THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two weeks before aspirants appeared for ‘one of the toughest Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) preliminary examinations in recent years’, a startup firm, in partnership with Kerala State Civil Service Academy, published a list of 266 topics it believed would feature in the test.
After the examination, the startup analysed its predictions against current affairs-related topics that appeared in the prelims held on May 24 and found an 85% match. It also reported an overall recall rate of about 63%, higher than the estimated cut-off range of around 45%.
EdMe AI, the state’s first AI-based learning platform, assessed that the examination may be far more pattern-driven than many assume.
Trained on over a decade of current affairs and examination data, it released its prediction document, which identified 266 high-probability topics, supported by 792 multiple-choice questions with distractors, answers and detailed explanations.
Each prediction included a topic overview, must-know points, quick revision notes, contextual background, comparisons with related topics, relevance to the examination and common “exam traps” that could confuse candidates. According to the company, the goal was not merely to provide answers but to help students learn how UPSC questions are constructed and how they should be approached.
Behind the startup are three alumni of the College of Engineering Trivandrum: Simeon Samuel, Thejas Sushil and Gidcen Baby. The founders said they were motivated by what they saw as inefficiencies in the traditional examination preparation ecosystem.
“The objective was never to create a shortcut to crack UPSC or reduce preparation to capsule learning. UPSC rewards depth of understanding, not superficial knowledge. We wanted to help students identify topics that deserve deeper attention and study them intelligently rather than getting lost trying to cover everything,” said Simeon.
He said the platform was built around the idea of helping aspirants think like toppers. “Through visual thinking tools, detailed explanations, progress tracking and the prediction module, students can engage with topics in a structured manner. The aim is to help them study smarter, not simply study more.”
As per the company’s analysis, of the 74 questions examined from the current affairs segment, 63 were covered by EdMe’s predictions. Of these, 34 were direct matches, while nearly 30 were identified through related themes and concepts the platform had highlighted in advance.
The startup was initially supported by the Kerala Startup Mission and has since grown into a six-member team. The platform has more than 5,000 active users. Most of the learning resources on EdMe AI are offered free of cost, while the UPSC prediction module is available for `300.
“Earlier, identifying probable UPSC themes was carried out by mentors. AI has now made that process more systematic. Feedback from many aspirants who used the platform has been positive,” said Nithin Chakravorty, senior mentor at the Civil Service Academy.
