The primary intent was to finish the syllabus. There were many topics that I absolutely despised initially. Indian Polity was one such subject. May be it was because I had never had to learn all those stuff after the Civics class that I had until 10th standard.
However, as you start learning these subjects in depth and stand to understand them in detail, your whole attitude changes. I was in love with Indian Polity towards the end. I used to think how beautiful a topic this was. I would often wonder why I hated it so much initially.
However, I find a problem in your question. Even though my initial intention was to finish the syllabus, the expected outcome was not finishing the topic but learning it properly. Unless you understand something properly, it would be very difficult to answer questions related to that in a exam like the UPSC. Attitude has nothing do with it.