Reply To Mr Nishant Gautam

Hello Nishant, Thank you for a visit on this blog. Let me reply your questions one by one :
[1] There is no word limit for an Essay paper. It is considered that approximate 1000 words or more is the safe limit. But there is no hard and fast rule for this. Some candidates have scored very high marks with 600 words essay. But generally 1000 plus words are safe.
[2] There is no fixed criteria UPSC follows to select people. The optional wise selection is only in prelims examination. In mains,it is simply the aggregate marks in the final list. You may have got the idea of 10% because mostly candidates choose geography optional.
[3] So far UPSC didn't disclose scaling pattern. But it is a practise to equalise the scoring pattern in myriads of optionals. I suggest you not to dig too much on this issue because nobody has any authentic information.
[4]For geography mains paper,you need to study first all the basic books of NCERT starting from 6Th to 12Th standard. Then take the help of Savinder Singh for Geomorphology,D S Lal for Climatology,books by Mr Mazid hussain,K.Siddarth,Rupa made simple and guide from Tata Mgaw hill.....Map practise is must.
[4A] Both the paper of Geography are scoring. generally candidates score more in paper 1....but I usually scored high in second paper. It depends on writing skills.
[4B]For good marks in geography,you need to have good command on map locations and very strong factual base will be good.
[5] For prelims,70 effectively correct questions in optional and 65 effectively correct in General study paper will be a safe score in the era of negative marking. But it varies on year to year basis depending on the difficulty level of the question paper.
[6]Good writing skill is always rewarded but language should not be too complicated. A good and simple English with slightly better vocabulary will serve the purpose.
I think I have replied all your queries. For any further clarification you are welcome.All the best for the exam.Keep blogging.