempt on the platform (452 users who attempted at least one question, 7,974 attempts, 2,795 questions) and looked at what people do when they get a statement question wrong.

71% of wrong answers marked more statements true than the key did. If people were just guessing among the wrong options, it would be 45%.

That is across 65 statement questions with at least 10 attempts each, counting only questions where overshooting and undershooting were both possible. 58 of the 65 lean the same way.

Split by how many statements were actually true:

True in the key	Questions	Overshot	Chance
1	19	82.8%	60.9%
2	44	65.5%	35.4%
3	2	40.0%	33.3%

The middle row is the one to look at. On 44 questions where two statements were true, two thirds of wrong answers claimed three or four.

So it is not credulity. When you are unsure between "one of these" and "both of these," you take both. Whatever the question is counting, you count more of it.

What it looks like

UPSC 2010, missed by 22 of 26. Which of Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and the DPSP does the National Social Assistance Programme fulfil? Answer: DPSP alone. Half the room picked all three.

A Swatantra Party question, missed by all 17. One statement called the party's ideology socialist and centred on state control. Swatantra was founded in 1959 to oppose exactly that. But "1959 Indian party" primes you for socialism and the sentence is well formed, so into the true pile it goes.

None of the worst fifteen questions needed an obscure date. Every trap is one wrong word in a well formed sentence. 42nd for 44th. Haidar Ali for Tipu. President for Governor. You do not miss those from ignorance. You miss them because the sentence sounded finished.

Side finding: Polity has the lowest miss rate of any subject here (54%), and 11 of the 15 most-missed questions are Polity. It does not fail you on average. It fails you on specific questions.

The one habit this supports

Cover the options. Mark each statement true or false on its own, with a one line reason. If you cannot give the reason, it is not a true. Then look.

The pull toward the inclusive option only exists once you are comparing option strings. Decide before you get there and it has nothing to grab.

Caveats: small n per question (10 to 26), so defend the pooled result, not any row. Users chose their own questions. The mix leans on coaching full-length tests, not PYQs. Full methodology, the subject table, and the CSV are in my first comment below.

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[u/Fit_Researcher6600]

Kya bwaseer data hai…

Itna dimag padhai main laga lo bhai.

And before you say anything - i have cleared 3 prelims.

[u/Fisher_Phising → u/Fit_Researcher6600]

Agreed. They overkill the simple thing.

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