Prelims is a nightmare. Not just for beginers or for seasones aspirants but even for them who have been clearing it continously. Analytically, Prelims is more of a rejection platform than selection. If i were to say mains is 10x easier than pre. Why so?? 

Prelims, although may appear objective but in actual it is as subjective as any other protion of mains can be.

If one can decode the expectations of the questions , it would be much easier to comprehend it and finally answer it. What most coaching institute do is that they follow UPSC in letter and spirit..but what UPSC every time fail them by putting something new on table.

What can we learn here??
Grit- Very important in Prelims...You many not have seen most of the questions ever in testseries or in any book but you gotto solve it. You can't runaway. You need to grind it and see what is available behind.

Scoring: Extremely significant wrt to Prelims. You have to score..you just can scribble and leaf faith on examiner. You would have some 40-45 questions that you have to solve that too in 30mins..Yes it is possible.