Normally we don't prepare separately for Essay paper in Civil Services Exam. But these 250 marks are very critical because the range of the marks obtained by the students in this paper varies from 30 to 155, which is very vast and can be very critical for anybody.

So, therefore preparation for this paper is very essential but it is a very easy process because out of the 5 essays, we have to answer any one of them. Every year if you see the previous years essay papers one essay is from topics like Environment, one related to the Women Issues, One Essay is related to Science and Ethics and also from Economics, Globalisation & Impacts etc.

So, therefore we can clearly identify the areas where we can very well forecast that what could be essay for this year and prepare on those lines. We can have the latest data, Government's Policies, Initiatives, reports from the World Bank related to these issues, and if we go through these aspects before the day of the examination for essay paper and if you write these issues, definitely  our essay will be a qualitative paper.

How to write good Essay

Adding quotations, real life examples, examples from government, administrative reforms, various data from World Bank reports add quality in essay and fetch more marks. But when you write or attempt the actual paper "Do Attempt the Safest Essay!". For example out of the 5 essays one or two topics may not appear very clear. It is wiser not to attempt the essays like this, because we would not really know that what was the intention of the examiner in giving such a topic. And if we attempt essays in a wrong manner, the examiner can even offered us 10 or 15 marks out of 200, which would be a disaster for us. So, its better not to choose risky topics and always go for safer topics like Education, Environment where you are very clear about meaning of the topics and attempt those essays.

The next important aspect is "Do not repeat anything that you write in the paper". Every paragraph should carry atleast one point, and deal with the point, give some examples then switch over to the next point but never repeat the same point anywhere in essay. Do not take it for granted the examiner would read only half of the essay. Methodologically, they would read whole essay and every repetition that we've made would lead us to negative marks and a negative opinion on us.

Normally, 13 to 15 page essay is fairly good essay and don't write more than that and lesser than that.
Spend the first hour in attempting rough work, writing down with the pencil, the thought framework and in last 15 min of the first hour rearrange those ideas and make it into an essay. And write you fair copy in last two hours.

So, these are some of the issues that would be helpful in writing fairly good essay in your civil services examination.