I believe this time there will be new surprises. Unlike the previous years, the number of candidates being lowest since 2018, many of the aspirants appeared this time were first timers. The Second and third attempt candidates were very few.

Essay will be certainly be the eliminator, but they've been targeting GK papers for long and might change the pattern of targeting optional subjects now. Before 2020/21, much of the targeting done in compulsory were only English papers, and rest was being done from optional papers. They might go after the popular choices like US History, Sociology and eliminate a large chunk of candidates as papers were already tough and they can justify eliminating candidates from such papers.