The UPSC Verb Key: Comment vs Examine vs Critically Examine

In PSIR, the command word is the rubric. Marks leak not because you knew less but because the examiner asked for one operation and you performed another. The verb key, as we mark it in the 6-part rubric:

• Comment — take a position on the claim and land a verdict. A comment answer without a visible verdict is a summary, and summaries score 8.
• Examine — open the claim up: its assumptions, its evidence, where it holds and where it strains. Balance is the operation; the verdict can be measured.
• Critically examine — everything in examine, plus a named critic. "Critically" is an instruction to bring the counter-scholar on stage: Popper against Plato, the communitarians against Rawls, Nancy Fraser against Gramsci, Ashley against Waltz. No named critic, no "critically" marks — the single most common leak we see in copies, and the reason our thinker pages each carry a critic bank.
• Discuss — map the debate's positions fairly before weighing in; the marks are in the mapping.
• Analyse — break the claim into components and show their relations; structure is the scoring surface.
• Elaborate — the claim is granted; your job is depth: mechanisms, dimensions, examples. Don't waste words contesting it.

Making the verb visible

The examiner reads your answer in about ninety seconds. Verb-obedience must be visible at a skim: verdict sentences that begin "On balance…", a critic's name that catches the eye, sub-heads that mirror the components. The playbook drills exactly this — answer the verb visibly, not just correctly. Print this key, tape it above your desk, and read the verb twice before you write a word.

Swetank Pandey — PSIR Faculty, ALS IAS · Author, Arihant Q-Beat Series

Teaches the 115-session PSIR Foundation at Karol Bagh, Delhi; marks 450 answers per mentorship student against a 6-part rubric.